The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

I think I messed up :(

tnjoann's picture
tnjoann

I think I messed up :(

Well my english muffin bread turned out very well so this morning I wanted to try a basic white sourdough bread.  Following the suggestions in my last post (Thank You Again to all who helped me) http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/31693/help-activating-dry-starter#comment-241166 I tried the "First Loaf"  located http://www.northwestsourdough.com/techniques/first-loaf/  

I noted that the recipe said "1 cup of vigorous starter at 166% hydration - 9 oz (1 part flour volume to 1 part water volume) "

I thought my starter was 100%

Ahah!  I think I just figured it out...... but I will finish my post any way to be sure I have it right

I feed my starter 1/2 it's weight in flour and 1/2 it's weight in water so I think my problem is this starter called for starter that was measured by volume which would make it more liquid.... right?  So my dough was too dry because the starter was less liquid than the recipe called for?? 

 

I noticed that the dough was really dry (I am used to making bread with yeast) and it handled  as though it had too much flour even though I converted and measured everything in the recipe by grams except the oil which was 2 teaspoons and I measured it in a little measuring cup for small amounts of liquids.

I finished up and went back over my recipe and double checked to make sure I added everythig correctly .

This is what it looked like when it was time to let it rise for 5 hours.

 

wayne on FLUKE's picture
wayne on FLUKE

I like the recipe for 100% starter (Basic White) on northwestsourdough. I make it both all white, and with some whole wheat.

http://www.northwestsourdough.com/discover/?p=1174

I bake it it my Romertopf clay baker. Have one in final proof right now.

The fact that volume was used in the recipe does not affect the hydration. The recipe you made called for a more liquid starter.

If you want to make sourdough recipes for starters with different hydrations that you normally maintain, just change your last feeding to convert the starter hydration to what you need.

wayne

tnjoann's picture
tnjoann

Thank You Wayne!  I checked out that recipe and it sounds good.  I'll try it next.

I am very new to sourdough/starters etc so I read the part about equal parts by volume and mistook it for the way I was feeding my starter equal parts by weight.  I guess I just focused on the equal parts part and didn't notice the word volume until I was typing up my post to ask for help in identifying the problem.    .......  I am learning though :)

ETA  Oh and having lots of fun as I learn too!