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Enough is enough?
Just started venturing in to the brave new (to me!) world of sourdough bread. After a co-worker with minimal baking experience successfully made some, I thought I should give it a go. Success has been a bit more elusive for me.When do you decide to completely pitch the starter, and start over?Last S... | 78 F is the perfect temperature
Feed it whole wheat, thicken nit up some and be patient. Let it show some activity before feeding it again. Why people recommend such huge amounts of flour to make a starter is beyond me. You could take 20 g of the starter you have and feed it 20 g or flour and water on the side and w... |
Starters with Bread Flour ...(vs AP)
Hello all, Glad to say the starter is well. I decided to start my starter/maintain with Unbleached Bread Flour. Thanks all to answering my questions. I decided on bread flour before I knew/read that it has an extra protein-and from what I understand from reading and reading othe... | I have a bread flour starter
I have a bread flour starter - it is super active and strong and works great. I feed it same water as flour. |
In searh of sourness
Hi allLike many others on this forum, my wheat starter lost most of its sourness after a few months.So Ive searched this forum for solution and found a lot of great threads about it. What I found outwas that I was feeding the starter too agressively at roomtemperature, which favor Yeast.I started t... | You are right. You can get a
You are right. You can get a sour levain from a 100% hydration just like you can get the same results with stiff levain.In fact if you are already familiar with the Detmolder, you should have notice that the second stage at 50 to 60% hydration at 24Celcius for a period of 24 hours produce a... |
Starter container
Ok so I realized I had bleached flour so I went out to buy unbleachedbleached bread flour....haven't found rye at a reasonable price yet and I've gone to 3 stores lol..i I resolved to just go with white bread flour ....when ready build up with rye or other...wheat..etc...as needed while led out I boug... | That should be fine. I use 1
That should be fine. I use 1 quart containers for mine and it's plenty big. Just be sure to leave room for the starter to rise. Maybe no more than 1/3 of the container. |
Alternative to starter - slow rise (1week +)
Hi!I'm a beer brewer and I thought it was a good idea to make bread dough from all the grains in my previous batch.That is, I added 6kg of flour to 6kg of crushed and mashed malts and thought I could make bread of it all. I baked a loaf on the brewday and kind of let it slow... | I can take starter
From my fridge that was fed a week earlier and make a nice sourdough with no I'll side effects. I'm not sure I understand your method but don't see why it would make you ill. Let us know how it tasted. |
New and have SO MANY questions...Ill try to organize them
Hello, My husband and I have been on a health kick. One thing he loves is homemade bread and I cant believe I found this forum, SO excited! I have a million questions because Ill try my first starter tomorrow, please help me answer my questions as Ive been goo... | Everything I say below is
Everything I say below is based on my own experience, and a bit of dabbling in the science, and some of my own scientific-like experimentation with varying temperature and ingredient ratios. Others on here have gone farther with these things than I have.I define "beginner" as someone who hasn... |
LABs at room temp
Hi all - I'm trying to see if I can find a way to create a starter that can be sold online and won't potentially die during shipping / storage. I see that both Breadtopia and Cultures for Health offer dehydrated starters on Amazon. I tried the Cultures for Health one and it smelled very funky after I ... | One can...
Revive a dried starter which can sometimes take a week or more. Or one can create a starter from scratch which often takes a week or more. I'm of the opinion that if one spends a few days reviving a starter then it's tantamount to making a new one. So why dry a starter? If for whatever reason it does "surviv... |
Good, underproofed, and overproofed crumb examples
Hey everyone! I've been actively learning to bake sourdough for the past month and got my share of loaves with all kinds of proofing gone right and wrong, and wanted to share crumb photos of 3 loaves with the same recipe (about 75% hydration, 85% AP flour, 10% whole wh... | very helpful, looks like im
very helpful, looks like im always underproving then.....just got another one on the go, done a few stretch and folds, now leaving it to BF, its been around 5 hours and i really dont have much of an idea when itll be ready to pre-shape. previously id maybe have called it about now.theres a ... |
Need help/advice on making a sourdough starter
hi i made a sourdough starter two days ago now and it has developed a grayish layer on top. i dont know what that means and cant find anything on it online (maybe my wording is wrong...). i followed a youtube video from Stevethebreadguy and he said to toss it but everywher... | Grey is okay, spots probably not
Not sure what you mean by made a sourdough starter two days ago. Refreshed an existing starter or finished making a starter. Generally it takes more than two days to start from scratch. If you do not regularly refresh your starter it will turn grey on top and smell ripe. That is okay. ... |
Lemon or Lime?
OK, thanks to all who answered my bazillion questions in a previous post....One last thing...I read on here that a few people have put lemon/lime juice to enhance sourness...sort of a shortcut to enhance sourness so to say. My husband and I both like whole wheat/rye with agressive sourness.... So Ive re... | Lemons or Limes
I sound like all I do is refer you to the search window, but truly, there are several lifetimes worth of good information. So...lemons and limes contain a blast of citric acid which, indeed, can lend a sour quality to sourdough. Refined citric acid has no aroma. I don't know whether you prefer an actual... |
water temperature formula for mixing sourdough and final dough in general
Lately I've thought a lot about the calculation for water temperature when you're mixing sourdough or the final dough to achieve the optimal temperature you want. The formula commonly used does not take into account the different ingredients' mas... | I think this is better suited to commercial bakers
who have large volumes of dough and seek to control the fermentation conditions. What is missing from this equation is the heat transfer loss/gain from the sides of the bowl or container. It's also designed for doughs made in mixers and you won't have much of a frict... |
Pain au Levain with Whole Wheat
I've seen several folks on this board and on Instagram do this loaf so I thought I'd give it a try.I think they came out very well - both crust and crumb. I can certainly improve on my slashing skills but am otherwise satisfied with these loaves.Full recipe at http://makebread.net/pain-... | Looks plenty good
enough to eat and it haw to be tasty with the W in there! Well done and happy baking |
Stuck in his thumb, pulled out a plum...
