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Bringing a starter home My brother and his wife are in San Francisco visiting family. I ask them to bring back a SF sour dough starter. They are flying back here to GA. Does this mean that they will have to get a dried starter? Can you even buy a hydrated starter and can it be transported unrefrigerated for a few...	Just a few weeks ago I was in Just a few weeks ago I was in Costa Rica and made my new starter, Dulce. I was able to bring her back on the plane; I just overfed her right before heading to the airport. It can survive for at least 3 days, so it should be fine no matter what. I'm not sure I know of any starter for sale ...
Favorite 'go-to' recipe? Afternoon all! I'm getting ready for tomorrow's baking day and I was wondering what everyone's favorite go-to recipe was. I think I've found the one for me, but I'm always up to try something new!	63% Hydration Sourdough Susan's sd is great and pretty easy. Thanks Susan. Patrick from modesto
Struggling with recipe Levain HelloI am new to making Sourdough and struggling with my Levain. I have tried a couple different SD recipes without success. After reviewing my notes (temperatures, fermentation times etc) I feel the issue lies with my Levain.I am using a starter (10% Rye, 90% Bread Flour) that is 6 weeks ...	Give the starter a normal Give the starter a normal feed. Stir vigorously every 12 hrs. Only - i repeat - only feed it a normal feed when it doesn't - again - doesn't rise any more. Stir every 12 hrs and use it next day. Enjoy!
Happily, my starter survived my vacation Well, I'm back from 3 weeks of fishing and cruising the BC coast with my wife and grand daughter. I had planned on taking my SD starter (Bob) with me for waffles and pancakes, but he ended up being one of the few things that I forgot to load into the cooler. So lonely Bob spent ...	Good job, Bob! Yay for you. It must be a relief to see that your starter is doing well. I know how you feel. My started went to sleep right before I left for my vacation (only 9 days) so I had no choice but to bring it with me. Took me two days to wake it up and I even baked a few loaves away from home. I have jus...
300g hundred percent sd starter I subbed 300 g of ative 100% starter for one Tablespoon of yeast. What do you think? I made adjustments to flour and water. Thanks Patrick from Modesto	I forgot This was a recipe from King Arthur for almost no knead babugettes.
how do I substitute wild yeast starter in recipes calling for commercial yeast? I'm sure that this question must already have been answered many times on this forum, but I can't seem to find it. If it's easier, please just point me in the right direction! :) I've been working with my wild yeast sourdough starter for a...	Converting a yeasted recipe to sourdough Hi, Karen. The short answer is that you need to do some math. You want some portion of the flour and water in the recipe to come from your starter. You need to decide on the hydration of your starter and decide on the percentage of total flour in the recipe you want to come from...
conversions I cannot find what i want in the search box so.......... My question is can you convert any preferment,biga, poolish etc. to sd using a % conversion, Seems logical to me but I do make mistakes......... sometimes lol. My thinking is that there are so many levels to this w/f/yeast thing! Patrick from Modesto	conversions to sourdough In a given formula, I think if you're converting from biga to starter, you should use the same amount. If you're converting from poolish make the same amount of starter from the amount of flour in the poolish. If you're using biga, it should be a simple size determination, as biga is a stiff ...
converting yeast recipe to sourdough I have this wonderful recipe that I've made many times. I'd be interested in how I might convert this to a recipe using a starter instead of yeast> BE honest - am I better off leaving well enough alone since I do LOVE this recipe? -Susie Coarse Salt and Rosemary Focaccia Bread 2 t...	Try it You can convert almost any recipe to sourdough. Why not try it? Just use the amound of starter that you would ordinarily use for that amount of flour, and reduce the water and flour added by the amount in the starter. Remember that the rising time will, of necessity, be longer. Ford
Dump it or use it? I had every good intention of making SD english muffins this weekend. The formula I'm using is Wildyeast's here, which calls for a preferment. I made up the preferment Saturday night and it was nicely bubbly and risen in the morning. But I never got around to making it. I had to run what I thought...	Dump it It's probably got life in it, but saving it would likely be as much work (and ingredients) as making a new preferment. David G
Tried my first sourdough bread today. Tried my first sourdough bread today. Boy do I have a lot to learn. :-) The first one looks like someone sat on it, and the second deflated so bad coming out of the basket that I didn't even put it in the oven. On the first, when I scored it, it sank. Definately not what I wa...	It sounds like you over-proofed your loaves. Hi, Frank. The most common cause of a loaf deflating during transfer or scoring is over-proofing. Try proofing to less than double in volume, maybe 75-85%. I'm assuming your starter was good and active and you fully fermented the dough before dividing and forming the loaves....
Sourdough trouble - flat loaves It seems my sourdough has enough yeast in it to make bread rise, but I still end up with flat, dense loaves (it is about a month old now). At first I thought I was over proofing, but that doesn't seem to be the issue. I am using a converted no knead recipe which follows: 6.75 oz AP flour...	When you feed your starter When you feed your starter how long does it take it to quadruple? --Pamela
So after all this work the bloody loaf isn't sour! AHHHH! I think I might double up on the levain... or start fresh... So after all this work my sourdough isn't sour! If i double up on the final levain, do you think it'll give me a loaf of sour, sourdough? I'm following the books to the letter of the law... but I think...	Not sour sourdough Hi, Jean-Paul. How did you make your starter? How old is it? What recipe are you using for the bread that isn't sour enough for you? Is the starter raising the dough? Are you happy with the bread you've baked, other than how sour it is? I'm sure we can help you bake the bread you desire, if we know m...
Devil's in the Details I'm pretty new to both sourdough baking and TFL, but I was asked for my recipe, so here we go... This is actually a variation of the Times No-Knead, which I got from Eric at Breadtopia. However, and here's the "Devil's in the Details" moment, I didn't have what I would call success with that...	Thanks Glassweaver Thank you for the recipe and your method for steaming the bread. I'll have to get a pot and try what you've done. Very ingenious! I'll let you know how it turns out. Hope my bread comes out as good looking as yours.
