Questions tagged [sourdough]

Questions regarding baking and working with wild yeasts and starters (also known as levains or chefs).

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I bought a sourdough starter from a bakery, fed it too much, and it overflowed the jar overnight. What should I do now?

I bought a starter from a bakery, and I think I overfed it overnight. It overflowed from its jar. What should I do now?
Michelle B's user avatar
1 vote
2 answers
142 views

Glass pan for sourdough?

Can I successfully use a lidded round glass baking dish do to bake a sourdough bread? I have not made sourdough before. Just need to know if I really need to buy a cast iron dutch oven for this.
Nelda's user avatar
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0 votes
2 answers
123 views

Can liquid sourdough dough be mixed with baking yeast to produce normal risen bread?

I have some sourdough starter that is liquid. If I try to make dough out of it and it turns out more liquid than solid, can it be mixed with baking yeast in order to produce a normal risen bread (like ...
Kermilli's user avatar
1 vote
2 answers
920 views

Can't get rid of alcohol smell in my sourdough starter

I made my first sourdough starter around 3 weeks ago. I made it with spelt flour. It was nice and ready after a 7 or 10 days and had really nice yeast smell. I had to leave town for 4 days and let my ...
Lebesgue's user avatar
4 votes
2 answers
169 views

Baking sourdough in a breadmaker

I know this is kind of backwards, versus what you see a lot of people doing (rising dough and a bread maker and baking in a regular oven), but I teach middle school and another teacher has a bread ...
jywarren's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
103 views

Sagging flat-bread after proofing

I have been making sourdough bread for quite a long time (almost a year) and am starting to up the hydration percentage from 60-65% to like 70-75%. When I do this, I am fine with activating the gluten ...
Henri Bellanger's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
359 views

Can I add three times the flour & three times the water to my sourdough starter for 24 hours instead of the same amount of flour & water for 12 hours?

Under the usually followed guidelines for sourdough starter feeding, if one has 200 grams of sourdough starter (100 grams fermented flour + 100 grams water), they need to feed 100 grams of flour and ...
The Testosterone Fanatic's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
2k views

My sourdough starter is thick with small bubbles but isn't rising [duplicate]

I started my sourdough starter on the 17th. I was doing 1/2 cup water, 1/2 cup flour with one feeding a day, discarding half before each feeding. It rose with bubbles the first two days and then began ...
Alyssa Gamez's user avatar
3 votes
0 answers
50 views

Pita Bread-Why is one side too thin? [duplicate]

Is there a way to avoid having one side (top or bottom) of the pita bread much thinner than the other side? The thin side is very prone to ripping if I try to fill it. I make whole wheat sourdough ...
Tia P's user avatar
  • 31
2 votes
1 answer
305 views

Sourdough starter brown liquid (hooch) forming earlier than expected according to this recipe

I am following this recipe to make sourdough starter (Masa Madre = Mother Dough = sourdough starter?). According to the recipe, it takes around 5 total days (I won't put quantities, I will just use ...
M.K's user avatar
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3 votes
1 answer
477 views

Is my sourdough starter ready

I’ve been attempting to make sourdough starter for the first time over the last week. I’ve followed the recipe from this website: https://www.coles.com.au/recipes-inspiration/recipes/sourdough-starter ...
user103077's user avatar
2 votes
2 answers
66 views

Do Recipes Typically Account for Starters/Preferments when Reporting Dough Hydration?

I know there have been a couple of questions here before about what "counts" toward computing dough hydration % (honey, milk, etc.) but I always thought it was a no-brainer that starters and ...
Peter Moore's user avatar
16 votes
3 answers
2k views

What proportion of the natural yeast in Sourdough comes from the flour?

Inspired by this question... when making a sourdough starter or similar, does the flour contribute a significant amount of yeast to the final product [either from the flour's origins in the fields, or ...
Joe M's user avatar
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3 votes
1 answer
2k views

How to avoid black spots on bread baked in iron tin with baking paper inlay

I am trying to make a sourdough bread with least effort. My receipe is as follows: Add sourdough starter, rye flour, salt and water, mix. Put in a iron tin and wait for 24 Hours for the sourdough to ...
Paul Weber's user avatar
0 votes
0 answers
55 views

Levain Ratio x Sour

I always used the 1:2:2 ratio in preparing the dough, of course, it always gets sourer. I have doubts about some proportions that I have found in some books, but I cannot find the explanation of why. ...
Fausto Branco's user avatar
13 votes
2 answers
4k views

Some instant yeast went into my sourdough starter

This is how it all began, I have a 100% rye starter for about a year now. I used a spoon that had some other dough on it, that dough was from a bag of flour that had mentioned at the bottom of the ...
Pinch's user avatar
  • 233
4 votes
1 answer
2k views

When stretching and folding dough and it gets tight, is that time to let it rest?