So I put my first starter to sleep 3 weeks ago for an extended vacation and decided to wake it up yesterday.The starter had developed a rather thick layer of grey water on top, and my assumption was that I was going to be assaulted with all sorts of bad smells when I cracked it ... | Tht liquid is called 'hooch' Just stir it back in
all is well. Good luck with the SD baking. |
On the way to getting "ears" with 1-2-3 Sourdough
It looks like I've taken to documenting my progress with a variation on a 1-2-3 Sourdough most weekends.I'm sticking with the same formula, not be cause I lack imagination, but I want to see what small changes to my method make to consistent ratios of ingredients. My pr... | The crumb really looks
good but i suspect that the dough was over proofed in the fridge and that is why the spring and bloom were retarded:-) The hardest thing to learn .about bread baking is when the dough is ready to be baked, When it is shaped in a container, because of its concave shape, it is hard to know when t... |
Sourdough baking
Hi, I am new to baking with sourdough and I have a whole wheat starter. I bake whole wheat bread every week for our family to use with sandwiches, toast etc. So I love having a whole wheat starter since the main baking I do with it is just for whole wheat bread. My question is- if my starter is fed an... | Yes
is the easy answer.Take a small portion of your WW starter, then bulk it up with white wheat & water - let that get active (5-6 hours depending on local conditions, etc.) then use that in the main white wheat mix. There will still be a tiny portion of WW in it, but it will be very small. I use double flour + water ... |
Looking for a good, simple recipe
I've been using the King Arthur European Hearth Bread recipe for awhile now. It uses the European style flour, which I like, but I'm out of at the moment and figured I'd branch out. In addition, that recipe is not designed for sourdough starters. I've still used it with success, but... | My usual sourdough..
Is a 20/80 mix of wholemeal:white strong bread flour. I use 30% starter @ 100% hydration (of the total flour weight) and 58% water. (overall hydration is 63%) So a mix for a large loaf might be:400g strong white + 100g wholemeal bread flour (500g flour total)150g starter290g water, 8g salt.mix, kne... |
regolate sourness
Hallo everyone!I would like to be able to regulate the sourness of my bread and make it less sour.I have a sourdough which I maintain twice a day at 100% hydration and 22 degrees Celsius.I bake every morning and have a set routine which I would like to maintain: I feed the sourdough at 0800 and 2000. ... | try this link
From the website Brod and Taylor . Our renowned occasional contributor Debra Wink gets an upfront reference too.alan |
More progress with 1-2-3 Sourdough
I'm still working on the same dough to see how my skills improve. Last week I thought I'd made some progress.I was delighted with this week's attempts, which used the same formula, adjusted for the fact that I had a 100% hydration levain, rather than 58%.Variations this week were:Bul... | sleep?
yea, overrated - not! :-)Looks good on the inside though, but like you, I think it's a bit dark on the top. I usually down the temperature to about 210C after 10-12 minutes in my ovens. Are you sure the top element wasn't on? (I'm assuming it's a fan-assist type oven with top + bottom elements? Mine are fans wit... |
Time flexibility on fed starter: Mother's offspring
I've been using a sour for about 7 years, no problems, mostly feeding and baking twice a week, sometimes twice a month, no problems. If I'm away for 10 days or more, I just pour off the grey water on top and proceed as normal. The question I have; once I've removed a ... | Think this way - you start
Think this way - you start with something, so that's a starter. If you use that to preferment some portion, that would be a preferment (also guess by many other names, all the same thing).There is, at the very least, a bit of leeway as to when exactly it's used - in other words feeding a litt... |
Waste not, want not! but what to do now?
On 30th April I made Forkish Field Blen #1 and #2. I ended up with heaps of surplus starter :( but couldn't beat to threw it out so I froze it. I have about 650 gm. I would like to use this now before it gets too old. Do I just defrost it, feed it a bit and just make breadEd... | I would
Why not? Defrost it, see if it is still viable and use it up making bread... or pancakes... or biscuits. |
Oatmeal and Rye Sourdough
Hello all,This past weekend I ended up making an oatmeal and rye sourdough that turned out to be nice and light.I thought I'd share it with you!Here's a link to my blog post:http://makebread.net/oatmeal-and-rye-sourdough/I'm keeping a blog to chronicle my baking adventures in the hopes of impr... | NIce!
A nice looking loaf. The crumb looks great! |
Simple sourdough starter? Just flour + yogurt (Italian cooking show): Thoughts?
Thought I would pass this along for discussion. I have not tried it, as I have a mostly whole grain wheat starter going at the moment.This is an Italian language cooking show but with english language voice-over: YellowSaffron Sourdough sta... | The LAB in yogurt
are not the same as what is in a SD starter. After 14 days of refreshment, the right LAB delivered in the flour have taken over the culture and she has a proper SD starter, The only thing she did was slow the whole process by about 4-5 days by using yogurt in the beginning mix. Not all LAB are th... |
Why Are They So Different?
Hi everyone, hope all of you there are happily baking the weekend away. Anyhow, this is something that I have just baked and it really pique my interest on knowing the answer and I hope someone out there would be able to enlighten a newbie like me. Alright, so I presume some of you have seen ... | Looks like Wednesday's bake
Looks like Wednesday's bake was underproofed which will give you the uneven crumb and tunnels many times. I like to bulk ferment my dough in the refrigerator for 12-24 hours but I have gone 3 days some times. I find this develops the flavor much better. When you cold retard the dough it s... |
Some interesting read
Just received my monthly subscription of Reader's Digest today. Am one of those who read what interests me first and then slowly moving onto something a bit less, in short, lazy reader! So, I was reading the cover and thought I should know more about food : ) The cover I haven't looked up o... | I think I'm more woried ...