Starter mold help Hi all,I need some help determining if the mold as seen in the pictures is normal or I have to discard the starter and start fresh.Some background - the starter is about 5 years old, 100% whole wheat, 100% hydration.I keep it in the fridge and feed it once a week. During the feeding, most of the start...	A bit hard to tell in these A bit hard to tell in these pictures, by mold do you mean the smaller blue-ish spots? Is they actually are blue, it's mold, and you should through everything away, you can't just skim it off.However, if those spots are just an artifact of the photo, and you mean the whole white-ish surface o...
Elasticity of sourdough dough - light at the end of the tunnel? I made Hamelman's vermont sourdough with 10% wholewheat again yesterday (I've decided that I'll make this particular bread repeatedly till I get the hang of sourdough, seems to be the best way to learn). This time, I hand-kneaded the dough with the Richard...	Your finished product doesn't Your finished product doesn't look bad to me, Venkitac. Maybe a little underproofed though. Did you try the finger poking test see when it was ready to bake? Also, did you bake this one under a cloche? I love the way you faked a cloche. I've done the same many times. --Pamela
Rye sourdough starter: a question I'm about ready to tackle rye breads made with a sourdough starter, but I have a question. I've been reading Hamelman's Bread, and he poses two ways to make a rye sourdough starter: one begins with an established starter--presumedly, all white flour; the second way begins by making a r...	I just asked Eric about this. I just asked Eric about this. He said to do a couple of feeding of your regular starter (i.e., make a rye starter out of part of it) with rye and then let it sit out on the counter for about 24 hours. --Pamela
I broke my gluten and I can't get up I was baking my Breakfast Bread recipe (WW,fruit,nuts,spices,sourdough)and I put it in an oiled bowl, in my oven, to do a first rise. The oven was cold so I thought I'd turn it on "warm" (it's electric) for just a few minutes and then turn it off to let the dough rise in a warm plac...	Nice rescue The bread looks good. Hope your family is OK.
Cheesy smell Hi, newbie here :) I started my first ever starter three days ago. I've been keeping it in my room and its been bubbling away since. I've been feeding it once a day. It looks fine, doesn't seem to have any mold and quite wet. I was wondering about the smell though. Yesterday it was a pleasant sort of bread...	Read Debra Wink's posts Hi Sketti, and welcome to TFL! There is so much existing information for you to read here that I will just point you to Debra Wink's Pineapple Juice Solution posts. The following link is to Part II, though you may want to read Part I first: http://www.thefreshloaf.com/keyword/pineapple-juice-sol...
Sourdough success (almost) at last! I made Hamelman's vermont sourdough again: The bread was somewhat misshapen, also my scoring wasn't great. I tried scoring it in a square pattern, as Dan had mentioned in one of his posts, with the lines of the square extending past the square itself. Somehow, the square was off...	Great Crust and Crumb! Very nice, do you like the milder flavor? I think it you tighten the skin more when shaping you'll get more height. Betty
P.Reinharts WGB starter questions... Tuesday night I mixed together the ingredients for P.Reinharts WGB starter(I used orange juice instead of pineapple) giving it one quick aeration/stiring before bed. To my surprise I already had quite a bit of bubbles and a mild yeasty smell coming from my starter wednesday morning ...	I think everything you are I think everything you are experiencing is normal. Move to the next phase/stage. Often you get a flurry of activity in the beginning but then as things settle down they slow way down for a while. Just keep plugging along and in less than 2 weeks you'll have your starter. NB: do not abandon it...
Sourdough corn bread I am a sourdough newbie and constantly looking for new recipes to play with my starter. Today, I tried making sourdough corn bread and it turned out surprisingly good. It looked very much like regular corn bread but with much softer texture and the flavor was just wonderful. I have been using my...	and muffins too Sourdough does give a nice texture and flavor to a variety of things, doesn't it? You've inpsired me to give this a try as corn muffins, maybe as a variation of gothicgirl's maple-bacon muffins (adding in some baking soda to react with the starter and really lighten up the texture like it does with waff...
Starter sourness/ripeness question I've been going thru a lot of extremely informative old posts on sourdough starters today, and TFL is awesome! One thing is still not clear to me, though: I have read in a couple of books that "if your starter tastes sour, it is past its prime to leaven bread. Refresh the starter, wai...	I'm hesitant to say too much I'm hesitant to say too much given my own starter experiences the last couple weeks but... I think those instructions seem a little overly fussy. My starter is about the same hydration as yours, and I can't say that I've ever seen it really collapse. It stops rising eventually, but pretty...
Wow, oven spring! Absolutely magnificent oven spring on my two totally-commercial-yeast-free panned white loaves still in the oven! I know "oven spring" can be overrated, but I never expected any and I've got it anyway. Also my experiment with the buttermilk plant was successful and I have a good supply of buttermilk...	And the bread is fantastic! It's got a very definite tang to it, but the crumb is soft and open and it's just delicious. The dough itself is a joy to work with, and before panning it, I didn't bash it around or roll it out, I simply folded it over on itself after it had risen in the bowl, then cut it in two and ploppe...
Smelly dough Hi, Any chance to save a rotten-smelly 85% Wholewheat / 15% Rye dough that has turned slacky when it has undergone natural fermentation in a cool oven for 4 days (no feeding, nothing, only a mixture freshly milled grain and drinking water)?? Mebake	I'd probably pitch it Four days of room temperature fermentation with no feedings, plus rotten odor, doesn't sound like a good thing. What was your original intent? Paul
Eliminating larger holes Hi All,Its been a while since I've come on here asking for help, over the past 6 months or so I've been baking a lot of sourdough and have been making scrupulous notes, experimenting with formulas, temperatures and times etc etc. I've been getting consistently decent bread for a while now, but ...	Forget all forms of "folding" Forget all forms of "folding" and after each rise give it a couple minutes of old fashioned kneading to degas. That is all. Enjoy!Oops, except for the proofing rise!
