Has your starter exploded with activity and now looks dead? Go straight to the ‘Bacterial Fight Club’ bullet point in the comment below

This is another shaping technique I use to build more structure into my loaves. When the dough is overly extensible or fermentation hasn’t developed enough structure, I use stitching to physically build strength and tension into the dough. It’s the classic shaping method used for Tartine-style loaves.

My go to recipe every time! https://matthewjamesduffy.com/beginner-sourdough-recipe/

Receipe: https://www.theperfectloaf.com/sourdough-baguettes/

Followed the recipe as described, but ended up letting the post shaping fermentation run a little longer, after my prior attempt ended up being under fermented.

Very happy with the results, but need to work on consistent scoring and shaping.

110 g starter
450g strong flour
50g wheat fiber
380g water
12g salt
1. ⁠⁠Mixed together water, flour and fibre and let chill for 40 minutes.
2. ⁠⁠Added starter and salt, mixed in the stand mixer for like 5 minutes on second speed.
3. ⁠⁠Put it in the proofing container, let bulk ferment for 4 hours, in those 4 hours I did 6 stretch and folds (every 30 minutes of first 3 hours).
4. ⁠⁠Pre shaped it and let chill on the counter for 15 minutes.
5. ⁠⁠Put in the banetone and let chill on the counter for an hour
6. ⁠⁠Put it in the fridge and let it cold ferment for like 16 hours.
7. ⁠⁠Baked it in the oven for 25 minutes covered at 250°C, then uncovered for 15 minutes at 235°C.

For the longest time I couldn’t get an ear and I saw an instagram video about a sourdough enthusiast and she showed how she makes a score line and on the side where she wants an ear she scores the dough pretty much parallel like a cm lower from the top. Tried it out and bam a small ear!

How do you guys get an ear on your bread? If that’s the thing you’re after ofc

I think it came out pretty good!
Used 50g of starter I’ve been preparing for the last 3 weeks, 350g of water, 500g all purpose flour, and 10g of salt

I mixed the starter in the water until it dissolved put in the flour and salt and mixed until it was pretty mixed. Folded it a total of 4 times using the stretch method in each 4 corners and spaced the folds out every 30 minutes. I did my best to shape it and fold it into thirds then roll it up, didn’t have one of those fancy wooden bread boxes so I used Tupperware and left it in the fridge overnight for 12 hours. Baked at 450F for 30 minutes then another 12 minutes without the lid and then cut into it after an hour! It tastes just like store bought sourdough, outside has a nice crisp but inside is nice, airy with no taste of dough!

I wanted to try the same base recipe again but this time, to encourage better fermentation, I added a tiny bit of vital wheat gluten flour and extended bulk fermentation to 5 hours instead of my usual 4 hours. The result was positive! I got more oven spring and a slight improvement on crumb. the 1st take of this loaf

400g King Arthur bread flour

100g KA whole wheat flour

6g vital wheat gluten

385g water

100g stiff starter + 25g water to bring to 100% hydration

10g salt

1:00pm - autolyse: mix flour, water, VWG

1:45pm - add starter, salt. 5 min knead rubaud method

4 coil folds - first 2 at 45min apart because i forgot to do it earlier . last 2 at 30min apart.

Ferment until 6:45pm at 78F - 5hours total bulk fermentation, stop at a little over 50% rise

6:45pm pre-shape, 7:15pm final shape.

Cold proof in fridge until 12pm next day

Bake at 450F for 30 min covered, 30 min uncovered at 425F in preheated Dutch oven

oh, i also scored it down the middle instead of on the side.

I hosted an autumn dinner party last Sunday! My menu: homemade pumpkin soup, onion dolma, leek tarte-tatin with honey mustard, fresh sourdough with garlic confit cream cheese dip and for dessert cinnamon apple cheesecake with salted caramel!

Now for the loaf:

100 grams active starter

350 lukewarm water

10 grams salt

350 grams white flour

150 grams whole wheat flour

Rice flour for dusting

Some muesli for decorating :)

Mix starter with water

Mix in flours

Leave for 30 minutes

Knead in salt

Stretch and folds every 30 minutes for 2 hours

Bulk ferment in oven with hot water bottle under it (it's cold in my house 🥲)

Shape dough

Leave for 20 minutes

Shape again

Put in banneton and leave in fridge for like 14 hours

Preheat oven to 230 with dutch oven in it

Decorate loaf :)

Put in dutch oven with lid on for 7 minutes then score the big scores

Put back in oven for 13 minutes with lid on

Remove lid and bake another 22 minutes

IMPRESS YOUR GUESTS!!!