When I make my sourdough, a rested dough will stretch and fold 3-4 times before quite suddenly going tight. At this point it's likely to tear if I stretch much more. Should I put it down and rest it ...
Chris H's user avatar
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2 votes
1 answer
247 views

Is it okay to feed milk powder to sourdough starter?

I'm still new to bread making and I was wondering if adding some milk powder when I feed my starter would have a negative impact since milk is slightly more acidic than flour.
Liz's user avatar
  • 21
7 votes
3 answers
761 views

Why would a fully-developed dough lose consistency (elasticity / extensibility)?

I've been experimenting with panettone and I've come across the issue time and time again of losing dough consistency while mixing the secondo impasto (i.e. the final panettone dough). What makes this ...
YenForYang's user avatar
3 votes
2 answers
578 views

How does no-knead bread not overproof?

Most sourdough instructions warn not to overextend primary fermentation, as doing so will exhaust the yeast's food supply for proving after shaping. Standard sourdough recipes call for a 3-4 hour bulk ...
lerner's user avatar
  • 53
1 vote
2 answers
1k views

Sourdough hasn’t risen overnight

I mixed 400gr of flour with 200 of starter, plus 280 ml of water and a bit of salt. I worked it with the slap and fold method and left it overnight. Sadly this morning I woke up to find it only about ...
Laura's user avatar
  • 11
0 votes
1 answer
412 views

3 day old sourdough starter splits after feeding

My starter consists out of 150gr All purpose, 60 grams of whole wheat and 210 grams of water. On day 2 it bubbled nicely, but I fed it only with half a feeding fearing it would otherwise not stay ...
David's user avatar
  • 1
1 vote
1 answer
255 views

Wild Sourdough Starter Never gets more than 1/3 bigger - Am I doing something wrong?

I made a wild sourdough starter back in July of last year. Did some baking with it, but it has never doubled in size the way that I see described in articles online. I initially started it with all-...
notovny's user avatar
  • 113
4 votes
3 answers
504 views

Sourdough pizza crust for wood-fired oven

I can consistently make a nice, well-blistered, chewy pizza crust in my wood-fired oven. My recipe is Caputo flour (the red bag), 60% hydration, 2.5% salt, 0.25% instant yeast; knead until smooth; ...
Sneftel's user avatar
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2 votes
1 answer
75 views

How do I modify my sourdough rising/proofing time to account for not using enough starter?

This is my first time trying to bake sourdough bread after feeding a mature AP/wheat starter I got from a friend. I fed the starter a 1:1:1 mixture with AP flour and let it rise in a very warm room(~...
Lane's user avatar
  • 21
7 votes
3 answers
4k views

Can I use a rectangular ceramic pan instead of enameled cast iron to bake bread without losing the nice crust?

My wife has been baking sourdough bread in an enameled cast iron Dutch oven and has been getting a very nice crust. She preheats the pan and oven to 500 °F (260 °C), then puts the dough in the pan, ...
Ross Millikan's user avatar
2 votes
0 answers
307 views

Effect of ethanol concentration on bread flavor

What is the effect of ethanol concentration on bread flavor? According to this stackexchange post the majority of the ethanol produced by yeast evaporates during baking, so in theory the ethanol ...
lerner's user avatar
  • 53
1 vote
2 answers
554 views

What is this on sourdough starter?

I have a sourdough starter which I feed roughly once every 2-3 days (throw away 95% of it, refill with water and flour). Sometimes I forget and wait 5 days between feedings, and by that time it often ...
John Pardon's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
257 views

When can milk substitute for buttermilk in sourdough recipes?

I want to prepare buttermilk sourdough pancakes: One part sourdough starter Two parts flour Two parts buttermilk Sugar to taste (about a quarter part, depending on mood) The idea is to leave it ...
Corbin's user avatar
  • 113
1 vote
0 answers
71 views

Feeding my starter so that it will be ready when I need it

I have mature starter that I've been using for awhile. I'm planning on baking tomorrow, so I started to prepare the starter by leaving it at room temperature and feeding it every 12 hours yesterday ...
peteck36's user avatar
9 votes
5 answers
2k views

One time sourdough starter

Is there a way to make sourdough bread without the long term commitment of feeding a starter? My kids and I love sourdough bread, but I also work 2 jobs, so making bread is, sadly, a once in a blue ...
Donna's user avatar
  • 91
3 votes
3 answers
612 views

Why do my English muffins have such a tough crust?

I'm new to the baking of English muffins. I follow the recipe for sourdough English muffins published on YouTube by Culinary Exploration. After accounting for the 100% hydration of the starter, the ...
Brian K1LI's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
52 views

What is a good feeding schedule for a "creamy" sourdough starter?

I was given a sourdough starter from a bakery that was excellently "creamy" and had light fruity notes, as opposed to a highly acidic starter. My understanding is that a creamy starter ...
MeowBlingBling's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
126 views

Do I need more fermentation? Why my sourdough is flattened?