Effect of quantity of feed on sourdough starter ripening Pamela recently posted a thread on various effects on sourdough here: http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/12896/bread-seems-less-sour#comment-76494. I have a followup question to that: Would anyone happen to know the effect of the quantity of the feed on the starter...	I too would love to find a I too would love to find a way to feed my starter in the afternoon and be able to use it the next morning. So often I feed it in the morning and for any number of reasons don't get around to the nighttime feeding. --Pamela
Gluten gave out? Why? So I shaped a sourdough boule last night and put it in the refrigerator. This morning when I took it out, this is what I saw: Any idea why I might have gotten that blowout on the left side? I shaped carefully with good surface tension. Could I have let it bulk ferment too long (~9 hours) before s...	I would say you had a big I would say you had a big bubble in the dough left after the bulk fermentation. During shaping it got stretched into a large flat cavity, then, as the gluten started relaxing it reinflated and burst.
Bread seems less sour I've got a 67% hydradation starter that has been going about 7 months now, and lately, it seems less sour than it used to. Some background: Mother lives in the fridge full time and gets fed once or twice a week as needed. She gets 3 parts flour to 2 parts filtered water to 1 part starter at feed...	It's funny but I was just It's funny but I was just talking to Dan DiMuzio about some comments made about starters in a different thread. I was telling him how I needed a cheat sheet so I could remember all of the various factors that go into fine tuning a starter. I've read a number of book pages and articles about st...
Starter anyone willing to send me? I LOVE sourdough bread. I would like to try several starters from around the country/world to see how differant or/not they are. Anyone willing to send me a small sample? Send to: Candy Lyman Helena, Mt. 59604 Thanks. I will post results as I try each starter.	What would be the best way to What would be the best way to pack it up for mailing? That's probably a stupid question, I suppose a zip-loc bag would work just fine as long as there's enough room for expansion and it's mailed 2-day express.
baking with a new starter--help! Hello all, I am 5 days into making my first sourdough starter (using the directions from this post: http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/10251/starting-starter-sourdough-101-tutorial) and all seems to be going well (fingers crossed). However, I haven't been able to figure out exactly what t...	starter What you have created is a seed starter. Now you need to make a Barm or Mother starter to make your SD from. I make my barm from 1 part starter, 3 parts water and 4 parts flour. I keep my barm in the fridge and feed it every 4 or 5 days. Make as much barm as you need to cover the amount needed in your SD loaves...
substitutions I'm playing with PR's Ciabatta formula (BBA) today, and I know you guys can save me considerable trial and error, so I hope to take advantage of the vast knowledge and experience in this group. I plan to do the formula three times to compare all aspects of the bread, such as taste, texture, feel, time i...	Samo Samo I did the same experiment. I simply used the baker's percentages to qualify my sourdough starter as an ingredient. The calculations aren't difficult and the results were surprisingly good. The version using only sourdough levain produced a lighter textured crumb and a thin crisp outer crust. The version u...
Need some help with this Potato Rye recipe Sourdough Potato Rye 1 medium potatoe,cooked and mashed 1 c WW (home milled hard red spring wheat) 1 c Rye (currently Hodgson Mill Rye Flour) 2 3/4 c AP flour 1/2 tsp instant yeast 2 tsp salt 1/2 c 100% active starter 1 c potato water 1/2 c buttermilk 1 tbsp honey 2 tbsp oil ...	Stretch'n'fold works on high hydration dough I was able to manage doing some stretch and folding by generously dusting top and bottom of dough with the first folding and handling it very gently. It bulked up nicely and I finally formed 2 batards,slashed,eggwashed and proofed and just put them in the oven.We'll see how ...
Rye Sourdough Bagel Recipe (With apologies to Hamelman) I have constructed the following recipe based on Hamelman's Bagel and Vermont Sourdough recipes. I am going to bake them tomorrow. Any feedback before I get started on the actual dough? LEVAIN4.8 oz bread flour6 oz water0.2 oz sourdough cultureDOUGH1 lb 8.4 oz h...	Bagels are Retarding in the Fridge Well, I shaped the bagels and they are in the fridge. This time around I backed off on the gluten (3.5 oz subsituted for bread flour) and the dough was slightly harder to handle than last time but still totally fine. I figured that sourdough is a bit chewy anyways, so I probably nee...
rye starter its been 22 days since I fed by rye starter (Peter Reinharts Mother Starter-Whole Grain Breads) I'm not sure if it is still good or if I can still save it It was refrigerated the whole time.Any help would be deeply appreciated!Elaine	Save it. Start feeding it Save it. Start feeding it twice daily with your preferred flour blend (I use a 60/40 white AP/dark rye blend), with a ratio of 1:2:2 (1 part starter, 2 parts flour, 2 parts water). Odds are good it'll come back after a few days of feedings (starters are surprisingly resilient).
First SD loaf - some disappointment I'll post some photos when I get home but here goes. I used this recipe: I haven't tried the NYT No-Knead recipe, although I've read some of the discussions on The Fresh Loaf along the way. Based on some questions from KipperCat about the amount of starter that should go in a sourd...	Primary Suspect My first suspect would be the 5 hour proof. Did you do a finger poke test at any point? I suspect your loaf might have been overproofed. I also suspect you lost any chance for oven spring with a cold oven start. The recipe recommends heating the cooking vessel before depositing the dough into the ca...
Why discard starter? Hello, Everyone:I am fairly new to bread making and have been working with both the Ken Forkish FLOUR WATER SALT YEAST book and Tartine's Book 3 on using ancient grains. One thing that mystifies me is the vast quantity of flour that must be thrown out in the course of both their processes for creat...	why discard starter... First of all I hope you haven't started down the Forkish route of creating a starter. All your points are valid and there is no need to go down the Forkish route of creating barrels of the stuff.At the beginning it is necessary to discard some of the starter. Your starter will need feeding and it...