... that Readers Digest is still going... -Gordon |
pregnancy brain and my starter
Thanks to some great help from this forum in March, I developed my own sourdough starter and have managed it, and baked weekly for the past four months. I got into a good groove and was playing around with different flours both in baking and to manage the starter, improving my bread techn... | Rehydrate first
Weigh or spoon out a Tablespoon of chips and put the rest back into the freezer. Rehydrate first, just enough to cover the chips, using non-chlorinated water. When I'm in a new place, I fill a large jar or container with tap water and let it stand a few days, open but with a dust cover like cloth or a... |
Tarwe Volkoren Suurdesembrood
Have just taken this baby out of the oven. Boy am I relieved. Well, so far... ;-)Have given up (temporarily) on my fractious Pain de Campagne - there's only so many of them that you can eat before getting bored. I thought I'd try another recipe that caught my eye, as my mum is Belgian and ... | Crumb Shot
As promised, crumb shot. Definitely better than my pain de campagne. And this bread is stunningly good with cheese :-D |
Method Comparisons: Tartine // FWSY
Hi All, I am hoping some of you out there will be willing to help me understand the similarities / differences between a couple of different sourdough methods / recipes I have been using recently. After months of practising the Tartine method for the country boule, and finally achiev... | Far more fermentation is
Far more fermentation is going on in the Forkish method, because Tartine is slowing then stopping the process by putting it in the fridge. The yeast goes pretty dormant at 60, and completely by 40. I find the Forkish method definitely works better (for me) if I do one of the methods that gives ... |
Why does bread sourness increase overnight after baking?
I have noticed over many years that the flavor intensity of sourdough seems to increase over time after the bread is baked. Immediately after baking it may be relatively mild, and increase as it cools off, then increase even more over a long meal, and perhaps be ... | I don't know why it gets more sour the next day
but perhaps the Ancient Alien whack'os are right. We really might have been invaded by LAB and other microbes from another world and they might be harder to kill off than we think - perhaps they live on to make more acid for the next day :-) Nice work Dough.doc |
This week's 1-2-3 Sourdough
So, I'm continuing to use the same recipe to hone my skills with sourdough baking. I've had problems with proving the dough at too warm a temperature and for too long, and then the development of excessively large holes (See this post for one of my previous attempts).I think I'm now making p... | Allinson strong bread flour: 959g (96%)Stoneground wholemeal flour: 41g (4%)Water: 655g (65%)Salt: 23g (2%)Diastatic malt: 9g (1%)Seed starter: 69g (7%)Total: 1,756g (175%)Preferment:Allinson strong bread flour: 97g (70%)Stoneground wholemeal flour: 41g (30%)Water: 80g (58%)Seed starter: 69g (50%)Total: 287g (208%)Fina... |
Stretch and folds
A word about gentle stretch and folds. From my experience , higher hydration doughs seem to benefit from more heavy handed stretch and folds. It seems if I'm too gentle with my 73% hydration dough, I end up with lax dough which is harder to shape and score and is sticky and doesn' t retain its shap... | Plenty of sense. But, that's
Plenty of sense. But, that's if you think s&f actually does something. Understandable as that is the accepted norm - and so wrong, as you've found. Keep kneading - that's what is called when you s&f a hundred times or so. Enjoy! |
Changing the hydration during the feedings (e.g. Detmolder method)
Hi all New here. Long time lurker but first time poster.So many of my questions has been answered here, but there still remains some.I know that the simple way of converting a starter is to just add new water and flour at the desired hydration, butwhen ... | it is easy enough.
Just add up all the total amount water in the mix at the time and divide by the total amount of flour in the mix at the time.Happy baking |
How to get my sourdough starter from fridge ready for baking?
Hello, I am new to this wonderful site so I apologize if this question has been answered before. I just made my 1st sourdough starter and since I can only bake on the weekends I have it in the refrigerator. My question is, if i want to bake on Saturdays or... | Take 10 g of starter and do a 3 stage build
of 4 hours each with each stage doubling the amount flour and water each stage the first feeding is 10 g each of flour and water the 2nd sage is 20 g each of flour and water with the 3rd feeding being 40 g each of flour and water. This will give you a 100% hydration star at ... |
Flat Sourdough?
Hi everone,I'm a fairly new home- baker and am having trouble with getting my sourdough to rise. This is maybe the fourth bake I've done with the same starter and ingredients, changing up the kneading and fermenting a little each time. Every time though, my bread comes out on the flat side. It's like ... | Upside down photo is Apple
For some reason that always happens with apple.1 cup sourdough at 100% hydration = 260g (130g flour + 130g water)375g AP Flour354g water (ish) Well first of all this is very high hydration and you won't get the same height as with lower hydration doughs.Secondly, I don't see much gluten forma... |
Australia... can you make sourdough starter with Home Brand flour and tap water?
I used Coles plain flour and Adelaide tap water straight from the tap (no resting) and my starter never got going. I tried several different sourdough methods but all failed.I cook and bake on a budget, so buying organic flour and bottled ... | possibly, but ...
Just to get your starter going, I'd suggest this: Buy a bag of stoneground organic wholmeal flour. Just one bag - 0.5 to 1Kg. That's more than enough to get you going.Start with a clean jar - 100g flour, 100g water, mix with your hand, cover and leave. (room temperature, but no more than about 24C) 24... |
Gluey crumb with flying crust
I was ever so pleased with the appearance of this loaf, after my recent efforts (http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/43124/bettershaped-loaves-avoiding-overproofing).I thought the tension achieved while forming the boule was fine and despite it looking and sounding cooked, I gave it an extra ... | Maybe a bit of kneading
A bit more working of the dough can even out your crumb and help discourage bug bubbles. Looks tasty. |
Jekyll & Hyde bread... Take Two
Tried the Pain de Campagne again, taking on board much of the advice that you folks kindly sent my way the other day. I used the same recipe with the same ingredients as previously. Here is what I did differently in terms of the method.1) The bulk ferment time was extended by about an ho... | déjà vu
Seems to be the exact same outcome as take one, well done, it can't be easy to be that consistent. jkMaybe try a different method for shaping? |
Sourdough trial
One of my early sourdough try. | It sure looks good....