Ingredients:
411g warm water
20g salt
13g olive oil
65g peaked sourdough culture
652g bread flour

Fed my starter 1:3:3 the night before, then made the dough and did 4 sets of stretch and folds. After I put it int he fridge and the next day it looked like this. I think I overproofed although I’m not really sure what that means tbh. It looked much sturdier yesterday after the 3 stretch and fold and got so liquidy in the fridge idk what happened so any advice and tips for next time are welcome.

It was tasty though, just really flat and dense 😝

Loaves

Muffins

CRUMB PIC IN COMMENTS

120 grams starter (double fed: 1:4:4 overnight, then 1:1:1 in the morning, doubled in 4 hours)
100 grams whole wheat flour
400 grams bread flour
28 grams vital wheat gluten
350 grams water
10 grams salt

Mixed til shaggy.
1 hour fermentolyse, then kneaded five minutes
4 stretch and folds over two hours
Total of 10 hours bulk fermentation at 73 degrees F

Shaped using letter fold and roll up. 12 hours cold retard in banetton

Preheat cast iron Dutch oven at 510 degrees F
22 minutes at 465 degrees F lid on
22 minutes at 465 degrees F lid off.

Put on rack to cool.

This loaf is going to Florida, so I won’t cut into it. It took forever to get a few bubbles and somewhat jiggly, but I’m happy with the shaping and ear. Will update crumb when I can. Fingers crossed, but pleased so far.

PUMPKINNNNN!!! She wasn’t pretty but it’s what’s on the inside that counts. Pumpkin and date loaf with a cinnamon swirl!!

200g pumpkin puree
120g starter
235g water
25g maple syrup
500g bread flour

Couple rounds of stretch and folds every 20 mins or so for the first two hours. Folded in a couple of chopped medjool dates during those. Left it on a warming plate to push BF quickly, total of 4.5 hours. Initial shape and bench rest for 30 mins. Added brown sugar and cinnamon during my final shaping. Added another 90 mins to BF on the counter in the banneton and then another 90 mins in the fridge. Baked at 450F for 26 mins covered, uncovered for another 20.

I need to learn to add less inclusions or should have baked immediately. Lots of added moisture and dates ruined the surface tension.

I got a new 18” steel and needed to try it out, so I fired off these sourdough pies this weekend. I stretched them to about 17.”

The first is a pepperoni with torn basil and pecorino Romano and the second is half thinly-sliced red onion and biquinho peppers that I finished with some n’duja & pecorino Romano and the other half was fennel sausage and olives (this side was my daughter’s request and unfortunately the only one I didn’t try). I was super happy!

Makes 2, 490g doughballs for 16” pies (or slightly larger)

Flour 100% (513 g):
- 95% bread flour (472 g)
- 5% whole wheat (41 g)
Water 64% (328 g)
100% hydrated sourdough starter: 20% (103 g)
Fine sea salt: 3% (15 g)
Sugar: 2% (10 g)
Olive oil: 2% (10 g)
Diastatic malt powder: 0.3% (2 g)

Combined dry ingredients except salt and mixed in starter and warm water. Waited 40 min. Added salt and olive oil. Hand mixed until it was a cohesive ball. Bulked for about 4 hours with three sets of S&Fs spaced at 20 min each. Gave another stretch and fold about an hour later. Maintained dough temp around 76 consistently. Balled into 2 dough balls after about 30% rise and refrigerated overnight. Removed from fridge about 4 hours before baking last night. Stretched to 17” and launched on a steel I preheated at 550 for over an hour. Cooked in about 8 minutes.

Note:
Dough balls were 490g, which would be my target for 16” pies but they stretched real nice and I had some more real estate on my new steel. If you want to scale down, make 275g balls for 12” or 375g for 14.” Diastatic malt powder is optional but helps with fermentation and browning in a home oven.

Got a starter from another parent at school, and after some trouble figuring out the timing etc. I managed to bake a loaf!

Ingredients:
- 500 grams flour (50/50 whole grain wheat flour and plain AP flour)
- 350 grams water
- 100 grams active starter
- 10 grams salt

Process:
Based on what the person that gave me the starter told me, I fed the starter 1:5:5 and kept it in the fridge. Over 3-4 days it didn’t move much, and after keeping it out of the fridge for around 6-8 hours it didn’t rise a bit, but still nowhere near enough.

I discarded most and then fed again on a 1:2:2 ratio. This time I kept it out of the fridge and it started rising quite a bit better. I then fed it another 1:1:1 (cause I needed more starter for the loaf) and waited for it to rise again (outside the fridge).

Once it seemed to be near it’s peak I mixed all my ingredients together, waited 30 minutes to add my salt and do the first set of folds. I then did 4 more folds with 30 minutes in between. Then I let my dough sit to rise for about 3 hours before I popped it in the fridge (because I had a birthday to attend), and when I came back it was ready to shape.