starters HI Out there in sourdough land :-) I have a question for you that keep up starters I am going on vacation for a two weeks and will not be able to feed and mantain my starter how or what can I do to keep it ? can it be frozen and then thawed later? and thoughts on this would be helpfull. Thanks Bob	I've kept mine in the fridge I've kept mine in the fridge for two weeks without a problem. It just takes 3 or 4 feedings on the counter to get it revived--I threw in a little rye to help it along too. --Pamela
Question about traveling - 'dough ball' method? Hello! I've learned so much from this forum, and I've been able to make some delicious sourdough bread for my family from all of the wonderful information. I recently mailed some different loaves to my family in NY and now they want me to bring some of my starter with me ...	You got the basics I can tell you what I do. I take about a heaping teaspoon of starter (10g) and dissolve into 40g water (or 1/4 cup). Stir enough flour to make a thick dough and keep adding slowly until the starter is a very compact ball. As it gets stiffer, I use my hands to knead and keep it smooth and the crumb...
will you help me with some bakers math please? I don't know why this is giving me so much trouble....I finally understand converting to 67% hydration.....but if I want to convert my 100% white bf starter to 63% hydration, I don't seem to be able to figure out how much flour to add. I need 71 gms of whole wheat starter,...	If you used 100 g of starter If you used 100 g of starter and it consisted of 50 g water and 50 g flour, it would be 100% hydration. You divide the amount of flour by the amount of water to figure out the level of hydration. If you want 63% hydration, you would use 50 g water and 79 g flour. --Pamela
Advice regarding sourdough baking in hot weather Janedo currently has a nice entry on her blog about sourdough starter feeding and sourdough baking during the heat of Summer. (It's in French, and I haven't checked the English version.) Anyway, Jane offers some good things to think about as the weather heats up. (It's 1...	Man oh man... the warm Man oh man... the warm weather advise was great, but did you get a load of those glazed doughnuts...?? My waist gained 2 inches just looking... - Keith
Sourdough help needed for Pain-Poilane I am trying to make the Pain Poilane from BBA. About 50% of the time, I am successful. When it does not turn out, here's what happens: 1. The dough does not rise during firmentation. If it does, it is very little. The problem is, when I'm in the started stage, the starters beh...	Poilâne-style Miche I cannot answer your question exactly, but I suspect the flour. In Bread Baker's Apprentice (BBA) page 242 "Commentary" Reinhart writes about simulating Poilâne's "high-extraction whole wheat flour." He gives two alternatives, I would prefer the second one as the safer. Blend equal amounts of who...
Dried Apricot SD Starter Here is an interesting blog by Martin Lersch who tried to make a sourdough starter using dried apricots and an immersion blender. http://blog.khymos.org/2009/05/21/sourdough-work-in-progress-part-i/ --Pamela	I thought you had tried it! Are you going to try it?
Quick Help Needed to Save My Sourdough Loaves! I'm making the regular sourdough from the Bread Baker's Apprentice book. I've made it several times, but this time I forgot to let the dough rise after the final mixing. You're supposed to mix, let it ferment for 3-4 hrs, then shape & proof for 2-3 hrs. I skipped that f...	Just bake them Let them rise 4-6 hours, slash and bake. They will be fine
Experiement For those experienced sourdough bakers..... I've been wondering what the effect would be if I were to 'encapture' small pockets of water into the dough at the end of final kneading (or even final shaping) without kneading them to incorporate them into the dough? The idea might be to indent the dough with f...	Experiment with a salted or unsalted dough? And how hydrated is the dough? Mini
Looking for starters from around the world I am looking into trying out different sourdough starters from around the USA and the world, without having to pay $5-10+ shipping each. Who out there has an established starter I can get a small bit from so I can try them out? I would love to have starters from, naturally, Sa...	As a way of saying Thank you As a way of saying Thank you to those who send me their starter, I will send them back a starter (or two or three...) I received from someone else, somewhere else. That way we can have an exchange of starters to try out! Imagine sending your SanFran starter and getting back a French and a R...
throwing out part of starter? hello i've created a healthy starter following Susan's instructions over at Wildyeast blog I would like to know, why must we throw out part of the starter when growing it? Is it for biological reasons? Does it strengthen it somehow? Or is it only because you'd otherwise end up with a room ...	Not A Requirement Throwing out part of the starter is simply a method of reducing the quantity of starter you're working with over the fermentation cycle. You don't have to throw it out (I don't) is you'd prefer to use it. When preparing a new batch of starter I often divide it at the point where tossing out half of ...
Sourdough bread in Hyderabad, India Where will I get the sourdough bread in Hyderabad.	Let's see.... https://duckduckgo.com/?q=sourdough+bread+hyderabad
"High gluten" and "high protein" flour What do the terms "high gluten" and "high protein" mean when it comes to flour that is optimal for bread baking? Are they the same thing or should your flour have mostly one or the other?	same thing Same thing AFAIK -- gluten is formed from proteins, and high gluten flours are high protein flours, as most of the protein in flour is gluten or will form gluten. I don't understand it well on a technical level, but for your purposes the answer is yes. BTW, Wiki says Gluten is a composite of the proteins gl...
first fresh fruit loaves of the season I like the idea of baking fruit-based bread using the fermented fruit as the leavening. I started with 200g of cherries. I pureed them with 40g of water and a bit of honey and let them ferment for 3 days until the mixture smelled quite alcoholic and bubbled noisily. I then adde...	Fantastic. Jeff Fantastic. Jeff
could someone post the "changing starter hydration instructions" again? I think it was one of the Daves or Davids that posted the instructions on how to change starters from 100% to 67% hydration over several feedings, and if someone could redirect me to the thread it was in, instead of whoever having to repost it all...	Changing Starter Hydration I don't know if I'm the David your writing about or not, but I've developed an Excel spreadsheet that does what you want. The spreadsheet gives the values of flour and water to add to a small amount of your stored starter, at any hydration, and in three builds over approximately 24 hours crea...
Backwards OK, so I'm a little backwards. I've been feeding my 100% hydration starter "all wrong" according to conventional wisdom. Here's why: After refreshing the starter with flour and water, most directions say to leave it on the counter for a few hours to get perking, then refrigerate for up to a week. I probabl...	As a sourdough newbie who As a sourdough newbie who "nurtured" a completely dead starter because I never learned what an active starter was supposed to look like, I say if it works for you, then do it! Gawd, some of the hoo-ha written about sourdough makes me gag. If your starter is active, then who cares. If it wor...