like a fine wine. Love the bold bake. Well done and happy baking |
Better-shaped loaves by avoiding overproofing
Over the weekend, I received some really useful advice from active members of this forum on avoiding over-proofed sourdough loaves (too warm and too long). My weekend bake was more of a disc than a boule. With help I produced a much better loaf at 65% hydration, as shown i... | Tasty-looking bread, Colin :-
Tasty-looking bread, Colin :-)That's what I love about this place - it's a goldmine of information and experience, especially for those of us who are newcomers to bread baking. It's nice that people are so giving of their time and advice. I've taken on board similar info by reading around ... |
Pain de Campagne is too wet
Hi,I'm trying to make my second Pain de Campagne loaf. I'm following dmsnyder's recipe which I've linked to below but I just get a dough which is impossible to shape due to its high hydration. In my first attempt I used white flour instead of KAF French flour, later I found out that French f... | I get 76.5% hydration,
I get 76.5% hydration, assuming the starter is 50/50. That is what Forkish comes out to, and my dough is not that wet, usually. When it is, I dust with flour liberally while I am doing the folds, to reach the right consistency.I don't know what really happens, except that the starter, despite put... |
Einkorn progress
I just love the taste of Einkorn bread - its 'nutty' taste is like nothing else I've tried before but it does have its idiosyncrasies and doesn't always respond like 'normal' sourdough bread. Previously, I've proved it in a banneton and baked it on a stone but it has collapsed - probably because of ov... | It sure looks like a fine loaf. I wish I knew more
about einkorn all on its own - usually use it as part of a multi-grain bread for flavor because of the astronomically high price. I don't think i have ever used it as the majority flour in any bread to date. 60% hydration sounds low for a panned bread but maybe Mini... |
Maintaining stiff starter
Hello, bakers! I’m from Brazil and most of the year it’s hot in here so I’ve begun feeding my starter 1:8:10 (80% hydration ) so I could feed it just once a day. Always a seed of 5g, 40g water and 50g WW flour. I want to change it to 1:3:5 (60% hydration) in order to use less flour and continu... | Just be consistent. Enjoy!
Just be consistent. Enjoy! |
Jekyll & Hyde bread...
With my Pain de Campagne, it's two steps forward, one step back - and probably three sideways as well... Every time I seem to solve one problem, something else goes wrong... I'm gradually improving it each time I bake, but I wouldn't mind some feedback from those of you wiser than I...The recipe ... | It would be interesting to
It would be interesting to see a cross section across from the high side to the flat side to see what it looks like inside. I'm not sure, but I would be inclined to think it was a bit over proofed and it collapsed on one side. |
strarting from the fridge
Hi Everyone..Following the rule of 15 I pulled out my three week starter (one week now in the fridge with 100% hydration using white flour only) and took 24 grams out of the jar - a beautiful thick goopy starter. I added 24 grams flour and 24 water. The second feeding was around 2pm - four hou... | not sure..
what the rule of 15 is, but if I needed 360g levian for some dough, I'd take 72g from the fridge, add in 144g flour and 144g water, leave for a few hours until I see bubbles then use it.ie. divide what I need by 5 then use 1/5 starter from the fridge, and 2/5 flour and the last 2/5 water.I think some people ... |
My 1st Pain de Campagne loaf (of 2)
Promised to share pics (if you've seen any of my Nervous Newbie questions earlier in this forum). First loaf of two is out of the oven, and the 2nd one is baking now. Have to wait for it to cool to do a crumb shot and taste it. Updates to come.
sourdough1.jpg
You'll have to ... | Looking good! Cut it open and
Looking good! Cut it open and let's see the crumb! You know you wanna... |
Newbie: Can I recover from this mistake?
Sorry... another question. Making Forkish's Pain de Campagne hybrid bread recipe from levain. All has proceeded just as he said, except I misunderstood the timing of one step and so my 5 hours of countertop proofing ended at 3 AM. (I set my alarm to divide the dough for another ... | I think you will be fine.
I think you will be fine. Sometimes you have to make a mistake so you know what "going wrong" looks like. When that happens to me, it means I am handing out really good croutons to the neighbors. |
Newbie: First Levain bake this weekend? Fridge stored starter
Hello everyone. This forum is great with people who are willing to share knowledge (and probably answer the same questions over and over). I wish I had seen the thread on wasteful flour amounts in starter EARLIER, because I went through Forkish's 5 day start... | Feeding the Levain
In my opinion, I would say that Forkish's levain build would be your second feeding. If your starter seems sluggish, then I might make it the third feeding, though I have never had to do that myself.Also, I believe that if you follow his recipe that you will end up with a lot of extra levain. I would... |
Poolish musings
I've been a big fan of using a poolish (fairly wet compared to convention) since I got into bread making. Sometimes, I just don't get to making a poolish at night, and I have to make regular bread the next day. I know - life is hard, right?My normal loaves have been 1/3 spelt - for years. Digestive r... | a minor point..
spelt is available as white or wholemeal here (UK), so might be confusing to refer to 50/50 white/spelt ...As for poolishes - I make then occasionally, however most of my breads are overnight fermented sourdoughs anyway. When I do make breads with a poolish (baguettes, ciabatta), I use a tablespoon of m... |
Help with getting a chewy sourdough
Hi there, well this is the first of what I hope will be many posts to this forum. Just wanted to say first of all that I am amazed by all the baking talent here, it's really inspiring!So I was hoping to get a bit of help from you guys in getting my sourdough right. I've been baking s... | Sorry, I wanted to upload a
Sorry, I wanted to upload a couple |
Question about wasteful levain volumes
Hi Everyone..This weekend I plan on baking the FWSY 75% Whole Wheat Levain Bread.As many of you know, Forkish has more flour in his life than he needs and would have me add 100 grams of levain to 400 grams of white flour, 100 grams of whole wheat flour and 400 grams of warm water ... | Yes. That is exactly whatmost
Fresh Lofians do. |
Whole Wheat Sourdough Starter
Hey everyone! Great to finally be a member of this site.I just started building my whole wheat sourdough starter. I was wondering if the starter can be used in any recipe that calls for a starter or ones that specifically calls for it. Any tips and leads would be appreciated. Thanks!! | You got questions....
