Your malt bread looks good, see all those pretty holes? I too was having problems with sourdough but bwraith's method is very helpful. And 'sour'dough is naturally sour, ya? But if you increase the ratio to make the starter more active (like 1:4:5) and/or increase the ambient temperature as I did lately the sourness does decrease.  (I would rather have a little more sour so I need to let my starter do . . ? ) Good luck. P.S. My slashing needs improvement too.  Anet 

Thank you for your encouragement, Anet. I'm not quite ready to pack it in but the experiments will get farther and farther apart if I keep producing sour bread. I can eat it but my husband really doesn't care for sour bread. We only have so much room in our small freezer.

Today, we are having stovetop dressing made from one of the overly sour loaves that were supposed to be served on Christmas Day.

I just don't believe that sourdough has to be naturally sour! I don't even want to call it sourdough but want to consider the starter simply as a locally captured leavener. My goal is that our wildyeast starter will produce nutty tasting loaves rather than sour ones.

-Elizabeth

Malt will also effect the enzyme activity in the bread as long as it is diastatic. Non-diastatic malt will only effect the sweetness of it. Sourdough doesn't need to be real sour. I would suggest increasing the temperature at which the starter ferments, and this will also change the time required before the next feed. Also, the wheat has natural sugars in it that are awaiting to be actualized by fermentation management. It would be a shame to utilize external sugars instead of bringing out the character of the grain.

It is most definitely possible to make un-sour wild yeast bread! Just think of all that lovely french levain bread; not sour at all.

Believe me, I know exactly what you're experiencing; I went through a spate of inedibly sour pancakes for months. The thing that turned it around for me was converting to a firm starter (look for zolablue's thread on that if you're interested), though lots of folks here do fine with more liquid type starters. The other big help was a posting by mariana about Calvel's 100% french sourdough. I don't know that there's anything magic about that recipe, it just seems to work for me, and has become the basis for most sourdoughs that I make now.

You should definitely follow bwraith's instructions, they really do help a hugely!

And remember, there's nothing wrong with a little commercial yeast spike. Frankly, at this time of year it's hard to do without if your kitchen sits at 50-60 degrees most of the time!

Hang in there!

edh

It is definitely possible to make natural yeast bread which isn't sour.  Adding sweetners like malt will create sweet and sour bread, not un-sour bread.  You need to change how long  you ferment and proof your dough.  Increase the percentage of starter you use at each stage, and ferment/proof for shorter time.  A bread with 33% starter will rise faster and be less sour than the same dough made of 14% starter.  Also, use the starter at its "peak", not longer.  After starter peaks it turns more and more sour.