Help!! PPPLLLEEEAAASSSEEE
Hi. I'm in desperate need of a little help. At the beginning of this year I went a little bread baking crazy and decided to finally try my hand at sourdough. I chose the procedure in Peter Reinhart's Artisan Breads Every Day and had success for about 2 months. Beautiful plump loaves(tho not so much in the sour flavor). I really love the cold fermentation process and the 3 days he outlines to produce the bread fit in perfectly with my schedule. After 2 months, tho, life got hectic as it can and I was not baking but still refreshing my mother starter every week for about 3 weeks, then boom, my mother starter quit, just lay there not rising. Not knowing any better I threw her away and began again. Everything went great including the first batch of bread(which had a sour tang. YIPPEE), but when I refreshed it the first time, I accidentally threw in KA bread flour instead of the WW that I had been using. I've been having issues since.
My mother starter didn't rise after the bread flour and I was on the verge of tossing it and starting over AGAIN when I decided to do a little research and discovered I could revive her on the counter with twice daily feedings. Worked beautifully. Converted it back to a mother starter. Success. Went to make the dough starter and....nothing. No rise. Forged on faithfully and the bread stayed flat. Tossed it. Tried again. Got about a 25% rise out of the second dough starter after 12 hours and about a 25% rise out of the bread.
Has anyone encountered this problem? I don't want to have to start over again especially when my mother starter is doing what it's supposed to. I'd really appreciate any wisdom that might help.
Thank You!!!
Comments
Can't say I've had the same issue before but I suggest you try building your levain for your recipe in 2 stages. Figure out the total amount of flour and water you need to make your final levain and just do it in 2 steps. Make sure after each step you get a good rise and the starter is nice and bubbly.
Is your starter generally stored in the refrigerator or out on the counter? Are you building a levain with which to make your dough or adding starter directly - recently fed or hungry? Refrigerator temps give advantage to the LAB's over the yeasts, so over time, the balance can shift and have an effect on performance. It's correctable, though.
I'm with Ian, building a levain should demonstrate to you that it's ready to raise dough. Best of luck! Let us know how it goes,
Cathy
can but doesn't usually kill a starter, water on the other hand, if chlorinated can. I have a habit of having a standing pitcher of water in my kitchen letting the water stand 24 hrs before using.
Take some of the starter that rises only 25% and watch it at room temperature. What you want to do is after feeding it, watch it until it peaks, and levels out and just starts to deflate or fall down, then feed it again. With each feed, and waiting until it starts to deflate before feeding, you are boosting the starter yeast numbers. Gradually the time it takes to peak will take less time and it will be rising higher. Use it in a recipe when it is peaking or at maximum activity.
Many details in feeding the starter have not been mentioned and there could be suggestions or improvements to be made if you shared your starter maintenance with us.
Thank you all for getting back to me.
My mother is stored in the fridge and I build the levains off of it according to the recipe in ABED. Same recipe every time. 2oz mother, 8oz bread flour, 5oz water. I rise it in the oven(if available) with the light on or on my bread box under a light for 8 to 12 hrs. At this point it has generally doubled and into the fridge it goes until the next morning.
I always use room temp filtered water.
Rebuilding my mother is also always according to ABED. 4oz mother, 12oz WW flour, 5oz water. I let is rise on oven or on bread box under light for 8 to 12 hrs until double and then refridgerate. I do this every 6 days or when low.
This method has worked well for me on at least 30 occasions, so I'm not sure where the issue is other than having accidentally added in bread flour to refresh my mother. Am forging ahead tho, have dough that will bake today, dough for tomorrow and a levain for dough tomorrow. Am hoping this was just a hiccup.
Will let you know how it all goes.
Keeping the old fingers crossed!!
Again thanks for the responses and any more tips and suggestion are greatly appreciated.
And is it warmer now than in previous weeks when the bakes were successful?
It is possible that the mother, or the levain, or the dough, or all three, are fermenting faster in warmer temperatures than they were previously, leaving little or no leavening capacity. If so, you could shorten the fermentation times or use cooler ingredients or a cooler location to slow down the fermentation.
Paul
I keep my house at 70 during my bread baking hours, but sometimes I also have something cooking on the stove for extended periods of time. This I do randomly so for the bread that has worked the temp varies some and also for the bread that hasn't. I generally try to rise my dough in the oven with the light on, but it's not always available.
Rye flour! My personal experience...while a lot less than some of those here...has been that rye flour is extremely lively. I barely use my wheat starter anymore although I do feed it occasionally when it behaves..ha ha....but seriously....since starting a rye mother it has been my go to starter for everything. You can build to whatever type of flour is predominant in your bread. I have yet to have a failure using it.
A good place to rise your dough providing you have one...is in the microwave with a boiled cup of water. I periodically reboil the water to keep it warm and moist.
Again this is my experience and your mileage still may vary. Hope this helps.
Wendy
Had some success with yesterday's bread. Gave it a longer proofing time after shaping. It could have used longer, so am trying that today. I also used WW to build the levain instead of bread flour. Went back to the bread flour for the levain for today's bread. We'll see how it goes(had a picture of yesterday's bread but when I tried to upload it, I only got options for web images. ???).
Have also taken some of my mother and will try the 2x daily counter feedings(after 4 days in fridge after refreshing, my mother is losing her smell. Will keep her around for awhile yet, tho) to see if I can build a stronger mother.