When people say "sourdough" other people tend to hear "San Francisco Sourdough Bread," ignoring the idea that any bread made before 1880 or so was, almost certainly, a sourdough bread. You can use sourdough to make almost any bread you can think of. In general, a cup of active sourdough starter h... |
The sources of sour
I have recently been running a series of experiments to tease out the relative significance of various factors that contribute to the sourness of sourdough bread. In the "everybody knows" category is the notion that whole grain breads can be more sour than a 100% white flour formulas, but the relati... | No question that getting the LAB population up
is a key point for sour but restricting the yeast population to extend ferment and proof times is just as important. The more time the LAB have because the yeast are restricted the more sour will result.I also agree that using whole grains in the starter and levain will m... |
Help! Is that mold?
Hi everyone, it's my first time posting but I've read many great insights here before - thank you!I'm creating a new gluten free starter using King Arthur Measure For Measure GF flour. I did not see activity of any kind for the first 3 days of feeding, then I completely forgot to feed it the fourth ... | Unless it's red mould, just
Unless it's red mould, just scrap off the mould, mix it up and keep going. |
Fresh compressed yeast vs. Starter/preferment?
I've always had predictable results with dry active yeast from years gone past but just got an order in from the "New York Baker" of fresh yeast in cake form. Hamelman's book does have a ton of recipes that call for yeast instead of starters so I'm wondering what the diff... | Could be a flood of responses on this one..
But here is my take. A "starter" is not only yeast but also bacteria. Exactly which ones you have, you need some lab work to find out. Commercial yeast is just one strand of yeast developed to do one thing.. raise bread and do it quickly. What does that mean? My opinion: you ... |
Fresh starter is not growing after refrigerating for two days
Hi,Last weekend I had to put my 5 days old starter in the fridge for two days because I was away. After a bit of reading, I did the following:Friday evening - feeding 1:2:2 (plain flour) to give it enough food for the weekendFriday night - after rising has b... | Hi,I'm relatively new at this
Hi,I'm relatively new at this sourdough thing myself. Assuming there was a point when your starter did display significant activity, the best bit of advice I read on this forum is to simply wait and give the yeast time to activate. Maybe just give the contents a stir and give it a chance t... |
I ran across this book today
that I thought would be helpful for sourdough bakers, especially new oneshttps://books.google.com/books?id=VA6y1EMnkpYC&pg=PA34&lpg=PA34#v=onepage&q&f=false | One of my favorite books
Really a good read. |
How does rain and extra moister effect dough??
My dough has been very sticky lately, not sure why?In Pittsburgh, PA it has been a very, very rainy spring and summer. How does the rain and extra moister in the air effect dough? And what should I be doing different?Thanks. | My understanding is
Adjust the hydration for variations such as humidity. If you are finding, even with the same recipe, that your dough is too sticky then reduce the hydration till it feels right. Best way is to hold a little water back and add a little at a time till you're happy with it.Rarely have I had to do this ... |
You can learn something new about SD around the world every day
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC134406/ Seven Greek traditional wheat sourdoughs (referred to as A, B, C, D, E, F, and G) were sampled in different geographical areas of Greece. Sourdoughs A to F were prepared according to the most common tradi... | What an interesting
What an interesting experiment. I must ask why Lucy was reading such technical jargon and how did she come across this. My head hurts just reading the first paragraph! |
Why won't my apple yeast water dough rise?
Admittedly I am a novice breadmaker. Never made a loaf in my life. So I decided to go the eccentric purist route, naturally. However, I believe my lack of experience and over romanticized ideal of simple breadmaking is getting in the way. I've tried making apple yeast water fr... | My understanding of yeast water...
...and how it is to be used.First of all, before anything else, is your yeast water nice and bubbly? A good sign it is ready to go.My understanding of yeast water (although I have yet to try it) is that you prepare a preferment very much like a starter in a sourdough recipe. So take a... |
Consensus?
So what water temperature do you feed your starter at when being fed daily out of the fridge? Does it really matter? | In th summer the kitchen is
at least 86 F and in the winter it is 64 F. I do a 3 stage build of progressively larger flour and water from my No Muss No Fuss Starter in the fridge stored up to 16 week. The fall and spring the temperature is somewhere in between. The only difference is that it takes longer in the wint... |
Sourdough spreads rather than rises
I have an ongoing problem, in that my sourdough, during proving, tends to expand sidepays rather than upwards. The result is lovely tasting bread but which is shaped like a flying saucer rather than a nice round cob. I'm using the recipe from the River Cottage 'Bread' book as my basi... | What is the recipe?
What is the recipe and your method? |
New Zealand Starter
Does anyone have a New Zealand Starter they can send to me in Florida?I accidentally trashed mine recently and would love a replacement.I'll gladly PayPal you shipping, etc.Please contact stanrosinski@yahoo.comThanks so much in advance!Stan | um... ?
Why would an NZ one be more special than a local one? A few feedings of your local flour and its going to be more or less the same anyway, I'd have thought...-Gordon |
Sourdough pain de campagne - first post here of something I've baked
I've been making yeasted breads for years, but recently started exploring sourdough. Handling high (c.75%) hydration doughs has been a bit frustrating and at times it has felt like learning from scratch. My 100% hydration levain is working fine. It... | High Hydration Doughs are not for the Faint of Heart
As Hamelman says in his recipe for ciabatta, "... when we announce that we are going to bake this we need to lock the doors so the bakers cannot escape" or something like that. I just looked at the recipe you baked and it's a pretty common one found in lots of books... |
Sale - Online bread courses
Teresa Greenway of Northwest Sourdough has a great sale on her online courses.If you like sour flavored sourdough, you owe it to yourself to try her course, “Bake Sanfranciso Style Sourdough Bread”. I have baked hundreds of these tasty loaves.Happy Thanksgiving!Danny | I have her ebooks.
