June 29, 2018 - 5:08pm
Sourdough beginner
Been having a difficult time making a good sourdough bread. Made a wild yeasts starter 5 days old. Very active.
I used the following recipe:
Sour dough Starter & Bread
Day 1
- 50 grams of wheat flour
- 50 grams water
12 hours later
- 50 grams of wheat flour
- 50 grams water
For the next 5 to 7 days
- 50 grams of wheat flour
- 50 grams water
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Sour dough bread 2 loaves
- 600 g bread flour
- 200 g whole wheat flour
- 460 g water
- 10 g salt
- 320 g starter
- Mix ingredients together
- Dump out on table and need or use mixer and dough hook
- Mix until window pane effect
- Oil on hands to handle dough
- Place dough in bowl and proof 3 hours in oven with light on
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- Knock dough back takeing all the air out
- Roll into a ball
- Shape dough to what you want using a basket or bowl
- Overlap bottom to tighten surface
- Into flowered basket or Pyrex dish
- Proof for 3 hours, can also go in fridge over night if you like
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- Dough should have a bounce to it when tapped
- Get baking for water/steam
- Split dough in half
- Score bread
- Bake at 450 F for 30 to 35 minutes
the dough never really raised in the first 3 hours. Once I split dough and proofed in stoneware loaf pans again only raised very little and baked for 35 minutes inside temp of 202 F. Bread looked good but not lofty at all. The starter was very active to the point it had overflowed overnight the morning of the bake.
I don't inderstand hydration levels but I kneeded the dough until I had the window pane effect.
Any ideas where I am going wrong?
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5 days is a very young starter, with possibly higher nos of lactobacilli than yeast. you need the yeast population good and strong to leaven your bread. Keep feeding for a few more days and once it is reliably doubling within 6-8 hours try again.
Thanks I will continue the care and feeding of my starter.
Question, I read something about Rye added to the wheat starter I have would help mature the starter. Is that true or should I just keep using wheat flour?
rye is really good to get your starter going as it has a greater population of lactobacilli and yeast than white flour. It won’t hurt to add some. you already are using wholewheat (which is better than white flour) so up to you. After initial starting phase my starter is all white flour although I do also have a all rye one. You only need to have one though.
Leslie
Yes I read the same. I just wasn’t sure if I add it to wheat starter or make a rye only starter. Sounds like a separate starter is needed and just use a little from it. Is that correct?
Think about feeding your starter with the same flour, in the same ratio, that you are baking with.
Do you lose patience during proof time? Three hours may not be enough, especially if your kitchen is cold. Aim to double the size of the loaf.
I have been using the same dough. Does this mean I will need to make more than one starter one for wheat and another for white and if I want rye I would yet have to make a rye starter?
Actually the proof time started at 3 hours and when I noticed that there was very little rise I left it also envisions for 2 more hours. So the first proofing was 5 hours and the 2nd was 3 hours then bake. I kept the dough in the oven with light on and it was 78 degrees during both proofing. Yes my goal is to double the volume.
Do you have any comments on me using a stoneware loaf pan? I have read that constricting the dough in the oven with the walls of the loaf pan plays with the bread in some way vs. baking directly on a stone in the oven?
Thanks
And can be used to build off shoot starters built to different specifications.
Simply take a little stater and start feeding it with the hydration and flour you want for a certain recipe.
so let’s say I have a mature starter and want to make sourdough rye bread how many days would I have to feed the offshoot starter for it to be considered a rye starter or maybe I am thinking this thing to much.
And you prefer a couple or more feeds to bring it up to strength then a day or two before.
If it hasn't been too long since it's last feed and all you need is a mature rye starter to go then 12 hours before.
If you're a purist and want a 100% rye starter then you'll need a few feeds.
If you're not bothered and it hasn't been too long since the last feed then simply start off with a small percentage of starter and give it a big feed with water and rye flour then you're ready to start the recipe once it matures.
When a starter is viable a little will inoculate a lot. Even just 1% starter. So simply wait until ready after it has been fed.
It really is quite flexible.
If the starter percentage in the recipe is small then some don't even bother converting. So what I there is 20g of bread flour (within the starter) in a recipe of 500g spelt.
But if you haven't even baked with starter yet then this is all theory and might be confusing till you do so.
Thanks so much to learn about sourdough but the payback can’t be beat in my opinion. This is a great site with fantastic resources. Thank you all
I believe I found a new passion!
Sourdough bagles next :)
Can't wait to see the results. It is addictive :)