Hello Everyone.

I am starting a sourdough starter again since my old one "die" due to several problems.  Anyway, I choose the "pineapple juice "formular of the "sourdo lady".  It is now on it 8 days and doing poorly.  On the 4 days it double and I was very excited that it is on its way to maturity.  After that day it went down hill and now appear "puffy" but never rise!  I religiously follow the instructions.  What is wrong?  I use rye flour which I just bought from the Natural foods store .  Please, please help.

mantana

How to tell if a sourdough starter is still alive? If a sourdough starter is dead, is there anyway to rescue it? What happen if use dead sourdough starter in bread?

Once I've made a starter how long should I keep it before trying to bake with it? Does it continue to get more sour with age? MY AIM IS TO BAKE A REALLY SOUR LOAF...

I could not be much newer at this... I'm seeking two things:

1. VERY SOUR tasting results.

2. The simplest recipes.

Could I be asking too much? Is there hope for me?! !... I'm willing to learn... My baking history consists of a cookie mix that came in a cardboard container from the freezer dept. of the local Piggly Wiggly [?]... Oh yeah.. I did a few potatoes once too but if I recall correctly I ended up burying them in my back yard.... {late at night too}... I guess it's also worth mentioning that in the divorce papers I was served, my kitchen antics were a key factor in chasing the little woman from my loving embrace... {Have you ever tried reading fine print when your glasses are all clouded with flour powder?... And you're up to your arm pits in dough that is heavier than you can lift?}... A nasty rumor has found it's way to me as well... According to a recent ruling by the courts I'm not allowed to bake within 500 feet of my former wife......

I remain, your humble and curious student..

Boathook1

I am new to sourdough.  I ordered a starter from sourdo.com, it is from New Zealand.  I think it is doing fine, it looks and smells good.  I keep it on the counter all the time instead of in the fridge so there is no getting back activated.  I feed it twice a day, at 6:30 in the morning and 6:30 in the evening.  a couple of hours after I feed it, it bubbles up a couple of inches just like it is supposed to.  My question is - when is the best time to use it?  before I feed it? after I feed it, if so, how long should I wait?   I made muffins yesterday, I used starter that was bubbling.  as soon as I added the flour to my bowl it went flat and the muffins were like little rocks.   I tried making cinnamon rolls the day before with some dough that I let set out and rise overnight - they were like rocks.  So what am I doing wrong?   I'm not feeding it the same amount of flour/water as the amount of starter I have (because the starter in the jar is probably about 8 cups) - I feed it about 2 cups of flour/water twice a day, throwing some out every few days when I see it starting to accumulate.

I'm starting to get frustrated, so any advice would be appreciated.

I am new to this website, and I may be posting this in the wrong place.  If so, would someone please help me.

I have a sourdough starter that I received from a friend in California, it traveled back accross the country with me to Georgia.  I have tried to refresh it a few times, and I tried to make a pizza dough with a recipe my friend sent me, and I seemed to have failed.

The starter has now been in my fridge, untouched for almost a month.  I would really like to refresh it and form a better relationship with it, but I need some help.  Can anyone tell me if this is a lost cause, or if there is still hope for my dream of making a decent loaf of bread one day?!

Folliwing Dan DiMuzio's guidance (and others) re creating a more sour levain I prepared a 500g, 50% hydration levain, and then fed it every 12 hours for two and a half days. I maintained it at 55°F, in our wine closet, thoroughout. Subsequently, I used DiMuzio's Pain au Levain (firm starter: 480g, 60%) formula with two changes. 1. The aforementioned 50% hydrated levain vs. the formula's 60% levain; and, 2. I encreased the whole-wheat flour percentage to 20% vs. the formula's 10%. Yes, I knew the increased whole wheat flour content would alter the flavor, but I reasoned the whole-wheat alteration wouldn't effect the sour component of the finished bread. My objectives were threefold. Maintain the same excellent ovenspring with the stiffer levain as I've been experiencing with the 60% hydrated levain. Increase the perceived sourness in the flavor profile. Finally, I wanted to practice batard shaping and scoring, a shape I haven't made very often. Except for the batard shaping, as nearly as possible, I replicated all the mixing, bulk fementation, final proof, and baking steps I've used before baking the basic formula.

Just for fun, while the stiff levain was fermenting after its final feeding, I used the 250g of levain that would otherwise been discarded to make a single, all white flower batard.

The results of both bakes are shown in the photos.

As hoped for, the pain au levain is distinctively sour, but not to the extent of many of the commercial San Francisco sourdoughs I've tasted. The ovenspring was preserved, and I'm satisfied with my batard shaping and scoring.

The leftover starter loaf.

and its crumb--closed more than usual.