Here's her main page at Udemy, listing all 13 of her courses:https://www.udemy.com/user/teresalgreenway/Here's her own website:https://northwestsourdough.com/Here's her author page at Amazon:https://www.amazon.com/Teresa-L-Greenway/e/B00DULWTVY?tag=froglallabout-20I bought all four of her basic bread... |
Need help converting baker's yeast recipe to sourdough recipe
Hi bakers,I want to make the recipe in the following YouTube video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqXDQdUUXswBut I want to convert it to sourdough. Does anybody have any suggestions for how to do this?Taiwan Tom | I'll take a look tonight
When I get home but just want to say that when converted it will be a different bread. Same ingredients, minus the commercial yeast and using a starter instead, but the final result will be different. It will now be a sourdough which will give it different flavour.Without taking a look, as yout... |
no oven spring with 15%whole wheat
I can bake a delish loaf of sourdough using 100% bread flour and get a great rise and an even better oven spring. But if I try and add 12-18% whole wheat flour for flavor I never ever get a good oven spring and the loaf always turns out dense.Is this a common thing?My recipe is100%KA... | Hydration
I think your hydration is low, especially with the whole wheat. I have 72% hydration for white baguettes and the whole wheat requires a little higher because of the bran. I would suggest you try to raise your hydration to at least 70%, until you get used to working with a slacker dough then raise it furthe... |
Fuzzy mould on side of jar after using pineapple juice with starter
Hi,It is now day 3 of my pineapple juice and rye sourdough starter adventure and just as I was about to feed it, I saw that mould with little hairs has formed on all 4 sides of the jar (see pic of one side). I think it has developed because I didn't cl... | The actual starter looks healthy
And from the description it smells healthy too. Perhaps not cleaning down the sides with each feeding like described has contributed to this (remember after taking some out the pineapple juice goes in first then is used to clean down the sides from residue). If the mould was reddish/pin... |
Today's bake
Well I suppose there is nothing remarkable here except another batch of lovely sourdough for the coming week's consumption. I have baked my own bread for 40 years or so but I'm a relatively recent convert to sourdough - I had always thought it was overly complicated and wouldn't fit into a busy life. How... | Nice work
They look so dainty and tasty, crumbs are looking fine to me too. Hope you will have more good bakes in the future. Happy Baking! |
Feeding Sour Dough Starter
Hi All the bakers and professorsI have a query about how to feed my sour dough starter.I think I might make a mistake about my feeding method.My method.4 pm ( after making all the bread form tomorrow)Leftover Starter: 200g to 300 gFeeding: Flour about 700g and water 1000g ( estimate only)mixe... | Rayray, that figures to 143% hydration
Very runny liquid starter, Is that your target hydration? And do you need only 1900 to 2000g starter for tomorrow?What is the temperature of your starter while it ferments? What is the flour type and roughly where is your location? |
a lazy sourdough ratio (and schedule) for the non-thinking baker
Hi folks -After making a few loaves from Forkish's wonderfu Flour, Water ..., I got a bit weary of the math.And then I happened upon this lazy ratio -- 1:3:4:.1So, for every 100g of starter (and the hydration varies, but I tend to keep my starter a little... | If it fits your schedule and tastes
great then it has to be good. When working with such a high hydration dough than the standard 1:2;3 SD recipe you really have to get the gluten developed very well and make sure it doesn't over ferment or over proof. This bread is screaming of 12 minutes of slap and folds at the be... |
sour vs. sweet starters
I've been using my sourdough starter for a few months and have been very happy with it. I enjoy the sour taste a lot. My husband, however, likes his bread sweet. Over the months I've experimented with my starter and recipes to see if I could get a sweeter loaf, and while I did have loaves that w... | I would say she her theory is
I would say she her theory is headed in the right direction. The important thing to remember with a starter is that you are not just dealing with yeast but also bacteria. There are many factors that will then determine the outcome of your dough, temperature being one of them. The amount of... |
starter / yeast: are they alternatives ?
I've managed bread in a machine and occasionally in the oven: all using yeast. Now I've made a sourdough starter because I like the taste of sourdough bread. It's a couple of weeks old and after a hesitant start it seems to have pulled itself together, perhaps with the warmer we... | either/or ...
You can make a pure sourdough leavened loaf or a pure (commercial) yeasted one, or a mix of both. I've added a little bit of an organic commercial yeast into some of my sourdough breads in the past when I was in a hurry - you get some sourdough taste and texture from the starter, but not as "full bodied" ... |
Shaping dough
Lots of recipes call for preshaping and then shaping. Not sure I get it? I'd rather not mess with and let it sit and do it's thing until time to bake. I'd think, lets just shape it and move on. Can somebody help me here? do you actually refold and all that.... again? :) Thanks! | Here's a link
that helped me with shaping.https://youtu.be/RgqPli_sLLM |
What is wrong with my SD?
Today, I had some trouble getting the dough out of my brotform as it was sticking too much. This is actually a Norwich Sourdough recipe but I increased the hydration to say...72 or more? I had been tweaking the hydration for quite a while now without any problem until now...could not shape the... | The higher the hydration dough
The less forgiving. 72% hydration is only too high if that's not what you're looking for in a bread.Depending on what flour used it'd suit either higher or lower hydration but there is a big range.Without knowing what your process was i'll venture some guesses.1. Develop the gluten well. ... |
Michael Pollan sheds light on gluten intolerance
And strikes a blow for truth, justice and the sourdough way! Michael Pollan believes you should be eating more gluten (of a certain type)Happy (sourdough) baking!David | Nice
Thanks for the good link. Interesting read. Now I'm gonna have to watch his series. On a related note, when I briefly apprenticed with Gerard Rubaud he gave me a paper that he received from a local university researcher that basically argued the same thing. He believed that long slow fermented bread (especially ac... |
Sourdough bread tasted cheesy :S
Is that normal? Is it desirable to anyone? The bread was sour and had a bit of a fancy cheese taste which I found very unpleasant. the taste was the same as that of a loaf I'd bought a long time ago in which it was much stronger and kinda grossed me out. However, I've had some mild sour... | Sounds to me like
yeast numbers need to be brought up. Slow rising, sour, cheesy, all sound like too much bacteria and not enough yeast. The starter was used too early and needs to ferment longer and not be rushed into the final phase of yeast growth. Take the oldest most recent starter sample you have and let the s... |
What is happening to make this bread mis-shapened
I started with a nice round and batard (not so nicely shaped, LOL) and then you see the end results. Did I not cut deep enough on the tops of the bread? It sure tasted great, crunchy crust and moist inside. All thought or suggestions would be appreciated. | I can't seem to upload a
I can't seem to upload a second picure to my original post. Guess I will start another for the other view. |
Not the shape I was looking for
Any thoughts or suggestions? Taste and texture was great! | More steam
Your bread looks great and you got good oven spring, so good that it wasn't done expanding before the crust set. The pressure continues, though, and takes advantage of any weak spot. I think you'll find that by using more steam for the first 15 minutes or so, or covering the loaf to trap steam released from ... |
Big air pocket in my sourdough loaf.