Still Confused with Starter Feeding I started the Bahrain starter from Sourdough International which seemed to activate ok. Then after feeding 1:1:1 the starter it sort of sat and did nothing. Ed Wood suggested feeding 1cup of flour 1/2 cup of water. It took off and tripled within a 12 hours. Now after removing half th...	Volume measurements could be the problem Feeding by volume you are not getting the ratios you think you are getting. Ratios are determined by weight, not volume. 1/4 cup of flour does not weigh the same as 1/4 cup of water and neither is the same weight as 1/4 cup of starter. THAT's why Ed Wood suggests 1 cup of flo...
Should a rye starter have a dry surface skin and cheesy smell after feeding? I took a good, active sourdough starter, put some in another container, and fed it whole rye flour every day for a few days at RT, refrigerated it for 4-5 days, pulled it out and fed it again for a few days at RT, but unlike my regular white ...	Sounds about right With the cheesy smell. Matt surface sounds also normal. It does have a cover... I hope. Mixing it thick is not a problem because it seems to get wetter as it matures. It will also not rise much but when the "skin" is scratched with a spoon or fork, the bubbly structure is visable underneath. Remo...
overproofed dough Hello, I made some pizza dough (starter, oil, flour, salt) and let it sit out overnight with the full intention of using it the next evening. However, my family and I went out to celebrate that next evening, and the pizza was never made. Due to an overfilled schedule, the dough was left out in rathe...	Depending on how much you Depending on how much you have, bake one by itself and see what happens and let us know. Otherwise, toss it.
Looking for a sourdough sandwich loaf I am looking for a soudough sandwich loaf formula. I really like the white sandwich loaf I make now, but would like to add some starter to it. So does anyone have a white sourdough sandwich recipe? Or can anyone tell me how to convert the formula I have now for sourdough. I mai...	Here's a link I haven't tried this yet, but I copied for future use: How to convert from yeast to sourdough has many answers, I plan to try the first comment from Sourdolady. Marni
will it be sour? I've baked basically the same bread since I started here last August. I think I've got it down pretty well. I play with changing things a bit here and there, but basically it's working and we like it. One of the things that I've had to do is to let go of the need to have a really sour loaf. I moved...	I started with 5 grams of seed culture and 10 grams of water and 10 grams of flour and let that double then another 50 grams of water and 50 grams of flour. So I had 125 grams of 100% hydration starter that was getting active. I keep my seed culture in the 'fridge and it likes a couple of builds to wake up and get ac...
Sourdough recipe My starter is 12 days old, has doubled in size and is bubbly under the surface, but no froth or bubbles on the surface, is it ready to use? Also can any body recommend a good plain recipe to start off with. Thank you Abigail	Sounds ready... ...but the only way to know for sure is to give it a try. If you search the site for "sourdough formula" or "sourdough loaf" you should come up with many option to choose from. This is the recipe for one of the first loaves I made that really worked. It is posted by AnnieT and is in the second ...
Can’t find out what the problem is :( Hello,I am so happy I found this place and I hope you can help!I am a novice in sourdough baking but determined to succeed. Baking bread feels good - almost like a therapy, but sometimes it could be frustrating :( Like this morning.I shaped my bread last night and put it to the fri...	Welcome! You came to the Welcome! You came to the right place to get help with your baking.It sounds like one or two, or all of the following: your dough was too hydrated, the gluten was insufficiently developed, or the dough was overfemented. If you share more details about your process, including the formula and how ...
Is my starter ready? I have been feeding my starter for 12 days, it has doubled in size, lots of bubbles under the surface, but nothing on the top. Is it ready for use? Also can any body recommend a basic sourdough recipe? Thank you Valmai	It's time to try it It sounds like it might be ready (I'm a sourdough newbie myself). I started out making Sourdough english muffins (I used this recipe) because it was fast and easy and you can literally watch the leavening take place. If your muffins rise during the fermentation stage, your sourdough is doing it. ...
Haven't fed my starter in over a month I had a great sourdough starter that I had been keeping in my fridge and feeding each week. We luckily have remodeled our kitchen and I have been without appliances and a sink for a while now, so I haven't fed my starterin over a month. When I looked at it yesterday, It had abou...	Mike Avery has a page Mike Avery has a page dedicated to reviving a starter. Suggested reading : ) http://sourdoughhome.com/revivingastarter.html - Keith
Could my starter be contaminated? I had a lovely starter, but I decided a to make a bread that took probably too much of it this past weekend, leaving me only about 12 grams. To add insult to injury, I'd transferred it into another container so that i could clean its crock. So the old, dried starter that clings to th...	More Puzzle Pieces? I just fed the starter for the night, and besides being very bubbly it was very liquid-like. Instead of marshmallow-like gluten strands, it was all liquid like pancake batter and it did not stick to my spoon as usual. It's a 100% hydration starter, and usually it's thinner when its feeding time, ...
Active Dry Yeast in place of 'Captured"? At the risk of committing heresy, I wonder if instant or dry active yeast could be the basis of a good sourdough starter. Here's my reasoning: I'm told that dry active yeast has been 'engineered' to be very active and supplies a very high concentration of yeast to make bread ris...	I'm no expert, but I beleive I'm no expert, but I beleive that the strain of yeast in commercial yeast cannot work well in low pH environments. Your starter would not work predictably until the strain(s) of wild yeast which can thrive in acidic environments would start to develop. So you would need to feed your start...
Sourdough newbie (first attempt) question I'm trying to make my first sourdough starter, and I have a question. I'm using the method in Charles Van Over's "best bread ever" but I got a bit cofused and messed it up slightly. I mixed flour:water in a 1:2 weight ratio, spiked it with a bit of yeast and orange juice. Recip...	First sourdough: sounds as if you are on the right track === Itasted it, and it tastes ever so slightly of alcohol, with a very mild alcohol smell too. Is this normal, or should I throw the whole thing away and start over? === Totally normal. I am not familiar with that particular method, but typically you would now...