David G

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

Last week's result

Yesterday's result

Using Daniel DiMuzio's guidance, both from his latest book "bread baking, An Artisan's Perspective", and following his posting here on TFL,  I've been working with two different sourdough starters,from different sources. One contributes flavor much to our tastes for sourness, but disappointing in proofing times, and lacking in oven spring, and a second starter that has been phenomenal in yeast activity, i.e., proofing and oven spring, but dissapointing in our preferred sourness. Both starters are maintained in the refrigerator at 100% hydration.

Last week, using Daniel DiMuzio's pain au levain formula with firm levain (480g ripe firm levain, 700g total flour, 68% hydration) I built my firm levain at room temperature (76°F) from the first sourdough starter with three builds, spaced approximately 8 hours apart, gradually increasing the mass three times each build, and, simutaneously, reducing its hydration by one-third each build. DiMuzio's formula calls for a pre-ferment 60% hydration, I chose to match the dough target hydration, 68%, because I wanted to keep the build as wet as possible during its ripening hopefully favoring yeast development. I visually checked its progress and fed it its scheduled builds based on observable peaks; nevertheless, the build interval was nearly eight hours each time.

Expect for using all white flour, I followed Dan DiMuzio's formula exactly. I mixed the dough in my stand mixer for five minutes, allowed it to rest 30 minutes, and bulk fremented it with three stretch and folds spaced at 45 minute intervals. Doubling took approximately, three hours after the final stretch and fold. I shaped two boules (one 1-1/2 lb, one 2 lb); proofing took 2 and 1/2 hour. I baked the loave at 480°F, covered, with steam, for the first ten minutes, reduced the oven temperature to 450°F, uncovered the loaves and baked for another fifteen minutes until internal temperature was 206°-208°F.

The results were very gratifying. The proof times were nominal, compared to most sourdough recipes I've read or tried, and the oven spring was adequate, attested by first photo. I didn't get a photo of the crumb; it was close but light and airy, not dense; and the flavor was delightful to our palletes.

For three days immediately prior to yesterday I've been caring for a firm levain, built from the second starter (great yeast activity, disappointing sourness). Starting with 50g of seed starter, I added sufficient flour to immediately reduce its hydration to 65%, subsequently I fed it, approximately, every eight hours, maintaining its 65% hydration, ending early yeasterday morning with 480g of ripe firm levain. My goal, of course, had been to favor bacterial growth, as Dan suggests, over the extended build period.

I made the dough, shaped and baked the loaves as identically as possible to the first starter test. Proof times were, as expected shorter: 2 hours, and 1 and 1/2 hours respectively.

The results were equally gratifying, The levain retained its previous yeast activity, and the level of sourness we hoped for was achieved. The crumb is nearly identical (perhaps a little more open) compared to the first starter's loaves. The first two loaves are history, so I couldn't do a side by side comparison.

For sourdough, I'm satisfied, for now, with the three step build (increase/decrease by thirds from seed mass and hydration) I'm using, so I don't think I'll do anything with the first starter. On the other hand, I'm considering ways to improve the second starter's bacterial contribution to flavor, but ultimately regain its maintenance hydration, and the ability to build a ripe levain in one day. I suppose the most obvious thing is repeat the three day firm levain build, and then use my twenty-four hour three-build modification back to maintenance hydration. Waiting is...

If I transport some of my sourdough starter to a different state (locale), will it retain the same mix of bacteria and yeast?

--Pamela

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 sourdough culture in my fridge, but I was just curious and it wasn't expensive or heavy, so I just added it to my major purchases of flours, vital gluten, dried fruits, grains, etc. It's a 100g package (say, 3oz or so) but has no included information on how to use it. I searched the web-site of the company that produced it [Tomizawa] for more info and they were completely silent about its use, as well. I suppose it must be explained in some Japanese baking books that are WAY beyond my meagre Japanese reading skills.

On the label it's called "whole sour" and then, in parentheses, it says "sour seed" in Kanji (Chinese) characters. The label says it contains rye flour, wheat flour and whey (powder) but there's no mention of proportions. The recommended 'Use-by' date is approaching...

I've been baking 'New York Style' light rye bread successfully for years (without sourdough starter, mostly from bread machine recipes) but the main reason I started my first sourdough culture (with pineapple juice and rye flour) was eventually to bake real 'Bauernbrot' rye bread at home. (I'm not quite skilled enough to do that yet.)

I'm wondering what to do with this stuff. Does it need special care and feeding? Does it need milk instead of water or fruit juice? Is there really such a thing as a 'rye starter' as opposed to a regular 'wild yeast' starter? I have a respectable bread-baking library here at home, but my problems are more of the 'information-overload' kind...too much advice, quite a lot of it conflicting, and almost none of it relevant to the brutal Japanese climate I'm living in! (We're actually having a beautiful Spring this year--almost like Autumn weather--warm days and cool nights. I shouldn't complain...)

I apologize if this sounds like a 'rant' or if there are too many questions, but I'd appreciate any advice about this starter mix. I also want to thank Floyd and all the contributors to this great bakers' resource!

Best to all,

copyu