December 7, 2009 - 8:54pm
Why is my sourdough bread not rising any more?
I've been baking whole wheat sourdough bread with a starter I made 3 years ago. It seems that in the beginning, I struggled to get a lighter loaf, but after a few months it started rising beautifully. Now, suddenly, my bread is heavy and dense. It just won't rise like it used to. Any suggestions?
3 c. starter
5 c. water
4 t. salt
~12 c. whole wheat flour
I always replenish a half cup of starter with about 1 c. water and 1 1/2 c. whole wheat flour.
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Add a small amount of rye flour, 5% or so, to the whole wheat flour in the replenishment. Rye flour will give that starter a boost because it has a lot ingredients that help. You might also use less water and thicken the starter by lowering the hydration of your starter. Try around 3/4C to begin with and add water a TBS at a time to get a thick paste. The hydration level of your starter may be enabling the yeast beasts to consume all their food before you use your starter.
There are a lot of threads that can help you out. Click on forum at the top of the page and look for the sourdough and starters section. You could spend a day there and you'll know more than you ever expected to at the end of the day.
What has helped my sourdough bread is that I give it a fresh feed before starting to bake bread. A la Hammelman....I feed my starter, it sits for about 12 hours, then I make my first build...this sits for about 12 hours, then I start my bread with this first build. This has helped a lot. I don't start sourdough breads with starter that has been sitting in the fridge; I only use freshly fed starter.