NYT/Lahey no-knead sourdough question When you make this, how much starter do you use, at what hydration? How vigorous is your starter? The first time I tried this, I used way too much starter, I think 80 grams. In the morning my dough had obviously risen and tanked. Last night I used 6 grams of 60% hydration starte...	sourdough NKB Good morning KipperCat, here I am with dough scraps on my fingers from the white thyme olive bread I am making. Not good for the keyboard? I looked back at my notes on the NKB and find 1/4c starter or 1/4tspn instant yeast. Now of course I can't remember how much 1/4c weighs but I doubt there is as much r...
SD italian and David's San Joaquin SD here are the two breads I made this week: SD Italian: (I scored it down the middle and for some reason, I got a twisting pattern in the middle.) crumb was a bit denser then I like, but it was very delicious, and still had a fluffy texture. and here's the San Joaquin: (very nic...	Nice breads, TeaIV! I'm glad you enjoyed those breads. It does look like a shaping issue - getting a good gluten "skin" around the loaves. I also suspect both breads needed a bit more gluten development. Just a hunch. I generally get a darker and shinier crust on both types of breads. I wonder whether you are baking on...
loaf splitting This is my first post here, although I have been lurking and learning for several months now. I have been making sourdough bread following the King Aurther recipe and the taste, crumb and crust are wonderful. (My wife likes them even more than I do) The problem I have is when the loaf is proofing, spra...	Welcome to TFL, John. Can you Welcome to TFL, John. Can you give us a little more specifics about your formula? Are you doing the first rise (bulk fermentation) for 5 hours or is it the proof? Five hours for proofing is a really long time unless it is done in the refrigerator. --Pamela
sourdough collapse help please, I've been making sourdough up till this warm weather decended upon us with good results. However last week I made some in the same old way and left it to prove for the usual 16-18 hours, when i went to bake it the following day I saw it had really ballooned up to about 4 times it's usual...	Wow It sounds like your loaf was way overproofed when you turned it out to bake. You say that it rose to 4 times it's usual size, as in, 4 times what it normally looks like at that point, or 4 times the original shaped size? Both sound still overproofed to me. If a loaf is overproofed, it will collapse when turned out...
90 Proof Cake An Internet friend was kind enough to give me some starter for the 90 proof cake plus instructions. I,unfortuantley, misplaced the instructions and I am hoping someone on this forum might have them. The cake is made with pineapple,peaches and charries added to the starter over a 30 day period.	Booze? Does the 90-proof refer to alcohol content?
feeding schedule impact - does 2 + 2 = 4? Hello, wise ones. Here's a general question which might or might not have a general answer. Let's say I'm feeding an established starter or creating a levain. What's the difference in outcomes between giving it two lots of flour+water, vs giving it one feed with the same...	Building on your question I was musing about some of this earlier today as well. I understand the general dilution principles, and how time and temperature can slow down or speed up a levain build/starter feed. But why do some recipes specify a 2 or 3-stage levain build, rather than just giving the seed culture the sam...
Another one: Sourdough not rising I made a sourdough seed and turned it into a starter using The Bread Bakers Apprentice as a guide (the only difference being I used only King Aurthur AP flour due to limited availability). All went well with that regard. The process was started on 6/6/2009. Now, I have moved towards a ...	Also, whenever I pull the Also, whenever I pull the starter out it is extremely glutenous and stringy, from what I understand this is good considering my hydration level of 75% (I think). You have a 67% hydration level on your starter. This is how I keep my starter too. I'm not sure I understand what you mean about it...
sourdough catastrophe I've been making sourdough up till this warm weather decended upon us with good results. However last week I made some in the same old way and left it to prove for the usual 16-18 hours, but when i went to bake it the following day I removed the couche which covers the baskets, and saw it had real...	Exactly Was it because the weather being a bit warmer meant that it got too gassy??? Yes, it's called overproofed. Dough cannot read time, it only knows temperature and behaves accordingly. Warmth increases activity exponentially, so you should start checking on your proofs and learn to tell when they're ready visuall...
Starter refrigeration How long can a starter be fed and cultivated at room temperature? I see that a lot of people refrigerator their brand new active starters 3 - 4 days into the process. My starter has been active for about a week now and its been sitting at room temp with daily feedings. No signs of mold or any prob...	Forever You can keep going at room temperature for as long as you wish, and this is what goes on in most bakeries. The principal benefit of refrigeration is for the home baker who does not use the starter every day to bake.As long as you follow a process that includes a proper feeding schedule (time), and feeding ratio...
Sourdough starter question Five days ago I started 2 sourdough starters. One, a thick one, I have already given up on. The other, thinner, has gotten beyond the disgusting rotten grain smell and now has a very nice, sourish, sweetish smell. But its definatly not raising up in volume much. I have been searching these fo...	I'm not an expert at this, I'm not an expert at this, but I don't think the thickness of your starter has much to do with it's progress at this stage. Five days at 70 degrees is not that long. The thickness of the starter is largely irrelevant so long as the growing yeast culture has enough to eat. Considering your'...
Does it matter how often you feed your starter? I am wondering why do people choose to feed it once to twice daily instead of doubling or tripling it and feeding it say, once a day or every other day, or just sticking it in the fridge with a big feeding? I'd assume that it keeps them more vibrant I guess...???? But it'...	I'm new to this and a rank beginner . . . but it seems to me that the frequency of feeding depends on how you store your starter. If you store your starter on the counter where it's fairly warm, the yeast will consume all of the available food in a certain period of time. When it runs out of food for long enough, my ...
Sweet and Sour Added some honey to a whole grain sourdough loaf and it was hit. Aromas of fruit. All those tasting agreed there was a fruity sweet quality to it. Underneath you can taste the nice sour. My starter has finally gotten ripe after about 3 weeks. A happy accident.	A happy accident... Doesn't A happy accident... Doesn't it make you wonder what else lies waiting to be discovered by accident! And why is it that some of the best results are, more often than not, unintentional?