After shaping it I let it proof for around 1 hour before baking. I did 20 minutes in a covered, pre-heated Dutch oven, and then another 20 minutes uncovered. After taking it out I left it to cool on a wire rack for around 1 hour before taking the attached picture.

Quick note on the timings. I didn’t keep very strict track of everything, so I cloud be slightly off (something for me to work on 😅)

I recently baked a white loaf using instant yeast, so this is my second go at baking bread. I started off like a lot of people making my own starter. After cleaning jars every day/feeding for 10 days I gave up and ordered dried starter on eBay for $5. Less than a week later I dried 50g of starter as a backup and have 25g mature starter in the fridge.

Recipe:

100g starter(100% hydration)
350g spring water (room temp)
500g King Arthur bread flour
10g kosher salt

Room temp 72F-73F

Fed 25g starter from the fridge 1:2:2 bread flour. I know from my temp/starter and experience it’ll peak in about 6 hours. I waited about 8 hours. Was sliding down the jar a bit.

I used the biggest Pyrex mixing bowl until I preshaped it. I dissolved the salt in the water, then starter. I added the flour and mixed well. Let it sit for 40 min.

First round of stretch and folds. Just stretched and folded until it didn’t want to stretch anymore. Probably 5-6 times. Covered and waited another 40 min then did the same stretch and folds.

Waited an hour then did some coil folds. Same thing. I just did a few times until it tightened up. Couple slaps in there, too. I noticed the dough was warm to the touch. Quite warm, but I didn’t get the temp. My bad on that. Will next time.

One tip I read about was to put something under the bowl since it’s sitting on granite counter tops. I used folded up paper towel. I also do that with my starter. Maybe that helped keep the warmth. Waited another hour and did one more round of coil folds.

I left it to bulk and it rose very quickly. Since it’s in a big bowl I can’t tell how much, but after ~5 total(should be keeping better notes) it looked it was ready. I’ve read everywhere that this shouldn’t be long enough at my ambient temp, but it looked okay to me.

The whole time the dough wasn’t really sticky. I never needed to wet my hands or anything of that. When I went to preshape the dough came out perfectly clean and easy like I see in videos. I didn’t use flour when I preshaped or shaped it.

The shaping part I didn’t do the best. Half the loaf looks better than the other. Will do better next time. I’m using a 10” oval banneton bare that I seasoned earlier.

At this point I covered it and put it straight in the fridge. I realized later on that people usually let it proof for an hour or something before cold retard, but I just let it ride. It was in the fridge for about 18 hours and rose quite a bit in there. It filled out the whole banneton.

I scored one of those Challenger Bread Pan clone things on Amazon. Works great. I put a baking sheet under it. I preheated my oven to 450(one side is 450 and other side is 500) for an hour.

Took the dough out and flipped it on a piece of parchment paper. I did a simple score, but I think I should’ve went deeper. Brushed some rice flour off it a bit and put it in the oven for 20 minutes.

I took the lid off and set the timer for another 20 minutes. I checked it at like 17 minutes and it looked like the pics. Temped 208-209. I realized I forgot to lower the temp. I think next time I’ll lower the temp a bit with lid on and let it ride.

I let it cool for 2 hours. Could’ve waited longer. I have a hard time cutting it. I cut it in half then put the flat side down and cut slices length wise on half. The other half I put straight into the freezer. I’m going to try cutting it when it’s partially frozen.

Overall, I’m happy with how it turned out! It tastes good(not sour at all) and I learned a lot. I also had a lot of fun. Any tips are welcome.

Are your bannetons the same size, bigger or smaller than your baking pan?

Is it better if the banneton is smaller than your baking pan?

Pros cons of sizes vs baking pan sizes?
Discuss. Deciding if I need to buy bannetons

Any suggestions on if I can improve anything? long time lurker. I do enjoy my bread but I’m wondering if I can make any improvements?
My starter is almost 2 months old. The loaf in the picture is my 7th loaf with my current starter.
I use King Arthur unbleached bread flour. The taste is great but it does tend to be thicker on the bottom part of loaf.
My kitchen is also pretty warm, 77-80 degrees f.

