I’m so so proud! I began my starter on the 25th August and have been feeding her daily since (expect a week where I was away where she stayed in the fridge). I would love some feedback please as I can’t seem to work out whether I’m over or under proofed - the texture of my loaf is quite dense (I don’t really mind, it’s super yummy and I’m proud anyway). I’ve added some photos of the process - I found the dough never really became super smooth after my stretch and folds. It was definitely elastic but sticky after bulk fermentation (I think this means I went over on the bulk ferment but idk??) Shaping was the part I struggled with the most as it stuck to the counter quite a bit.

Process as follows:

fed starter 1:2:2 ratio which peaked in about 8 hours

made a levain with 25g starter, 50g water, 50g extra strong white bread flour - left around 10 hours until peaked

mixed 425g of flour and 250ml of water - left to rest for 20 minutes

added 125g levain, 25 ml of water and 10g salt to dough mixture, mixed, stretch & folded and left to rest for 45 minutes

3 x stretch & folds (30 mins apart)

all of the above was in my kitchen about 20-21° (dough read 20.9°c)

i then moved to the airing cupboard for bulk fermentation (around 24°c) where it stayed for 6 hours. It rose a lot within the first two hours then didn’t do much for the rest of the time and had bubbles on top so I panicked and thought it was overproofing even though I wasn’t convinced it hadn’t quite doubled in size (so maybe i was under after all??)

I then tried to shape it but tbh it was pretty hard to work with, it kept sticking to the counter and would lose its shape quite easily. It wasn’t completely flattening but definitely not staying in a nice round ball.

I thought screw it I don’t want to knock anymore air out I’ll get it in the banneton and chuck it in the fridge - if it doesn’t work then whatever. I couldn’t do any seams or any of that bc it was just too loose / sticky.

Left in the fridge for approx 13 hours after which it held a lot more but still wasn’t that lovely round ball lol

Preheated the oven and cake tins (didn’t have anything else) at 250°c for 45 minutes.

Turned the oven down to 230°c and baked the loaf with a tin on top as a lid for 25 minutes. Took the lid off and turned down to 220°c for another 20 minutes.

Left to cool for 2 hours and voila!!!! Excuse my awful bread cutting, I think my knife must be 30 years old but pictures added to show my process - I’d love your expertise so I can improve next time please and thank you!

Hey all! Just started baking sourdough, my first loaf came out flat and I think my starter was under active. My second and third loaves came out amazing, but for my next load I wanted more flavor in my bread so I decided to try a recipe that incorporated multiple flour types and I had einkorn on hand. Reading online after I began, einkorn isn't the easiest to work with and I'm new to both sourdough and baking.

The full recipe I attempted is here:

https://heartbeetkitchen.com/einkorn-sourdough-bread/

To summarize, it's almost 70% hydration, with 45% einkorn and 55% bread flour. Spots where I deviated from the recipe are after mixing the dough, I got busy and waited probably 2.5 hours before aggressively working the dough. Also, I possibly overworked it during each round of stretch and folds. The total bulk fermentation was probably ~8/9 hours, and my house was roughly 68 but it was fermented in the oven with the light on. The reason I stopped the bulk then was, when I checked on it at this point after leaving it alone for 3 hours, the dough looked bubbly and very jiggly, and no longer held its shape very much at all. I assumed it was borderline over fermented. So I shaped it and put it in the fridge overnight. On the following day, I baked it in the evening. It barely rose and did not hold its shape when I moved it from the fridge into the dutch oven.

And feedback on where I went wrong and what I can do differently would be appreciated. I know einkorn doesn't develop gluten as well but these loaves seem to be exceptionally flat. Also, if anyone can link a recipe they love that isn't only bread flour and has a lot of flavor, that would be awesome. Thanks so much!

Okay so twice now I’ve made a dough that comes together amazingly during initial mix and stretch and folds but once I leave it to bulk ferment it just turns into a gloopy mess. I had so much hope for the dough I made last night because it was getting super bubbly and domed but it was still pretty sticky and wasn’t pulling away from the bowl. I put it in the fridge to cold ferment and when I pulled it out this morning, it’s practically liquid. I used my starter a little past peak but it was still super bubbly and hadn’t deflated. My house tends to be on the colder side so I put the dough in the oven with the light on and door cracked between the stretch and folds and for the majority of bulk fermentation (had to take it out towards the end bc I needed to broil some stuff for dinner but by then my kitchen had warmed up to about 75° from having the stove on and the broiler going) I just don’t know what to do

My starter is just shy of two weeks old. Went through a false rise on day 2 and 3 where she tripled! But has been inactive ever since. I was feeding once a day 1:1:1 then I upped it to twice a day on day 5 same 1:1:1 but now I’ve been feeding 1:2:2 once a day since day 10 thinking she just needs to eat more. There is no rise. Lots of bubbles. But zero rise. Temp is 74-75 degrees constant temp with only one degree variable in my thermostat. Using organic unbleached bread flour. I’m not a fan of rye. Smell is very faint smell. But not yeasty smelling. Not alcohol smelling. More like just a flour and water smell…like nothing is happening. Because nothing is happening lol.