Hi all, I am having an issue with my sourdough lately.I am hoping someone can give me some advice on how to fix the problem. I am getting a huge air pocket in my loafs, it is from the top crust down to the middle any help would be great.Thanks, wristen | Shaping issue
Sounds like a shaping issue wristen. Make sure you gently pat out (With a flat palm) the excess gas pockets in the dough immediately before final shaping.Happy baking,Brian |
Sourdough Batards from Home Page
Howdy...first post here for me. I've been playing with a sourdough starters and making loaves mostly as a hobby lately. I ran across your site and was blown away by the pic of the batards. I don't even know what a batard is but looks awesome :) Anyways, learned a lot of lingo just disse... | couche
Here is an explanation, some pictures and a way to order on if you need to:http://www.kingarthurflour.com/shop/items/bakers-couche |
Starter VS Sourdough Starter?
The title of this forum seems to answer my question but it is not what I am finding in the other world.95% of all internet hits all mention sourdough starters. When I use -sourdough, all I get is an Amish recipe for a starter and it is repeated in dozens of sites.Is there a difference bet... | There's a difference
The so called Amish friendship starter is one that uses dry yeast, such as instant dry yeast, and other ingredients to advance a science experiment sort of project bound to take over your refrigerator. A sourdough starter, on the other hand, simply uses flour and water. The archived threads here co... |
Whats growing on my starter?
Hello! I'm new to this forum and I'm hoping someone can help me out with my starter. I'm new to the starter thing so forgive me if I'm not giving the best information or using the best terms. =) A little background:I have two separate starters in the refrigerator. One is from a dry sta... | link
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/comment/326900#comment-326900 |
Is this mold on my sourdough? :(
I took my SD out of the fridge to use it for bread making, and its surface was covered with this yucky moldy-looking layer.. The smell, however, is quite the same, soury as usual.I removed as much as I could and mixed it, and it looks ok (bottom right image). But can I use it??? I don'... | How long was your culture sitting
before being fed? More information on how you store it, and how often you feed it would be useful.What you have looks like your typical build up of alcohol. Two by-products that yeast produce when feeding are carbon dioxide and alcohol. If you let your starter sit for a prolonged perio... |
abenw11
Here it is, pure perfection! Crunchy on the outside, soft, chewy and oh so flavorfull on the inside! Thank you so very much for your help! I will be trying the #2 build also to see what difference there will be between the two. I feel like I have finally suceeded!!!!! THANK YOU!!!! | Lovely!
You've got some great oven spring there. Nice scoring and lovely crust. I'm glad you like the taste. The other build might produce different results but only slightly if any. It's normally how you use the starter in the dough that makes the bigger difference (I find). If you do the 2nd way and bake without a re... |
Troubleshooting, starter, room temp or refrigerate?
I have been using the refrigerated method of storing and feeding my KAF starter. My bread never seems to rise as much as I think it should, is rather dense, small holes and rarely more than one or two large holes. I wonder if I kept it at room temperature, would that ... | My starter lives in the fridge
But doesn't affect how much it rises. Its how you use it in the recipe that is the main factor. Can I ask you to describe your method from taking it out of the fridge to oven. A brief example. |
1st SD bake
So finally,I did it. My first loaf. Taste wise really nice.I hope I will get it more airy and bigger in the next attempts. It was nice and bubbly after the bulk fermentation (I think-probably it was not enough...), but looking at the starter, I think I used it a wee bit too late, cause it was on the "fall" ... | Nice bake
Lovely colour on that crust. Don't be too pedantic at catching your starter at the "perfect" time. Peaked and just beginning to fall is a good guideline when learning to bake with sourdough but you'll soon learn that it's very flexible. If you used your starter as it is shown in the photo then that's perfectl... |
Sticky Starter and Dough?
I built the Ken Forkish starter and it has a wonderful flavor. I'm not very experienced as a cook or bread baker, but I have noticed that the bread dough using his starter is SO much more "stickier" than Ken Forkish's breads made w polish or biga.- Is this normal? Also, the bread doesn't ri... | Agree on Hydration
I would agree that you should check hydration. While it can be dangerous around here to talk about definitions one difference often stated about these 3 types of preferment is the hydration level.You should be able to get as much rise - but commercial yeast is been created to work fast and with stre... |
starter unhappy, smells vinegary/vomity, after accidental overfeed
Backstory:Ermintrude is an established, reliable 100% hydration white flour starter who has always smelled yeasty when hungry, yoghurty when happy and alcoholic (like brandy, in fact) when neglected.She has been dormant in the fridge since Easter and I ... | Sorry I do not have any advice for you
... but I am dying to hear what others have to say about this! |
can healthy starters turn bad in hot wheather?
