help, advice? whole wheat sourdough bread
Hi everyone,
I'm new here, so I don't know if there may be some protocol I'm supposed to follow, so forgive me if I jump right in.
I have been trying for weeks now (every day or every other day), to get a loaf of 100% whole wheat sourdough out of my oven. No success. I've had a starter for about a year. I keep it refrigerated. Sometimes I neglect it, but it always bounces back, and at the moment, with 2xd feedings, it's bubbly and aliive.
I've painstakingly followed several different recipes, one from sourdoughhome.com, another from breadtime stories, the book, and others from the web. Here's what always happens:
I get everything ready, kneaded, and in a bowl for the first rise. No problem. It doubles, beautiful.
I deflate it, and, using different theories (knead it. Don't knead it. Fold it. Etc.), i give it a second rise. No problem, usually.
Then, After second rise, I shape it, put it in a 8.5x4.5 pan, stick it back in the oven with the light on, and here's where it always goes wrong" I can never get this third rise , and I end up with a flat useless brick of bread (I eat it anyway: sliced thin and treated like cocktail rye).
My first thought was, don't give it the third rise, just pan it after one rise. That worked OK, but not great, I still did not get a great rise.
Other possibilities? I wait too long after feeding the starter to get it into the mix, but I've tried various approaches to that possibility with no real great success.
Perhaps my apartment is too cold. Perhaps I'm not using good flour (KAF all purpose whole wheat).
Any and all suggestions, modifications, suggestions would be welcome. I just don't know what I'm doing wrong.
Thanks.
Sam