Sourdough Starter made with commercial yeast? Ok, this is THRICE in one day I've read here about people starting "sourdough" starter with commercial yeast. Can anyone explain the process and how this is seen as "sourdough"? Does commercial yeast get along with lactobacilli's acid development? I'd imagine that needing ...	Insurance Hi, I'm new here, but I'm willing to take a stab at it. Yeast really isn't all that sensitive to pH, or acids in general. Just acetic acid, which is produced to some degree by lactic acid bacteria (LAB). It's pretty hard to keep LAB from gaining a foothold. They're in flour. When you add water, the process be...
sourdough starter ? I began two sourdough starters about 6 weeks ago. One was Debra Wink's pineapple one and I forgot where I saw how to do the other one. Anyway, they've both done great, and I've enjoyed using and playing with them. Until the last week or so, they've had a nice clean, tart smell. Now no smell at a...	Try feeding I would discasrd all but about 2T and start feeding it twice a day for a few days and see if they come back. It may be that they have been in the fridge too long and just need to wake up a bit. I would give your sister in law some anyway. Give her 2 T feed and tell her how to feed it and tell her to feed...
Sourdough Sunday Hi I'm thinking about baking some sourdough at the weekend. I've got a starter, given to me by a friend. I've had it for about a week and I've been feeding it everyday, so I think I'm ready to go... I want to bake it with my son, he's seven, and I'm just wondering if anyone had any ideas for how to mak...	I think spending time with I think spending time with him is fun for him......bake some chocolate chip cookies with him during the process, during the fermentation periods.....he can do most the preparing, and there is a lot of "kid" incentive to bake the cookies.
Conversion of Yeast Recipe to Sourdough Hi, Fresh Loafers: How can we determine the optimal % of starter in terms of total flour we should use in place of yeast ? I can think of two factors that might affect a baker's decision: 1. tanginess - more tangy loaf, use less starter; less tangy loaf, use more starter 2. timin...	I have been using 25% starter I have been using 25% starter in comparison to 100% of the flour in the formula. You are right about the decisions that you can make and the impact they have on the bread. I have done all the way from 10% starter to 95%.
inclusions https://www.instagram.com/p/Bd0uhcan0rN/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_linkthis is an interesting video on adding inclusions. do you think this was done during the final shape phase? if so, what would the distribution of the inclusions look like in the finished loaf? I just realized its panettone. It is sourdoug...	I would add inclusions during I would add inclusions during the mixing stage. It takes a gentle hand and gradual addition. I made stollen and posted it on this site. Inclusions were made at the end of mixing, after gluten was well developed. I imagine panettone is the same.
My starter actually worked. Well my 1st attempt at a wild yeast starter "bob" actually worked. I'm so impressed. He was a little slow, but the other night lot's of bubbles, froth and a great smell. I boosted him up to 2 cups total and that doubled in size with nice bubbles over night. I took a cup from that and made th...	WHOO WHOO! It's a GREAT feeling when your sourdough starter is "born." I personally felt very, very proud :) Congrats!
Levain Question I made my first levain last night, for the roasted garlic bread on Wild Yeast Susan's site http://www.wildyeastblog.com/2008/10/16/roasted-garlic-bread/ I was surprised at how stiff and dry the levain was, and I'm curious about whether that's typical of levains or particular to certain recipes. I expec...	How'd it come out? Hi Janknitz, How'd the roasted garlic bread turn out? The levain in Susan's recipe is a stiff one, at approximately 60% hydration. The hydration level of various levains can be all over the map. This sort of stiff levain was common, almost universal (at least in France according to Daniel Leader), un...
Potato Bread w/ Potato Starter? Hi there everyone! I am new to the site and loving all the info. I have a question: Does anyone know of a recipe for a good potato bread that uses a sourdough potato starter in it? There is a local coffee shop here in Idaho that sells a lovely potato bread that has a fairly thick, chewy...	Potato Leek Bread Why not give this one a try?: http://www.breadcetera.com/?p=170 Uses roasted potatoes with a sourdough starter. The leeks can be omitted, if you wish. SteveB http://www.breadcetera.com
Neutralizing starters Hello, dear Fresh Loafers: I'm considering making something similar (but not exactly the same) to waffle or pancake out of starters. How much baking soda would you use to neutralize the acidity of 1 cup (240g) of 100% hydration starter? On top of that, how much baking powder would you use to ri...	Don't know if it neutralizes completely, but... ...to 8-1/2 oz. of starter (100% hydration)--that's about one cup-- I add one cup of all-purpose flour and 1/2 cup water and let the mixture do its thing overnight. In the morning I add 1 egg, and 2 tablespoons of cannola oil. I set my griddle to 350°F, and wait for the l...
new info rercently published -air vs grain as source of wild yeast I've just received a copy of a book on sourdough baking recently published in Australia. The comment made in the first chapters of this publication is that 'feeding' sourdough starters is just a misnomer, and that when we add flour to our starters as a...	What's the book title and Who's the author? I'm interested to know other's opinion on this author. Me too so why not give us more info? Mini
Bahrain starter from Sourdough International I'm a complete newbie to baking and of course sourdough baking. I have planned to use the no knead method to start my endeavor. I ordered 2 starters from Sourdough International, one San Franciscan and one Bahrain. The Bahrain is supposed to the most sour which is why I boug...	Activating starters Mike, I think you should be able to use the same instructions. I wouldn't worry to much about which one you activate. The way you feed it will determine how sour the culture is. If you want to make the No Knead Bread, you can just use a small amount of yeast and let the dough sit for overnight (18 h...
Flour Humidity Issues I live in a very dry western state and I think it is affecting my flour humidity, if that is possible. I am not able to keep my flour in the freezer because we have a tiny refrigerator, but I keep it cool in my pantry and bake frequently so it rotates quickly. My starter is not stiff (I do 1/2 cu...	Certainly in the dry Western states (where I also live) the moisture content of our flour (and grains) can be a bit low. I have moisture meter readings and lab results that tell me this is so. But I would first look at how I was measuring my flour. Weight is best, of course. (I've baked bread for many years and neve...
