sourdough lack of rise
HI, all,
I posted earlier and really appreciated the responses. I did feed my king arthur starter around my schedule, and made bread using the extra tangy sourdough bread recipe last weekend.
The bread came out pretty tangy, with a good sour flavor, but with relatively little rise during the proofing step. I live in the northern us, so I often have to proof in the oven to provide a warm enough environment. I noticed in all the steps this bread developed a bit of skin on the dough - could that have prevented the rise (I noticed it did expand some in the oven after I slashed it)? If so, what are some easy ways of preventing what I'm guessing is the drying-out that causes the skin?
I did notice after now a little under a week my starter is doing pretty well. I have a small plastic container of it at 'room temperature' that I feed twice a day and seems to double in several hours. I am wondering if I tried again after a week of feeding if that would make a difference, the starter seems more vigorous, it doubles quicker.
I guess - could the skin prevent it from rising? And would the starter being seemingly more active make it rise better?
I plan to use the starter building technique described to prep for baking, but it probably won't be till this weekend or next week that I can do it. Trying to plan for the next try. :)