Can starter cause dough breakdown?
Hi Everyone,
I was so happy with my lively starter but I am getting the feeling that there is something wrong with it. I have had it for about a year now and refreshed it everytime (4:3 flour-to-water) for my sourdough bakes. The last two times I used it, I started off with creating firm starters to later combine with more flour to create the bulk dough. In both cases, the firm starters smelled a little funny, more rancid/kind of like olive oil-gone-bad smell, which caught my attention. The starter looked fine though after refreshments and before using it for the firm starters. In any case, I moved on to use the firm starter to make sourdough breads using mostly bread flour and very little whole wheat. I have done this before and I'd get nice smooth dough passing the windowpane test. This time, my dough would not come together like that... the texture did not seem or feel right, and no windowpane even after the usual kneading times. This happened twice in a row and I am worrying that something is wrong with my starter. Any ideas/thoughts or more questions to me to clarify what may be the case here?
Thanks,
Hazim
that the problem might lie more with the flour and water. Could be the flour is rancid, taste it. Mix up some flour and water without starter and see what happens.
Mini
Actually, I did go ahead and used commercial yeast to make a foccaccia using the same flour. It was fine... Any tests you would recommend for my starter? Just as a reminder again, the starter seems quite happy during the refreshments, bubbling up as usual and when elaborated into a bulk dough, there is a good rise as well. One thing to note though - in my starter, I don't seem to get that elastic-stretchy quality... it's more like a batter than anything else. This wasn't the case before... Too much acid-production, not strong enough flour for refreshments? But why now, but not earlier?
Thanks!
Hazim
Hazim, why don't you rebuild it using just 1/2 an ounce of starter.
--Pamela