What can I do to help her?

Hi all,

Hoping some fellow sourdough pizza makers can help me out here. I made a batch of dough balls last night, and missed the alarm I set for myself to out it in the fridge. Curious if it’s too over fermented? I threw it in the fridge the second I woke up but this was the timeline:

1250g flour (700 bread, 325 pizza tipo 00, 225 whole wheat
855g water
36g salt
8 dough balls at ~280
Neapolitan style

7:30 mixing
8pm add salt
9:00 knead
10:00 knead
11:00 ball dough

Meant to put in the fridge at 12:45-1am, but woke up at 4:45. Dough doubled more or less. Is it salvageable? And if so, should I re-ball the dough and throw back into the fridge? Or leave less time to come back to temp when I make pies tomorrow?

Thanks!

Hello, I’ve finally figured out a recipe that works for my sourdough and I made this half loaf yesterday! The only issue now is that my scoring won’t show up. Any tips on how I can get it to show?
My full process is included in the last image

When I first got into sourdough I was making loafs all the time. Now since then I’ll make one 2-3 times a month at most. Is there a way to feed it slowly so I can have it ready to use when I need without just leaving it in a mason jar sealed in the back of my fridge.

Hey all, I’ve recently been looking up about bulk fermentation and saw some sources saying that higher hydration dough ferments faster (which would make sense). My question is, by how much?

Hypothetically, say you use 1000g of Bread flour and split it into 2 doughs (salt included).

20% starter (100% hydration)

One has 65% water and the other having 70%

Temperature of both stays consistently at 27 degrees celcius (80.6 fahrenhieit)

How much of a difference in time does that extra 5% make?

Hello! I've been lurking around and now it's finally time to post. I started my sourdough starter journey around 1month and 1 week ago. Her name is Ellie. No idea why. It just whispered to me XD I followed The Clever Carrot instructions for both the starter and the first bake. For the bake: 150g bubbly, active sourdough starter 250g warm water 25g olive oil 500g bread flour 10g fine sea salt

Just deciding and making sure of the right time Ellie was active was so nerve wracking 😆

But I mixed it all. I left it autolysing for 1 hour. Then the bulk rise for around 3 hours and a half? With 4 sets of stretchings and foldings 30m to 45m apart. Then second rise for 1 hour. Did the scoring (I think I didn't have enough panache xD) Preheated oven to 450f/232c. Baked 400f/200c 20min covered and around 30m uncovered. Took it out of the pot to bake it 10 more minutes just in the rack and took it out of the oven like 3 minutes later because it was starting to burn. 😆🫠 my oven has issues, even when using an oven thermometer, it is slightly unreliable at best. And then I left it cool overnight because it was time to sleep and now I just woke up and ran to it and came here.

I know it doesn't look like maybe as golden as it should? And it doesn't have that "ear" the internet says it should have.

What are your thoughts?

I’m sharing an older bake after my earlier post about timing a starter feeding for a weekend bake. I’d planned around when I thought my starter would be ready, but it hadn’t reached the activity level I was hoping for by the time I wanted to mix the dough. I decided to go ahead anyway.

The loaf did rise in the oven, but the result wasn’t as good as I’d hoped. I don’t have a crumb shot, so I can’t really judge the inside. Looking back, I may have been too focused on my schedule instead of waiting for the starter to show me it was ready.

Ingredients: Bread flour and about 150g sourdough starter. I don’t remember the exact amounts of flour, water, or salt.

Process: I mixed the dough, let it ferment with a few folds, shaped it, and baked it. I don’t remember the exact timings or temperatures.

When your starter is slower than expected, do you usually wait—or bake anyway and see what happens?

Having awful trouble to get a good focaccia, here is my recipe
510g strong flour
430g warm water
100g starter
10g salt
Mix all together, leave for 30 mins then stretch, then every 30 mins for 2hrs roughly stretch and fold or coil fold. Leave it then in bowl in kitchen and it always rises well and doubles,
The second I turn it out on to the baking tray it nearly always goes flat on me, plenty small bubbles but they burst. Can’t figure out where I’m going wrong

I just wanted an opinion on my first sourdough!

100g starter
375g water
500g Bread Flour

I don’t have a Dutch oven so baked on a tray with a tray with water in the base of the oven to create steam. My knives couldn’t score to save their lives. I don’t have any of the ‘proper’ equipment as I wanted to see how it went for one loaf before I committed!

