Help!  I must have added my proofed yeast to scalded milk that was still too hot.  It hasn't risen after 2 hours.  (This is a rye bread, so it always takes longer to rise, but this is ridiculous)  Is there anything I can do to rescue the dough?

I mixed the focaccia dough at around noon. It was around 25C in the kitchen. The dough hadn't even budged by 5:00pm. Still no sign of any rising by 6:00. So I decided to cut the dough into 8 pieces and try making pitas. As I rolled out the discs, I wracked my brains trying to think what was different.

1. I had rehydrated the yeast with cold water. That shouldn't have been a problem. It was plenty warm enough in the kitchen
2. I had added leftover sludge after feeding the wild yeast. That shouldn't have been a problem. It wasn't that acidic. In fact there was no sour taste to the dough at all.
3. Maybe I had added too much salt. I don't think so. It didn't taste too salty.
4. I had added malt to the yeast. No, if anything that would have helped rather than inhibited the rise.
5. The flour is relatively new. If at least 4 loaves of bread hadn't been made from that bag of flour, I'd have blamed the flour.

The next morning, my husband found a little dish of creamy looking water on top of the stove. There were a few fruit flies doing the breast stroke in it. The liquid smelled faintly of apples. And THAT'S why my focaccia dough refused to rise. I forgot to add the yeasted water to the dough! Quel moron. Hmmmm, if there was no yeast in the dough, these can't really be called "pitas", can they? I think they have to be considered as "chapatis" because they are yeast-free.

• recipe for how NOT to make rosemary focaccia
• recipes for flatbread, including pitas and focaccia

Hello All,

This is my first post and my first natural yeast starter. I spent a good few hours reading all the posts to make sure I had a good understanding of what to do before I began. I was excited about the idea of making my own natural yeast starter, but unfortunately, it has not turned out as I had hoped. It has been a full week now since I began, and I have yet to get a rise out of my starter. Below I will explain in detail the process that I used.

Thursday- The beginning

I decided to begin my starter with canned pineapple juice in an attempt to prevent bacteria formation that causes false starts for many people. I thought I was playing it safe, but perhaps I should have stuck with plain old water. I also used Arrowhead Mills stone milled organic wheat flour. I used 1/4 cup pineapple juice and slightly less than 1/2 cup flour. I eyeballed the flour measurement, but I did spoon the flour into the cup rather than use the dipping-into-the-bag method.

Friday-

Morning. No activity in the starter. I scooped out 3/4 of the starter and repeated the same process as the day before (1/4 cup pineapple juice and a scant 1/2 cup of wheat flour). I mixed the juice in first, stirred vigorously, added the flour, and stirred vigorously

Mid afternoon vigorous stir.

Evening. Same steps as morning (keep 1/4 of previous starter, 1/4 cup pineapple juice and a scant 1/2 cup of wheat flour)

Saturday-

Morning. I saw a few tiny bubbles, but not enough to declare life yet. I had exhausted my supply of pineapple juice, so I switched to water. Everything else remained the same (1/4 cup water and a scant 1/2 cup of wheat flour)

Mid afternoon vigorous stir.

Evening. I saw more bubbles, so I switched to feeding it with white flour (1/4 cup of water and a scant 1/2 cup of white flour). I stirred the starter before bed.

Sunday-

Morning. I saw the same amount of bubbles as the night before. I did everything as before (keep 1/4 starter, add 1/4 cup water and a scant 1/2 cup white flower).

Mid afternoon vigorous stir.

Evening. It still had the same amount of bubbles as Saturday evening, so I thought something must be slowing its progress. I thought it could be the temperature (which is 70-75 degrees at my place), so I placed the starter near the vent of my computer for gentle heating. I have an electric oven that has no light inside, so using the oven as a way to warm it was out. I kept the rest of the process the same. I also stirred the starter before bed.

Monday-

Morning. I was pleased to notice that the bubbles were a little bit larger, but unfortunately there was no rise. I repeated the usual process (keep 1/4 starter, add 1/4 cup water and a scant 1/2 cup white flower), but this time I placed it on a heating pad that I use for my muscles after a long run. It was on the low setting (90 degrees) and auto-shuts off after 45 minutes.

At the mid-afternoon vigorous stir I noticed a tiny amount of hooch. There were a few bubbles on the top about the size of small peas, but otherwise no rise.

Evening. There were a few small bubbles, but otherwise less activity than at the mid-afternoon stir. I repeated the usual process (keep 1/4 starter, add 1/4 cup water and a scant 1/2 cup white flower) and placed it back on the heating pad on the low setting. When I went to bed, I turned the heating pad back on and stirred.

Tuesday-

Morning. Small pea sized bubbles and a tiny amount of hooch. I repeated the usual process (keep 1/4 starter, add 1/4 cup water and a scant 1/2 cup white flower) and placed it back on the heating pad on the low setting.

Mid-afternoon stir. Same pea sized bubbles with a tiny amount of hooch but still no rise at all.

Evening. I decided that perhaps I wasn’t feeding it enough or maybe I wasn’t specific enough on the measurements, so I got out my kitchen scale. I kept 2 tablespoons of the starter and added 3 oz of water and 3 oz of white flour. I placed the starter back on the heating pad and stirred before I went to bed.

Wednesday- Today

Morning. Still the same old pea sized bubbles but no hooch. I repeated the process that I did the night before with adding 3 oz of water and 3 oz of white flour to 2 tablespoons of starter.

So this is where I am today. I still have not gotten a rise out of the starter that I began a week ago. The batter smells lightly sour and yeasty, but it is a pretty light smell. Then I thought today, perhaps it is the water? I checked out the chloramine levels in the District of Columbia (where I live) and the water authority says that they vary between 3-3.7 milligrams per liter of water. I will try bottled water today and see if that helps. Can anyone think of anything else that I might be doing wrong? I’m hoping that I won’t have to give up on this starter.

Thanks for all your advice guys!

-Danny

I have just recently got into sourdough bread. I have had great success with the no knead method but when i try to make a traditional loaf my second rise never seems to have much lift. Is this normal? My starter is quite healthy. It is not liquid like some ive seen on this site but rather a thick pancake batter like consistancy. I purchased it from KA. It does have bubbles too. Also wondering how do you get a ww starter going? Im sure its on this site somewhere i just cant find it.