November 21, 2011 - 8:54am
Beginners nightmare
I am a beginner in the making of bread and starter. Nothing is turning out. My starter was bubbling . I would stir ir and refresh it then it stopped rising. So I thought it was done. used it in a recipe for squaw bread and it wouldn't rise. I put aside the starter and used rapid rise yeast and again no rising of the dough. Can the temperature of the house make a difference in the rising of bread dough or starter? If there is anyone out there HELP.
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You pose too many questions for a comprehensive answer; but, yes, temperature is extraordinarily important for starters and bread fermentation, especially so for sourdough breads. If your house is not warm (at least 78 F), then you need to find a warm area. I find 78 F to be uncomfortably warm, so I use my hot water heater closet for its warm environment whenever I need to make a starter or a loaf of bread. Temperature of the ingredients, likewise, is very important. If your flour is from a refrigerator at 37 F and your water is from the tap at 65 F, just getting the dough to room temperature is going to be difficult.
Thank you for your input. I'll keep plugging on, maybe I'll get it one of these days.
Many nascent starters have an early bubbly period in the first 3-5 days, after which they grow quiet for a couple of days. There is generally no yeast activity in either of those phases. That seems to fit your description. If that is the case, your starter simply needs more time and feedings before it is mature enough to be used for baking.
Rather than give you a drawn-out account of everything that is going on in a starter, let me refer you to the excellent information developed by Debra Wink in "The Pineapple Juice Solution" here in TFL. You can use the Search tool in the upper left-hand corner of the page to find it. Part 1 covers a lot of the basic "what's going on" kind of information and Part 2 provides a reliable method for developing a starter from scratch.
Best of luck.
Paul
Thank you Paul. I will look at the information. I have since thrown out what I had. I'll let you know how it all turns out.
Monica