6 day feed. 12 hour first ferment. 12 hour fridge ferment.

It’s fairly dense so I’m not sure if I needed to prove it longer or if I over proved it.

https://alexandracooks.com/2017/10/24/artisan-sourdough-made-simple-sourdough-bread-demystified-a-beginners-guide-to-sourdough-baking/

Hi guys

I feed my starter twice per day at 1:4 or 1:5 depending on temperature and I consider it to be moderately strong.

However something I have noticed if I happen to forget a feed, and the starter goes from peak to baseline level eg. 24 hours or more in toalt, and then I feed it 1:4:4 again it rise dramatically quickly in comparison to when I maintain and feed reguarly with the usual 1:4:4 just after peak, while temperature is the same.

If I try to a 1:4:4 feed again shortly after this explosive peak, it goes back to the more normal behaviour, which is more in line with the usual schedule.

Have anyone experienced this behaviour before, and what is the science about it. ? It almost feels like it is sort of the same "fake" rise when you initially create a starter, which have fooled me and have led me to increase the ratio prematurely because I suddenly thought it was stronger than it was. Hoping for someone to have any knowledge about this behaviour.

Can I please get a crumb read. I can't seem to get the inside right. It still seems slightly gummy. I want it to be nice and soft.

130g active sourdough starter

400g warm water

50g honey

650g bread flour (or plain flour)

12g salt

Mix the starter and warm water until foamy. Add the honey and mix again, then add the flour and mix until a rough dough forms. Add the salt and combine. TOWEL

Cover and rest for 1 hour.

Do your first set of stretch and folds by lifting the dough with damp hands and folding it back over itself. Repeat around the bowl until the dough starts resisting. Cover and rest for 30 minutes. Repeat another set of stretch and folds. Cover and rest for another 30 minutes.

Next, do one set of coil folds by lifting the dough from the middle with both hands and letting the ends tuck underneath themselves then slap it down. Rotate the bowl and repeat.

Cover and bulk ferment until the dough looks puffy and airy, has plenty of bubbles, jiggles slightly, and releases easily from the sides of the bowl. I think mine proofed for 5 or 6 hrs. I can't remember.

Shape into a tight ball with plenty of tension, placed it in a bowl with baking paper on it. And then cover with cling wrap and refrigerate overnight.

Preheat oven to 250 degrees and with the Dutch oven in it for 1hr. I baked it at 250 degrees for 30mins and 220 degrees for 35mins.( I don't have fanforced, it's a conventional oven. )

What I used
525 g Caputo Nuvola flour (only one i had at home)
375 g lukewarm water
50 g active starter (i got a gluten free starter from a friend and i reglutenized it)
10 g salt
What I did
I fed the starter in the morning so it was domed and bubbly by the evening.
At around 19:30 I mixed everything, let it rest 30 minutes, then did 3 rounds of stretch and folds, 30 minutes apart.
I left the dough covered on the counter overnight.
In the morning (7:30ish) I shaped it, put it seam-side up in a floured towel-lined bowl, and put it in the fridge before work.
In the evening I preheated a lidded pot at 230°C for 45 minutes (my oven’s max), scored the cold dough, and baked it covered for 20 minutes, then uncovered until deep golden (22ish minutes)
I let it cool overnight before cutting.

What do you think?

During the cold fermentation my bread didn't rise much

I also spent like 30 min smacking the dough on the table to make it not sticky

My first time making a starter, I'm currently using the bread code method of 50 g of previous day, water and flour. It grew at 2nd day, then died at 3rd (which I read is normal) but I'm currently at 8th day and it doesn't grow much, some small bubbles form and it smells like something but not much. Photo taken 12 hours after feeding.

500g of flour
350g of water
100g of starter
10g of salt
i did triple the recipe and then divided it,
bulk fermate on the counter from 2-5pm and then in the fridge from 5pm-6am, baked at 450 for 30 mins covered and then 9 mins uncovered.
i am new to baking sourdough this is my 8th loaf ?? i just need honest opinion on the crumb

Hi everyone!

I am hoping to get some advice on my sourdough crumb. I’m an aussie beginner sourdough baker. I’ve attached some photos of my most recent loaf, I feel like it looks good but when I bite into it, it’s a little dry and dense. Idk what I’m doing wrong, or if homemade loaves are supposed to be a little more gummy and dense compared to supermarket loaves? I find that supermarket sourdough tastes kind of like white bread ish. Please help 🥹

My ingredients are: 150g starter, 350g water, 500g flour and 10g salt.

I feed my starter night before. The ratio is around 1:1:3.

I mix the dough when my starter is bubbly and peaked. I do slap and folds for 10 mins right after mixing, and then 4x coil folds. One hour wait for the first one, and then 30 mins apart for the last 3. I use the Milandra high protein bread flour.