Peter Reinharts 100% Rye THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! Shakleford for sharing your ideas with me back on May 8th. The bowl idea. the plastic bag proofing idea etc. The only thing I didnt do was score my loaf and it got a beautiful "crackle" look to it, as I call it. I froze it and then took it with me on my yearly t...	Great! That's great news - I've been wondering if you'd had better luck and am glad to hear that everything turned out so well. Hmm, I think I'm going to have to make another batch of that this weekend... :-) By the way, the last time I found a 100% rye loaf on a bakery menu I tried to order it and they told me that t...
my yeasty beasties at work Hi all, This is my second attempt at sourdough from my wild starter made with Debra Wink's formula. The result is amazing, just what I was hoping for in a sourdough loaf. I used the Norwich sourdough recipe from the Wild Yeast blog, adding some harvest grain blend from KA. What a great bread...	pic sizing I use irfanview on my PC for sizing pics and doing slideshows. Works great and easy to use. I see they have a MAC version and it's a free download.
First timer.. With not much luck asking for help :) Hi! As part of my attempt to eat healthier foods, I decided to start the sourdough journey, especially after reading so many posts about this "romantic" connection between the baker and the starter! I love these sort of things.. I wanted a wholemeal spelt starter, so ...	Recipe for a rock Hi, Eran. Welcome to TFL! I have used spelt flour in breads but have never made a 100% spelt loaf, so take my advice with 5 gms of salt. I looked at the recipe you used, and, although you did not really measure your ingredients precisely, the recipe you used has the lowest percent hydration of any I'v...
Does fridging a starter change its microbiology? I've had a starter I've maintained for nearly 5 years on a countertop, feeding it everyday to other day for those years. Lately my baking has slowed to once a week and I'm starting to think that I should fridge it between bakes. My issue is, i really love my starter, its...	I think there was a thread about this a while ago.
Flat Loaf. Unhappy Baker. Hi all! I'm Bekah, and I've been lurking in the shadows for quite some time here now and finally decided it was time I join in the conversation. I've so enjoyed learning on this forum! First things first, I'm a food photographer, blogger and micro-baker (https://www.instagram.com/theedgewoodba...	Hello and Welcome! So glad you decided to join TFL. As you put it, first things first: your Instagram photos are superb! You clearly have good mastery of both camera and kitchen! As an amateur photographer that cannot come close (yet) to the quality of your photos, and as an amateur baker that cannot come close (ye...
I'm slower than my starter. I'm dazed and confused, but moving ahead with home baked breads. I've had good luck with the buttermilk cluster (by my 3rd try I had great buns). Also I've found the no-knead bread easyish? to do and have really enjoyed the results and praise from friends. Now I've decided I NEED a sourdough...	Terminology Hi Dave, "Proofing" is a term used to describe fermenting the bread dough after it has undergone the bulk fermentation but before it is placed in the oven. The term is also used when one is checking the viability of dry active yeast. You don't "proof" your sourdough culture; you refresh it with flour and w...
Sourdough controversy: Where do the microflora come from? Are they replaced over time? The question recently posted about Ed Wood's (www.sourdo.com) starters brought to mind one of the great sourdough controversies: Do the original strains of yeast and lactobacilli in a purchased or gifted starter persist, or are they ...	I posted in the other thread I posted in the other thread but to add to this one there are the factors you stated dave but there is also this since flour is a bland thing with very mild flavors as well as it's abilty to absorbe water from the air the flavors in the air due to moisture contant in a bakery are concentrat...
Sharing a starter with someone in a different state If I transport some of my sourdough starter to a different state (locale), will it retain the same mix of bacteria and yeast? --Pamela	Sharing a starter - will it change? === If I transport some of my sourdough starter to a different state (locale), will it retain the same mix of bacteria and yeast? === One of the most controversial questions in the world of sourdough, where controversy is not exactly unknown! My two cents, based on both reading and e...
Sourdough starter with whey? Hi all, It's my first post here, but I've been reading and enjoying these pages for quite some time. I'm looking for some advice. A couple of months ago, I picked up a package of what I guessed was a sourdough starter mix in a fairly good food/baking shop in Tokyo. I already had a healthy s...	Sounds to me like sourdough The kind one adds to a rye bread recipe to sour the rye flour (up to 500g) and lower the pH, then eventually yeast is added. Does it still smell good? Taste it. Is it sour? After you combine with rye flour & water to let it sour, remove a tablespoon or two and try to keep it like a start...
A Question and a Story Question First: Will Stretch and fold work for pretty much any dough, or do some doughs absolutely require kneading? I'm not talking about things like laminated doughs (i.e. croissants) but basic lean and enriched bread doughs? Now the Story: I posted already about my experiments adding my new...	Stretch/folding and kneading Stretch/folding and kneading are doing the same thing: developing gluten. Any dough that requires kneading can be stretched and folded, but of course the results can differ depending on your technique and approach (especially how many times you stretch and fold during bulk frementation). I ...
Keeping sourdough starter while away from home I wonder whether any one can give me some guidance on this. Rather stupidly, I embarked on raising a sourdough starter a week ago. It's active now, although not as active as I'd hoped it was going to be. Because of that, I've decided not to attempt this dough until I get b...	New starter and away from home One week of growth is a little soon to be missing regular feedings. But travel you must, so I would suggest a dual approach: Feed the starter so as to double its amount. When it has risen and/or is bubbly: Take half and freeze it in a sealed container Take the other half and feed it wi...
sourdough starter alcohol Hello, I recently went on vacation for a month and left my sourdough starter in the fridge. When I came back, there was about 1/4 inch of alcohol on the top, which is normal after a long period without feeding. However, the alcohol had turned a dark color, almost grey. I smelled the alcohol...	Hooch! Yep, that is called hooch. Some people will tell you to decant it off and use the more solid rest of the starter. However, I have found that it does no harm to just stir the entire contents of the starter, refresh it until it is strong, and make some bread. Most of the alcohol evaporates during baking, but so...
Please help this newbie! I posted the sourdough in bread pan My post is already posted under sourdough bread in bread pan. Please help this newbie!!!	Duplicating Sourdough pan breads are not uncommon. Here's a recipe that may help to get you started toward your goal: http://home.att.net/~carlsfriends/dickpics/panbread.html

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