Help! My dough became a batter?
I'm cultivating a new sourdough starter, and today is the 2nd day.
As I did not want to waste the discard, I thought of putting it to good use and bake up a loaf of bread.
This was the recipe I followed:
- 85 grams STARTER
- 460 grams BREAD FLOUR
- 367 grams WATER (90-95ºF)
- 10 grams RAW CACAO POWDER
- 7 grams KOSHER SALT
- 40 grams RAISINS (SOAKED FOR 30 MINUTES)
Stir in the unfed starter and water in a bowl. Once the starter has been evenly distributed in the water add the bread flour and cacao powder. Cover the bowl with a kitchen towel or plastic wrap and let sit for one hour.
2. Add the soaked and drained raisins and kosher salt to the mixture in the bowl. Combine the dough using a wet hand and folding the dough over from the bottom to top. Then Ken Forkish employs what he calls the “pincer” method to make sure all the ingredients are fully incorporated. Imagining your hand as a lobster claw (my description), cut through the dough pinching a few times, mixing, then pinching again.
3. Pick up one portion of the dough (without taking it out of the bowl) and fold it over. Repeat this folding step a few times, inverting the dough with the folds at the bottom of the bowl when done. This stretch-and-fold step should be done every thirty minutes, three or four times over the course of two hours. After the final stretch-and-fold, cover the bowl with a towel or plastic wrap to for bulk fermentation.
I kneaded my dough for 5 minutes on medium-low speed in my stand mixer after step 2.
I was SHOCKED to see that the dough became a batter, totally unsalvageable :(
What could have caused it? I don't think it was over-kneading, as it was only in the mixer for 5 mins.
Could it have been due to the starter? It smelled acidic when I took it out, an.d had a watery (pourable consistency).
Probably going to fry them up to make pancakes, can't see much use for the batter at this point of time..
added into the dough. For one, it isn't a sourdough starter yet at only two days old and I see no yeast in the recipe which might have made a difference.
More detail needed on the starter.
"It smelled acidic when I took it out." Out of where?
If it is a newly started only two days into a flour and water mixture for growing into a sourdough starter, I would not taste, cook or eat it. All kinds of enzymes and bacteria are sorting themselves out and discards should be thrown away into the compost until the bacteria and yeast are showing themselves worthy of raising a loaf.
The dough mixture could be slightly above 81% hydration if starter is equal weight flour and water. That is pretty wet dough. Sound right now like more flour, salt and yeast are needed. But first tell about the starter.
Perhaps the bubbling in the starter is not yeast then..
It is a 2-day old starter, made with equal parts water and AP flour. It emits an acidic smell from the glass jar. Should I be worried considering it is only the second day?
is usually bacterial activity and not the good kind. But part of a chain of events that has to happen. In the next few days the stuff will quiet down as the acid increases. Other bacteria come into play and dominate squelching the bad bacteria if they are not fed too much flour. Then the yeasts find their nitch and start populating the mixture making it smell different and thicker bubbles will form. What recipe are you following?
I would take a 50g sample and ditch the rest of the dough. Put sample into a cage (clean jar) to cover and watch. Don't feed it for a few days and see what it does. When you do feed it, just add flour and water daily to it and don't discard. About 20 g of each. If it rises a little, discard down to 20g and feed. (Equal parts starter, water and flour). You can race the both of them side by side.
What's the starter temperature? Rough location?
The temperature is around 29 degrees celcius. I live in a humid country so temperatures can rise up to 33 degrees.
Regarding the starter recipe, I'm not following any in particular.
I started with 50g white wheat flour, 50g water. Every 24hrs, I discard half of the starter and refresh it with 50g white wheat flour, 50g water.
In tropical climate. Keep a sharp eye on the starters. When the temps start to soar above 28° C and things are warm, pop the unfed starter into the fridge for the rest of the day and then take it out to feed at the lowest daily temperature, most likely in the morning. Then let it putter away until afternoon and pop it into the fridge if it gets warmer. This should help for the next few days.
What does it smell like?
If you notice a doubling or more now, wait until it rises as high as it will go. Then discard the half and give less water, perhaps 25g and the full 50g flour. A thicker mixture will rise higher. Time it. When this thicker starter rises and peaks, feed it. The next feedings should contain more flour as yeast require more flour. Reduce the starter to 20g and feed 60g water and 100g flour.
Get ready to use it when it peaks. (if the timing for making bread is awkward, put into the refrigerator and use the following morning when you can watch the dough. Leave plenty of head room in your starter jar as it may quadruple. You can make your first bread loaf with most of the discard. Reserve 20g discard to feed and keep it going.
You may now discover you have to feed the starter twice a day if standing in the kitchen. Making use of the refrigerator to cool the starter after it has peaked. Feed it the following day and compare temps and rate of fermentation using either 20/60/100g feeding or a faster 20/40/60g feeding (s/w/f) whatever fits into your schedule easier. Stick to it regularly so you can compare your notes. You can chill the starter for longer time periods when the starter become very predictable. That may sound confusing now but when you get that far it may make more sense. You can save discards then and use them in other foods and you can thicken and reduce the starter size so there ar no more discards. All you need to do is tmake some of the starter and make more when you need it.
Thank you for your advice! I'll follow it and hopefully see results!