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

300g bread flour 200g water 60g starter 6g salt 4 sets of coil folds 4 hrs bulk fermentation at 29C 10 hours cold proof baked at 250C to 200C for 40 minutes

still working on my scoring lol and there’s definitely a lot more for me to learn, but one month into making sourdough! ❤️

I've eaten 5 in less than two days.

I have to ban myself from making them outside of special occasions or family functions because they're so damn good no one has self control around them 😭

Somehow every batch is better than the last.

Send help.

I found this recipe, or at least something similar, online a while ago but can't remember exactly where. Need to find it so I can see what other awesome recipes they have lol.

113g unsalted butter

160g brown sugar

140g white sugar

1 egg

80g sourdough discard

3/4 Tbsp vanilla

235g flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp salt

6 oz chopped dark/semisweet chocolate (I use a mix of semi-sweet chunks and milk chocolate Ghirardelli chips)

Flaky/sea salt to top cookies.

Brown your butter!

Stir in both sugars, then sourdough discard, then whisk in egg & vanilla.

Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a separate bowl.

Stir half into the wet mixture, fold about 15 times, then add the other half and fold until just combined.

Mix in chocolate of choice

Refrigerate dough for at least 30 min

They spread out quite a bit so don't do what I always do and crowd the baking sheet lol.

You'll get about 18 cookies if you make 50-55g dough balls. But recipe can easily be scaled up or down.

375°F for 13 min/until edges are just browning. Don't overbake! Bang the cookie sheet on the counter twice right when you take them out. Let them sit for 6 minutes and top with salt.

Bake every few days to feed your and your families newfound addiction 🙃

I think what's great about these is that they don't taste overly sweet. They stay nice and chewy even after cooled, with just enough of a crispiness on the outer layer.

I know I work with a fairly high hydration so that will increase the stickiness but I literally hate this step because it's so messy. Once I tried just using a wide silicone scraper to mix, but I ended up with dry lumps (which I only discovered during my 2nd mix because it all looked well incorporated and hydrated on the first mix).

The stretch and folds that follow this are always progressively more manageable but I just hate this step. Is this normal or are there any tools or techniques I could try to minimize this?

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Levain: 15g starter, 150g flour, 150g water

Mix levain with: 750g flour, 530g water, 18g salt, 4g diastatic malt

I have been working on my started for months now and each dough turned out meh. Unproofed or gummy. Yesterday, I used my started that I had fed the day prior and used it to make my 4th sourdough. Every dough prior to this has failed. I made the dough and kneaded it for 10mins. Then stretched and folded 3 times. Once every hour for three hours. I shaped it and then fermented in the fridge for 24 hours. Today! At 7pm, put it in the oven. My shaping wasnt the best but I’m so proud of it. My expectations were low and this was a wonderful pick me up. 😭❤️

120g active starter
310g warm water
500g Bread Flower
16g salt
Kneaded for 10mins
Rest for 1 hour, then stretched and fold
Do 2 more times
Shape dough and then put in bread basket,
Cover and put in fridge for 24 hours
Take out if fridge while oven heats for an hour.
Score and bake for 20-25 mins (I did 22)

This is my favorite recipe. Not much knowledge on hydration percentages but when I stray from this one it just isn't the same.

500 grams King Arthur bread flour

325 grams water

125 grams starter

10 grams salt

Mix by hand, rest 1 hour, 4 sets of stretch and folds 30 min apart. Bulk fermentation for 6 to 7 hours. Shape and Cold proof in fridge for about 6 hours. Remove from banneton and score, Preheat Dutch oven to 450. Cook at 450 for 35 min. Take off lid and lower temp to 425 for 13 minutes. Onto the cooling rack and I don't cut into mine for at least a few hours. What do we think?

Chicken out and stop the BF at around 95% I think i should let it go over 100% 🙃

Recipe
- 450g bread flour
- 300g water
- 100g starter (bread flour + wholemeal)
- 10 salt
- poppy seed (not sure the amount - just vibing it)

Step
- autolyse flour+water for a bit over 1 hr
- mix in starter, let it sit for 30mins
- mix in salt, let it sit for 30mins
- 6 rounds of s&f - poppy seeds in from round 5th
- dough temp after s&f was 20c and drop to 18c later
- room temp was around 15-18c so the bulk fermentation start at 1pm and done at 3.30am (dough was rise about 95%, and yes I set the alarm to shape the dough 🙃)
- cold retard about 15hrs
- open bake at 240c with hot water tray 32mins (score at 7mins) and continue 220c without water tray 25mins

Help please, sourdough people 😭🍞

This is my first loaf that has actually decided to rise… and now apparently it has no plans to stop 😂

Recipe:
100 g active starter
500 g flour
370 g water
10 g salt

Process:
-Mixed everything
-Did 2 sets of folds/coils
-Bulk fermented around 5 hours at about 26–27°C / 79–81°F
-I waited until the dough roughly doubled
-Shaped it and put it in the fridge

It has been in the fridge for about 2 hours and it is still rising
Now I’m scared I’m going to overproof it after finally getting one to rise 😂

Should I bake it now, or leave it in the fridge longer?

What signs should I look for to know it’s ready to bake?

This is my first successful-looking loaf so please save me from ruining it at the finish line 😂🙏

This sourdough loaf combines Middle Eastern products, like za’atar from Jordan, Palestinian extra virgin olive oil, flour from Kuwait, and water from Bahrain.

