Sourdough not rising during bulk ferment
Hey all!
I have seen this question posted many times and have scoured all the responses, but none of them seem to be quite the answer to my particular problem.
I just began making sourdough bread and have had my starter going for about a month now. It is rising (doubling in size, sometimes tripling) and falling consistently. I feed it every 24 hours with 50g starter, 50g AP flour, and 50g water.
This weekend I tried to make a loaf of sourdough (my second attempt so far). I made an offshoot of my starter 9 hours before making the dough. It had 15g of starter, 40g AP flour, 10g WW flour, and 50g water at 90 degrees F. 9-10 hours later it had risen nicely and was full of bubbles so I formed my dough:
115g levain, 400g AP flour, 100g WW flour, 335g water @ 90 degrees F, and 11g salt.
I mixed the dough, let it rest for 30 minutes, then folded it several times in the bowl so no additional flour would need to be added. The recipe I used called for the dough to bulk ferment for 4 hours at room temp. So I let it do that. 4 hours later, the dough had barely risen and was basically exactly the same as before. I left it in the microwave with a cup of hot water overnight. The next morning it still had barely risen. I decided to try leaving it at room temp again, but gave it 4 folds every hour. The dough is now starting to form bubbles, so I know there is activity and the yeast is doing something, but the dough is still not rising and does not pass the float test. I am so frustrated as I have NO idea what I'm doing wrong.
Help me fresh loaf community, you're my only hope!
"I feed it every 24 hours with 50g starter, 50g AP flour, and 50g water"
...and is it kept at room temperature?
Yes. Between 70-78 degrees F. I did put it in the fridge for a week, but I took it out 3 days before I was going to bake my bread. On its first feed out of the fridge it doubled in size and passed the float test within 24 hours.
And at 70-78°F your starter should mature and pass the float test within 4-6 hours. Then leaving it for a further 18-20 hours will starve your starter. I bet here lies the problem.
Best thing to do is to get your starter nice and healthy again with a few good feeds and then try again.
How about a few 12 hourly feeds of:
Your starter should easily peak by the time it comes to the next feed. If not then something is up and don't feed again till it does so. Once you've got a few of these feeds done and it's rising on cue then try again using the starter when it comes to the next feed.
Ahhh ok. I will try this! Thank you!
you mention that it took your starter 9h to peak. Your starter is hydrated at 100%, while your dough has a hydration under 70%. All else being equal, your dough will ferment slower than the starter. And it is not only the hydration: you use 1 part ferment to 1 part flour in the starter, but in the dough, the proportion is almost 1 to 5, so that also slows things down, again compared with the starter. My starter, if fed 1:1:1, should peak in less than 5h. I use 20% starter in the dough, hydrated at 75% - 80% and usually bulk for 5h at 26C. Hope that gives you some parameters to decide upon the amounts and times of fermentation.
You are not giving it much to eat, and you’re giving it a very long time to eat very little. I feed my guys 2-3 times/day, and that’s 20g water, 20g flour, 6g starter. I also keep it at 76-77 degrees.
What do you feed it before you bake with it? 46g seems like very little to bake with.