From a few weeks I've been trying to make sourdough. The most successful recipe for me and for the time I have I found is Easy Sourdough Bread Recipe using a stand mixer - Sourdough Lamination In the ...
developer's user avatar
1 vote
4 answers
1k views

Sourdough bread crust will not rip open

I have been baking sourdough breads for a little over a year now. I have had great successes as well as terrible failures. Lately, I had to switch the oven I am using because the one in my apartment ...
Timbo's user avatar
  • 123
12 votes
4 answers
5k views

What type of salt for sourdough bread baking?

I have a sourdough bread recipe that calls for either Real Salt or unrefined salt. I do not have either of these and I’m not sure if these salts are fine or coarse. I have Himalayan pink salt coarse ...
Phyllis's user avatar
  • 129
3 votes
0 answers
116 views

Dough loses flexibility and strength once mixed with starter and starts raising

I've watched many videos on making sourdough bread and in most of the cases it looks like the elasticity and strength of the dough is not affected by the starter. In my case, it doesn't work like that....
Chris's user avatar
  • 131
0 votes
1 answer
76 views

I get a smaller volume loaf from mixing sourdough in mixer - what am I doing wrong?

I have made my same recipe (74% hydration) of sourdough by both the stretch and fold and the Kitchenaid mixer method. I get a denser, lower volume loaf when I use the mixer, whether I refrigerate the ...
Diane Nielsen's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
692 views

Stiff vs Liquid Starter, what are the differences between hydration in a sourdough starter?

I stumbled on the concept of a stiff starter from Northwest Sourdough Baker and have kept a high hydration starter (100% hydration) since I started baking. Was wondering what notable differences do ...
Denis Tsoi's user avatar
0 votes
2 answers
564 views

Sourdough starter used too early

So I was making my sourdough starter for almost three weeks, and it still wasn’t floating in water. I used this recipe: https://www.theclevercarrot.com/2019/03/beginner-sourdough-starter-recipe/ ...
Maddie Carroll's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
110 views

Where to keep sourdough starter

I am wondering what the pros and cons are of keeping a sourdough starter inside the fridge or outside the fridge. Certainly, keeping the starter in the fridge reduces the frequency of feedings, but ...
BundaSuja's user avatar
3 votes
4 answers
9k views

Why does my sourdough loaf not get an ear

My loaves seem to have good oven spring, I think. I think that because it rises up on the sides and forms an oval sort of shape each time. My cut often expands but doesn't open up much or form an ear. ...
Jon's user avatar
  • 151
5 votes
2 answers
1k views

Sourdough bread uncooked from inside

My sourdough starter is 9 days old. Today it doubled in around 6 hours. Following this recipe, I performed following steps: I mixed 400g AP Flour, 160g starter, 230g water and 10g salt. Kneading: I ...
Laschet Jain's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
373 views

Layer of yeast on top of sourdough discard?

Most of the time when I feed my sourdough starter I find uses for the discard, but on occasion I don't have time or good ideas, so I put it in a separate jar and store it, with a tight lid, in the ...
Oded R.'s user avatar
  • 131
5 votes
1 answer
344 views

Is it safe to keep reusing a portion of old dough?

My grandma told my mum a weird process of making flatbread dough recently that she started to use. But I am not sure about it's safety at all. Initially, normal wholewheat bread dough made with ...
Sam's user avatar
  • 53
0 votes
1 answer
89 views

Does the towel touching the day 1 starter and absorbing the liquid matter?

On day 1, I’ve noticed the towel is wet. Does the towel absorbing anything from the starter ruin the starter and prevent it from reaching its desired outcome?
Kathy's user avatar
  • 1
4 votes
1 answer
469 views

How does water behave in Dutch oven baking?

Recently I made a research about how steam works in baking. I found four main functions: Steam condenses and keeps the dough surface cool, preventing the crust to form too soon, what could hinder the ...
guistoll's user avatar
0 votes
0 answers
38 views

Converting Yeast Recipe to Natural Levain [duplicate]

Like many people, I've been doing a good bit of sourdough baking during the quarantine and, like many people, I am in a state of near-constant panic that I have to use up the starter that is ...
rougon's user avatar
  • 159
1 vote
1 answer
82 views

Modifications to a sourdough recipe

I'm using this recipe, with the following ingredients: 450 grams Strong White Bread Flour 300 grams Warm Water 150 grams* Active Sourdough Starter 12 grams Sea Salt *This amount is can be adjusted ...
Michael's user avatar
  • 113
0 votes
1 answer
126 views

How Much Milk Should I add if I Already Have Butter and Sugar in my Recipe?

I am trying to create a sourdough sandwich bread loaf recipe using baker's percentages and I want to replace some of the water for milk. However, I have no idea if it will be too soft or not at the ...
Tug's user avatar
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