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Hi! I am very frustrated! 

I baked my second loaf today and got terrible results, it turned out very very dense, i'd even say gummy, and flat. I followed Tartine basic country bread recipe and here are the details for my starter (which is 3 weeks old): 

I used to feed it once a day in a 1:2:2 ratio (50g starter, 50g/50g rye and AP flour, 100g of slightly warm water) until I saw that it was capable of doubling in size. Then I switched to a 1:4:4 ratio (with 25g starter) and, since I bake once a week at most, after 2 hours after each feeding I put it in the fridge for a week until I feed it again. 

I think it's important to say that while it is capable of doubling in size and shows plenty of activity it takes a long time for that to happen, I would say 12-14 hours, though I've always thought that it's because I live in a very cold country/house, correct me if I'm wrong! please. Is that necessarily true? or does it mean that my starter is too weak still? 

Anyways, I took my starter out of the fridge the day before baking and fed it, 12 hrs after its feeding it had doubled in size as usual, so I took out 50g of it and built my levain with 40g of rye flour, 40g of AP flour and 80g warm water. I gave it 12 hrs to rise while I slept.

In the morning I saw that it had doubled and that the top was dome like, so it was still rising. Don't know if this is important but it just smelled like flour and water, and didn't have the tangy smell my starter usually has. I did the float test and it passed it without any problem.

After this I just followed the recipe and was very careful. (750g water, 900g bread flour, 100g rye flour, 20g salt) Also, between each set of stretch and folds I put the dough in a warm environment (26°C).

Everything seemed ok but I had very few bubbles on the surface of the dough. Then, when I put it in the DO for the first 20 min (lid on) I had no oven spring :( and for the rest of the time (25 min) the bread rose very little, although it browned really nicely and the crust was nice too. 

Sorry for making this so long but I wanted to give as much detail as possible. What do you think I should do? it makes me very sad lol. How can I strenghten my starter? I don't know what to do haha

I'm considering making this Danish rye bread that calls for "malt syrup": https://foodgeek.dk/en/danish-rye-bread-recipe/

I don't have "malt syrup" and I have almost no experience of malt in any way (well, apart from drinking beer :-)). But I do however actually have 1 kg of this beer rye malt: https://bestmalz.de/en/malts/distillers-malts/best-rye-malt/

I thought I could use the malt I have and exchange it for the "malt syrup". I know that "malt syrup" is most likely made of barley but I thought rye malt could be tasty as well (and I like the idea of making the bread more pure rye). Could this work and be tasty?

I assume the beer malt I have is diastatic and I need to make it Non-diastatic. How do I do that? Just roast it? 150C in the oven for 15 min or what is good?

Do I need to make a powder or can I use the whole malted berries/kernels? (I don't have a mill but I suppose I could try powder them with pestle and mortar).

The rye bread formula calls for 50 g "malt syrup", approx how many grams of my non-diastatic malt powder/berries could that correspond to?

I've been using the kd8000 baking scale for some time and really like the percentage function. However, the scale is gigantic, especially for a city apartment. 

Does anyone know of a smaller profile scale that also has this function?

Hello All,

I guess 5 or so years ago I offered on another thread to send people the plans that Alan Scott made for building ovens.  I sent the link out for years.  Then I had a couple people tell me I was infringing on copyright and they would come after me and I quit sending it.  I have looked.  You can not buy the plans any more and I can not find any where else online that you can get it.  So, I am going to leave the link in this post.  Should someone come after me again I will take it down.  I am not looking for money.  I am not selling the plans.  I am sharing that which can not be found.  The link is

https://www.dropbox.com/s/9qxc20u8xfqk3av/AlanScottOven.pdf?dl=0

That being said.  The plans will only get you so far.  I HIGHLY recommend if you want to build one on your own to purchase From The Wood Fired Oven by Richard Miscovich.  He has a couple pictures in there that are worth the price of the book.  He also has info on newer materials, like fire blankets, that are more efficient and easier to work with.  I also highly recommend The Bread Builders by Wing and Scott.  It is a slightly older book but gives details that the Alan Scott plans do not.

These ovens are possible to build even if you are not a mason.  They are not that hard.  They do take time and thought.  And they are well worth the effort.  I hope this helps.

Jani