sluggish starter
Refreshed starter as usual and built levain for baking. Temperature had dropped and activity was less than usual. Proceeded with bake 50:50 white spelt/Bf? Dough was very firm and I added extra water during bulk ferment. Dough didnt expand much during this time and even during final proof it didnt increase. As I didnt want to retard and wanted to go to bed, I baked boules anyway thinking oh well it will probably turn into a brick. I was very wrong and ended up with a much better bake than expected! Havent got a crumb shot but am staggered at oven spring.
The rest of the bake was Hamelman' s vermont with wheat. I increased the proportion
of wheat and continued with recipe. I increased autolyse to 1 hour 15, bulk ferment with stretch and fold. Shaped and did overnight retard. Got up early and turned oven as I needed to bake before I went out. Oh dea, virtually no increase jn volume! What to do? This is prebake photo
I risked it and went ahead with bake and could hardly believe my eyes. here is the result
and the crumb
I was really expecting disasters so I am not sure what went on here at all.
Complete flops but looking at your photos not too bad at all. Yes, the crumb indicates starter not up to scratch. But still a loaf of bread. What do they taste like?
How often do you bake? How many builds do you do normally? And how do you store your starter?
yes Abe I too thought complete flops but was surprised to say the least. I bake about every 10 days . Last bake on 1 Feb the starter was really active and I baked some great bread. I refrigerate the starter, do 2 refreshes before building levain. it was very slow but I decided that as it was good before maybe it was just a temperature thing (temperature dropped overnight) so proceeded with bake.
so where to now? should I bring starter out of fridge and give it a few days on the bench with regular feeds?
it is funny as I used two different starters and both were sluggish. The white firm starter is about 5 months old, the rye firm starter (offspring of white) 2-3 months old.
In pulling it out of the fridge and giving it some TLC.
When your mother starter runs low and you refresh it at what stage do you refrigerate?
and there was only a little left which I split - one half for the baking the other I refreshed, left on bench a couple of hours then refrigerated. The white I had rebuilt mid January using same methodology.
what I dont understand is why I got so much oven spring when the loaves had not proofed much, just a little. there is so much to learn!
Spelt proofs quicker than wheat. Did you factor that in? Just re-read you original post and sorry I didn't pick up on that before. Are you following a recipe?
It had been quite a while since your mother starter had a feeding. I think going back a few steps and giving it a few 12 hourly feedings then after last feed leave out till 1/4 fed and return to the fridge. Try working out an amount to keep which is not too much and top up every 2 to 3 weeks. I typically build around 150g and take a bit off each week for preferments. Every 3 weeks or so I feed mother.
Stick to 100% hydration whole rye for your mother starter. Keeps better than other flours. But more hardy. When doing builds you can easily change flours turning your preferments into the flours asked for in the recipe.
Yes, there's always more to learn. Never ending. Best of luck and let me know how things are going.
from The Sourdough baker for the spelt loaves. It was 100% spelt sourdough recipe but I did it 50:50 with bread flour as I was using up some spelt flour I had in the cupboard. I doubt I over kneaded and used stretch and fold to build dough strength. to be honest it was so firm I thought it would be a dense brick and so added extra water both after salt added and during s&f.. Dough softened a little but not hugely. I proofed in my proofing box which isn't extra warm but it has worked well in the past. There was perhaps only 20-30% rise before I slashed and baked (bed beckoned!!) as it was getting late. was I too impatient? probably yes but the dough was reacting differently than usual.
I haven't cut a spelt loaf yet so hope crumb is not a disaster.
Will nurse my starters for a few days and see how next bake goes.
Here is the crumb from the 50% spelt loaf. it is actually quite dense, still edible but it is not one of my better bakes :(
I pulled both starters from the refrigerator, sat them on the bench for an hour or so then did a rebuild using Dabrownman's method from No Muss no fuss starter. It did what it should on schedule so wonder if the sudden drop in temperature was the cause of my problem or if it was how I refreshed it. I suppose I will never know! Next time will be extra vigilant and post the results