GreetingsI was happy with my very active starter and its awesome smell. But lately the room temperature at my end went too high in the 90's. One day my RT was 98F (37c). I noticed that my overnight RT levain was full oftoo much foamy bubbles, while it didn't rise much.Is t... | Starters ferment fast
in warm temperatures and that has to be taken into consideration. When not fed, the bacteria and yeast will quickly deplete the available food and then turn on themselves. Your bowl of starter looks over-fermented. Bacteria will quickly increase at high temperatures resulting in a massive drop ... |
starter problems vs dough/temp problems vs malted flour problems
I have been using my 100% starter for several years now, and have , until the last 2 months, had consistent, desired results when I followed my regular recipe and method. Here how I make my bread:Ingredients110 grams 100% starter308 grams room temp water5... | Malt has enzymes
Generally, the malt helps with rising because it has "enzymes, such as proteases, which break down the proteins in the grain into forms that can be used by yeast." WikipediaGoing by that description, even though it helps with rising, maybe the enzymes are counterproductive in the environment of your st... |
Checking in and THANK YOU!!
Just finished up another couple of loaves of my standard 1-2-3, and thought I'd share. I also just wanted to say a quick THANK YOU to all of you at TFL. It is because of what I have learned here that I can create this wonderful bread consistently every time. :)Just out of the oven and sing... | Love the bold bake, Rich
Very nice loves. Paul |
When is a starter ready for use? Substitute for red rye malt in Borodinsky
I took a batard of Norwich Sourdough to an potluck recently and was told by new Uzbekistani friends there that the taste of the bread was the closest they've had to that of home they've had since moving to Canada. Long story short: they are join... | Hi, its me from the other forum topic
One can do a build and use when peaked. Or one can take starter from the fridge if built to the correct specifications. Either or. Just bear in mind a mature starter may be faster. If following a recipe and it calls for it then follow the recipe. If making your own bread then by al... |
success at last
all my attempts to bake ww and rye sourdough came out flattish I gave up on no knead bread and switches to bob's ww bread flour instead of ap ww I have been using bob's dark rye for all my breads this is what I did I mixed52 gm rye 386 gm bob's ww bread flour300 gm of water (I added 10 gm more after th... | I cut it after 1/ hour it was
I cut it after 1/2 hour it was still warm taste ok a little dense , probly from the rye flour , would like some bigger bubbles |
Success, at last!! I hope...
I feel like I must brag a little bit, with this loaf that I just pulled out of the oven. After much trial and tribulation, and lots of loaves donated to the garbage can, I think I mostly understand how to bake a GOOD loaf of sourdough bread.To start from the top, I had decided to try baking... | Oh Gorgeous,
I bet it is delicious. Congrats!! Now you are hooked.hester |
What to do with a flavoured, windowpaned, inactive-sourdough dough?
I thought I would revive my sourdough starter after a few months of tending exclusively to my human children, and forgot that I'm supposed to give it a few days of feeds before properly making bread. I obliviously mixed up a wet, enriched, decent size... | That's a tough one
Other, much more experienced bakers might have a better idea, but what I would do is dissolve some yeast in a little warm water. Then flatten the dough out as much as you can, spread the yeast evenly over the dough, fold the dough over a few times, and then gently knead it to incorporate it. |
Chemical Reaction to Cleaning???
I am on my very first sour dough starter (water, flour & honey). It appeared to be going well, but I am staying with my sister and she has a cleaning lady come in once per week. On day 3 I left the starter in the kitchen while the cleaning lady sprayed cleaning solutions into the air (a... | Next Time...,
Next time keep it covered and away from cleaning ladies...,Wild-Yeast |
First Sourdough Bake
Hi Everyone!I baked my first sourdough yesterday, with sort of mixed results. I thought I would drop a few pics into this thread and see if the experts can help me tweak some variables for next time.I want to preface all this by saying: I have never eaten sourdough bread in any context ever before... | Very good first sourdough bake
It does need more time though. It's under fermented. Knowing when the ferment is just right comes with practice. I'm sure it's still delicious and you'll enjoy eating it. Your starter is young and will continue to mature over the coming month or two. This is what is called a 'false crumb'... |
At what volume do you bake your sourdough?
GreetingsTo get the optimum oven rise, when do you consider your dough ready for baking? do you wait until the dough doubles? tripples? or get only 50% more volume?Some people say double, others, like Verasano, says 50%"Most recipes say that the dough should double in size. Th... | Just posted a relevant link on another thread...
...all about over-proofing (http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/42295/over-proofing-what-it-looks-and-why#comment-323184). Here's the link:http://www.weekendbakery.com/posts/the-myth-of-double-in-size/It was written by the artisan bakers at The Weekend Bakery and is their d... |
Mixing in a blender?
This is a stupid question but I'm making my first sourdough starter and want to make sure I am doing everything right. The instructions say to stir it by hand but I have been using a blender at low speed to mix the starter each time I feed it, to get rid of all of the flour clumps. I assume this wo... | Not necessary
Hi Luna, assuming you are having a small quantity of starter there....there is no need to use the mixer in order to get rid of the lumps of flour. Assuming it is a 100% hydration starter, it is still workable with a wooden spoon or a wire whisk. I am only using a regular tablespoon and have yet encountere... |
strech and fold substitute
hi theresince working a lot with spelt and rye, i've been getting lots of advice from you in this forum to S&F in order to enhance dough strength.unfortunately though, i mainly use my mixer due to wrist problems. so i'm wondering, what can i do instead of S&Fing? will replacing S&Fs with a f... | Yes
Yes, S&F, or mixing for 5 to 10 minutes, or hand kneading all accomplish the same thing.Ford |
Calculating nutrition for bread starter
Does anyone know how to calculate the nutrition for a bread starter? I use the potato flake starter where I am adding 3 tbsps of potato flakes, 3/4 cup of sugar and 1 cup of warm water every week to the starter. One whole cup of starter is usually added to a bread recipe. This is... | Hi ithilas,I don't have much
Hi ithilas,I don't have much to offer in regards to calculating nutrition facts but if you're going for a healthy bread, sugar and oil would be the last ingredients I consider. The recipe definitely sounds delicious and you can make lots of delicious breads without those two ingredients. Se... |
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