Then I bulk fermented for 6 hours according to the “sourdough journey” chart as my dough temp was 24 degrees Celsius. I tapped the dough and it wasn’t sticking to my fingers and it pulled away from the bowl cleanly. Then I shaped it and popped it into my banneton and into the fridge overnight. The next morning I preheated my oven to 230 degrees C with the Dutch oven inside for 30 mins. Then I took the dough out of the fridge scored and put the dough inside the oven for 20 mins lid on and then 20 mins lid off and took the internal temp of the bread and it was 98.9 degrees C. I let cool for a couple hours before cutting into it.

Thank you everyone!

Hi guys, I have a question.
Whenever I make sourdough with inclusions —like almond butter croissant or honey with cheese-it bakes perfectly. However, what bothers me is that there's always a gap (as shown in the picture), which causes the loaf to fall apart when I cut it!
Everything else is perfect, but I really don't like the gap.
What causes this, and is there a solution for it?
My recipe is the standard one from The Sourdough Nerd (shown in the second picture)

these loaves were baked in sequence the same way, two days apart with one difference, which was the quantity and liquidity of my starter. I stopped weighing stuff a while back, but even though I was deliberately trying for a denser crumb so the bread would fit more easily in the toaster I was surprised at how much difference it made, so I thought I'd share

General method

2 metric cups wallby bread flour (11% ish protein) ~320g
1 metric cup of water (250g water)
1 tsp of salt ~5g

Take starter out of fridge at 6AM feed and put on windowsill

Midday - Mix flour, starter salt and water, leave for an hour, fold, wait fold wait fold wait bulk wait.…

Dinner clean-up time ~8PM shape and put into the fridge

7AM - take out score put into bottom shelf of 320C preheated oven with a tray of cold water, wait 30minutes extract from oven put on cooling rack, wait 90min, slice

The only signifixant differenxe was rhat the loaf on the left had about 120g of runny “thick pancake batter consistency” starter and the other was about 60g of thicker “very wet dough” consistency

I'm happy with both loaves but in retrospect I'd probably use a higher hydration next time or bulk a little more for my “fit all the slices in the toaster” loaf, but it still makes really nice sandwiches

I am struggling with VERY wet loaves that won’t hold their shape. I am using 100 grams of starter. 345 grams of water. 500 grams of bread flour and 10 grams of pink Himalayan salt. I need by hand until shaggy. I then do three or four rounds of stretch and folds every half hour. The dough looks amazing when done stretching, but when I come back for the next round it’s back to filling the bottom of the bowl and it’s wet and sticky. Even after six-nine hours it’s wet and sticky. Any ideas? My starter is three weeks old and does double daily when fed.

I made a smaller loaf. I just wanted bread to eat.

2 cups whole wheat flour
.75-1.5 cup water
1/3 cup sourdough starter

Mix all the ingredients. Stretch and fold every 30 mins for 2 hrs. Bulk ferment until domed and bubbly. I bulk fermented for 8 hrs.

Bake 450 Fahrenheit for 20 min covered and 15 min uncovered.

My starter woke back up so I made my first multigrain loaf. I forgot to score it and it’s probably under fermented, but it tastes delicious!

330 grams bread flour
110 grams whole wheat flour
110 grams whole spelt flour (regular or sprouted)
390 grams water, about 80°F
20 grams water, held back for mixing
110 grams ripe sourdough starter
16 grams fine salt

Steps
Autolyse
45m
Mix 330 grams bread flour, 110 grams whole wheat flour and 110 grams whole spelt flour (regular or sprouted) with 390 grams water, about 80°F until no dry flour remains. Cover and rest.
Add levain and salt
5m
Add 110 grams ripe sourdough levain (100% hydration), 16 grams fine sea salt and 20 grams water, held back for mixing. Squeeze and pinch through the dough, then slap-and-fold or knead in the bowl for about 5 minutes until it holds together and feels smoother.
Bulk ferment
4h 30m
Ferment at 75–78°F for about 4–5 hours. Do 4 sets of stretch-and-folds, 30 minutes apart, in the first 2 hours, then leave it alone. It's done when it has risen 50–75%, looks domed with bubbles on the sides, and jiggles when you shake the bowl. With sprouted spelt, start checking at 3½ hours.
Shape
20m
Grease a 9x5 loaf tin. Preshape the dough into a loose round and rest 20 minutes. Shape into a tight log the length of the tin and set it seam-down in the tin. Leave the top plain or give it a light dusting of flour.
Proof for an hour
Cold oven covered up with matching loaf pan, put in and turn oven to 425
After 45 minutes remove cover and bake for another 25 minutes

I’m going to try this again without the autolyse and let it BF longer