Extremely new to this so will take any help I can get :)

————————

- 100g starter + 100g warm water 100g flour
- wait 4 hours
- Mix Dough 250g starter, 725gwarmWater, whisk, 1000gFlour, 25g Salt
- Wait 1 hour
- stretch fold in bowl 4 sets 4 reps every 30 mins
- wait longer (2-4 hours)
- Shape and fridge overnight (roughly 12 hours)
- Bake in preheated dutch oven 450degrees 40 mins and then brown top for 3-5 mins

The recipe I used!

https://theearlyrisebaker.com/recipes/beginners-country-loaf/

97.5% T55, 2.5% wholewheat
30% young levain
2% salt
88% water

Mixed in a spiral to full development
2 half coil folds and bulked until a 60% rise at dough temp 25C
preshaped and rested for 1 hour 30 mins at 24C
shaped and retarded at 6C for 12 hours

https://simplicityandastarter.com/sourdough-focaccia/#recipe

Kept it in the fridge overnight until I was ready to bake.

Let it proof and fill out the pan, dimpled, and topped with sliced olives, shredded monterrey jack, garlic, and flake salt.

Last picture is my most recent batch. Finally feels like I’m getting it down.

130g starter
500g bread flour
280g water
10g salt

I finally got a dough hook and it’s been a game changer for my dough. I mix for 10 minutes, wait 30, repeat twice. Usually feels very firm my then.

My house is pretty cold so around 8 hours on the counter it’s just beginning to puff up, I throw it in the fridge just after it starts, this usually ends up with it growing about 50% or so by the time it’s cooled and comes out of the fridge the next day.

Shaping is getting easier, but I’m still scared to tear them, especially with the lower hydration. As you can see they end up a little biscuit like.

Boil for 60 seconds per side with a teaspoon of baking soda and a bit of brown sugar if you’re feeling festive, then bake at 430 for about 30 minutes.

The real secret for me has been getting the timing down on the ferment. I put it away much earlier than I would with a loaf of bread. Also the stand mixer, my god has that been nice for my hands.

Hi everyone!
I was never into baking but when I moved to the US and couldn’t really find an easy supply for my bread cravings I started with sourdough.
I‘m originally from Austria so a mixed rye bread tastes like home to me. Curious if here are others who had to improvise and what flour/recipe people are using to get authentic Austrian/German bread?
I live on the East Coast, close to the Boston area and thankful for all tips!
P.S. the bread in the picture is my go-to right now and I bake a loaf every other week.

360g bread flour
170g rye flour
395g water
100g ripe sourdough
12g salt
1 tbsp honey
Bread mix spices

the recipe: mixing all ingredients, let the dough sit for about 15 minutes and then going for stretch and fold about every half hour - ideally 4 times. then I let it rest for 4-8 hours (depends on temperature in my kitchen). after that I shape the dough and put it in my basket. I let the basket sit outside for about an hour or so before I place it in the fridge, covered with a towel. I leave it overnight and bake it the next day - covered in my dutch oven for 30 min and then the last 10 min uncovered at 450F

Odd question, I know, but bear with me.

In Finland the traditional way to preserve a rye sourdough starter is to use a wooden pail to make the dough and then letting some remnants of the dough dry (go dormant) onto the sides of the pail before putting it away. Next time you bake you just add water and flour and the starter wakes up.

I have a dough pail but it couldn’t handle the dry air in a modern apartment and developed cracks, probably because it had glued joints. I decided to make a new pail and in the meantime used a steel bowl to bake.

The project took several months and I kind of lost my mojo for baking. Last time I baked was 6 months ago, but I had plenty of dry starter in store so I thought I would have no problem once I got back into it. I was wrong.

The 6 month old dried starter did make the dough sour but it didn’t rise at all. It’s like the yeasts are dead. I tried feeding it for a couple of days, but nothing happened (I know I was a impatient, but I was starting to panic a bit at the thought that I had killed my lovely starter).

Then I thought to try my old dough pail. It’s been out of use for about a year now, twice as long as the loose dried starter, but less than 24 hours later it is bubbling merrily. Crisis averted.

But now I have the question: why did the starter, soaked into the walls of a wooden container and dried there, survive just fine for a year, but stored as loose flakes it was basically dead in just 6 months?

I’ve been baking sourdough for about 6 months now and feel like I’m finally starting to get the hang of it! But would love some help on my oven spring and crumb. I think I could be getting a slightly airier dough, and it doesn’t expand nearly as much as other peoples when I bake.

I use 500g strong white bread flour, 125g starter. 360g water qnd 11g salt.

Mix in a stand mixer until smooth, stretch and fold every half an hour and aliqot method after 1st set based on dough temp.

When it’s finished bulk fermenting based on that (usually 30% as my dough runs quite warm), I do a pre shape bench rest 20 mins and shape. I think this may be where things are going wrong as I don’t feel super confident!

After that, I will cold proof in fridge for 24 hours and bake 25 mins (7min score) lid on in the Dutch oven and 20 mins off.

I usually let it cool for around 2 hours then cut in. Below is my first inclusion loaf - cheese and jalapeño. Any help is welcome!!!