Bread turns gummy after a few days?
Hi great folks of sourdough land. I have been baking sourdough for a year now. It has been a great learning experience and I have learnt alot especially from this forum.
Recently something very weird started happening to my sourdough. Everything was as normal but suddenly I started getting really massive and giant holes. Breads were fine out of the oven, but then it started turning gummy after a couple of days (very weird!). I had not changed anything up to that point, except for the usual difference in flour and water ratio.
At first I thought there was something wrong with my starter. I wondered whether it had turned acidic. So I reduced my starter to a small amount and started the feed process and bulk for 5 days. All seemed well, things were doubling as normal and I did a bake a couple of days ago.
The same thing happened. Giant holes, and the bread turned gummy a few days after. I am at wits end and have no idea what is going on. Please help!
Has the weather changed recently (temperature; humidity)? Have you started a new bag of flour (sometimes a not-so-fresh bag of flour will make significant changes in how the bread rises)?
Weather has remained consistent in Sunny Singapore. I don't think there is a country in the world with a more consistent temperature than Singapore... I have not changed the flour that I have used although some of the flours in the mix are a little old.
When you say the bread turns "gummy," what does that mean exactly ?
If you haven't changed your process and larger-scale external factors (i.e. the weather) haven't changed dramatically, then I am inclined to believe that the flour is the culprit, since that's usually the ingredient with the highest turnover and variability. Could just be a bad batch. But it's bizarre that only after a few days the bread becomes gummy, and not immediately upon slicing.
In fact, when I was reading over your post initially, I immediately thought of the "ropy" problem, which is caused by bacteria (Bacillus subtilis and/or Bacillus mesentericus) that are capable of tolerating extremely high temperatures. Thus, while most of the goodies that we pull out of the oven are more or less sterile, there is always lingering the possibility of "ropy" contamination. This reduces the bread crumb to a gooey, stretchy mass that, when pulled apart, looks like rope.
However, this article (http://www.journal-of-agroalimentary.ro/admin/articole/42422L16_Vol_19_1__2013_94-98.pdf) makes me doubt the "ropy" hypothesis, since sourdough should all but prevent ropy spoilage. Obviously it's not 100%, but certainly more safe than commercial yeast.
In any case, whatever the problem is, the flour is more than likely the guilty party in this trial, and I think it would be a good idea to give a different flour a try. Let us know how it turns out !
The crumb is fine when it comes out of the oven, but after 2 days or so it start to turn wet and 'gummy' (sticky). It is definitely very weird that it is fine out of the oven. This is the first time it has happened so I was stumped.
I originally thought bacteria as well but it didn't look the same (I've had it before).
The latest bake with a new flour is encouraging but I'm still getting really massive holes but no gumminess yet.... Note that this is only 75% hydration with an unbleached AP flour.
No good news I'm afraid. The crust turned out well, but the crumb is much of the same. It must be the starter now then as I can't imagine any other possibility unless something has changed with the water which I kinda doubt. For some reason it appears that whatever is causing this has also attacked the gluten as apart from being gummy, the crumb has also lost it's chewiness....
After it has been sitting for a couple days, you might want to stick it in the oven to heat it through before eating it.
Well, I cultured a new starter this whole week and this is the first bake:
Everything looks back to normal at 80% hydration. I am still curious what caused the initial gumminess in the crumb?