Sourdough starter produced bread with no taste, why?
Hi guys,
My babied sourdough starter which I made from scratch from Bertinet's recipe and then refreshed over the next 3 weeks (longest I went without refreshing was 1 week on vacation, otherwise every 3 days.) When refreshing I took say 200 grams starter after bringing to room temp and added in same weight water at 105 F and double weight bread flour. Then I let ferment room temp usually about 6 hours then back in fridge.
When I finally baked with it (2 loaves from Dan Lepard's white leaven recipe), this was an all day process, of kneading 12 times then sit and repeat, all day long. The final rising period after the 2 loaves were in the floured towel lined bowls and shaped was 4.5 hours. Lepard said the loaves should be nearly doubled in height, they were not, but I had to bake them or stay up all night. Anyway, I baked the first one as directed on baking stone spraying with water and it shot up like a puffed balloon. Baked second one an hour later and it did the same. They were misshapen as my slashing procedure was difficult in that very sticky bread dough, the knife wouldn't make deep marks without ruining the bread shape. (Also, note the bread dough was so stuck to the floured towels that before I baked them I had to reshape them into balls as they were glued tight to the towels after 4.5 hours.)
Anyway, the misshapen but tall and well browned loaves (they did not turn out round though they went in the oven that way) had airy holes in the bread when sliced and tasted fine, but with NO TANG AT ALL, they were not like a sourdough.
Help, what do I do to improve my starter? I added in more rye and spelt 3 days ago when I threw away half of it, left it out on counter for 4 hours and has no been in fridge same day. Any advice?? How to solve these problems, of sticking to floured towels, difficulty slashing stick dough and bread with no tang???
Also, over the weeks I have thrown out so much organic flour starter not to mention trying to clean bowls stuck with very sticky dough- the process seems very wasteful time wise and money wise. There has to be a better way. Please experts help.
Thanks a lot!