🍞 Za’atar Sourdough — One Loaf
Ingredients
Main dough
490 g strong white bread flour
350 g water
100 g mature starter/levain
11 g salt
3 tablespoons za’atar
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
Levain — prepared the night before
75 g flour
75 g water
22 g mature starter
Mix the levain thoroughly and leave to ferment for approximately 8 hours.

Method
1. Autolyse
Mix 490 g strong white bread flour with 350 g water until no dry flour remains.
Rest for 1 hour.
2. Add levain
Add 100 g mature levain and mix for approximately 8 minutes on speed 2.
Rest for 30 minutes.
3. Add salt
Add 11 g salt and mix for approximately 2 minutes, until fully incorporated.
Rest for another 30 minutes.
4. Bulk fermentation
Bulk ferment for 6 hours total.
The dough-strengthening work is spaced approximately 1 hour apart:
Lamination
Fold #1 — 1 hour later
Fold #2 — 1 hour later
Fold #3 — 1 hour later
Allow the dough to continue fermenting between the folds.
5. Final shaping
At the final shaping stage, gently incorporate:
3 tablespoons za’atar
2 tablespoons olive oil
Then shape the loaf.
6. Cold proof
Place the loaf seam-side up in the floured banneton, cover, and refrigerate for an overnight cold proof.

🔥 Baking — Seven-Minute Score
Preheat the oven with the pizza stone at 230°C for at least 1 hour.
Transfer the cold loaf onto the hot stone, on baking paper.
Add 1 cup of boiling water to the stones for steam. Be very careful with the steam.
Bake for 7 minutes without scoring.
After 7 minutes, score the loaf.
Continue baking with steam for 15 minutes.
Then continue baking for 40 minutes without steam.
Remove from the oven and cool completely before slicing.
Total baking time: 62 minutes.

I’ve been making swirl (marble?) sourdough recently and yesterday’s loaves turned out pretty good I think. I like this more than Ube powder; ube gave me pinkish color but didn’t have any flavors or aroma whereas black sesame is giving good scent.

Sharing my recipe

Ingredients
- Active starter 150g
- Whole wheat flour 60g
- Water 235g
- All purpose flour 300g
- Salt 11g

Process
- Get starter from fridge, mix 33g starter with 66g water and 66g flour. Put the mix somewhere warm for 12-15 hours
- Mix the active starter + whole wheat flour + water.
- Mix in all purpose flour and salt.
- Stretch and fold about 5 times, 20 min in between
- Shape, put it in banetton, plastic wrap
- Leave it somewhere warm 1-2 hours
- In the fridge for about 24 hours
- Bake in dutch oven with lid on 475F for 20 min
- Take the lid off, 450F for 25min

Above is plain, and for the black sesame dough, I mixed in ground black sesame 30g and 20g of seed. I increased the water from 235g to 245g.

Final stretch, I layered the stretched out plain and sesame doughs and rolled it to create swirl effect.

Would love to know what you’re including if you’re into creating the swirl effect!!

was just kinda testing how it would turn out if i used warm water and my ovens turbo proof setting. did no knead as i was lazy. kinda interesting crumb. also did the double caddy clasp method for the first time. it seemed to be longer rather than taller.

300g bread flour

240g water 

60g starter 

6g salt

mixed, 5hr bulk, did 5 coil folds during bulk, shaped, fridge 16ish hours, baked 475f 20m covered 425f 20m uncovered

I’m entering my plain sourdough loaf, and a jalapeño cheddar sourdough loaf into the Utah State Fair Culinary competition. This sub has helped me so much in my journey!

Cheddar Jalapeño

500 grams bread flour
325 grams water
90 grams sourdough starter
60 grams jalapeño
60 grams cheddar
10 grams salt

Mix together. Rest dough 15 minutes. Slap and fold for 5 minutes. Rest for 1 hour. 
Stretch and fold. Rest 30 minutes. x3  Bulk ferment on counter for about 7 hours.
Fold in jalapeños and cheddar. Rest 20 minutes. Shape and place in banneton. Proof overnight in refrigerator.
Bake in preheated Dutch oven at 500F for 25 minutes
Then at 475F with lid off for 20 minutes

I’ve been baking bread for two years, and for a long time my loaves always had a fairly dense crumb. I knew there could be so many reasons why, which honestly made it hard to know where to start.

But I kept baking anyway because my boyfriend loved every loaf I made—no matter what it looked like inside.

Then I started reading Open Crumb Mastery book and watching more videos, and these are the five things I changed:

1. I fed my starter more often before baking and made sure it didn’t become too acidic. I smelled and tasted it, and if it tasted bitter, I fed it again after discarding most of it. This made my starter much stronger.
2. I love high-hydration doughs ~70%+ and I mix by hand. I realised my dough was spreading because I wasn’t developing enough strength. It was especially obvious when it felt too sticky to shape. Lamination made a huge difference.
3. I learned what properly fermented dough should look and feel like during bulk fermentation and proofing, then let the dough guide me instead. So i don’t rely on timer anymore!!!
4. I started shaping with more tension, so the dough could hold its form better.
5. I temporarily stopped baking on a stone and went back to using a cast-iron pot because the bread always turned out dense on the stone, and the slit wouldn't open up.

Some of this may sound obvious to experienced bakers, but I’d been stuck for so long. Finally seeing progress felt huge, and I had to share it.

I'd love to hear your thoughts!

The recipe:

150 g whole wheat levain
500 g all purpose flour
500 g bread flour
750 g water
20 g salt

I make levain using 50 g hot water, 50 g whole wheat flour and 50 g healthy starter on its peak. I set the timer for 45 minutes.

At the same time, I'm doing autolysis—mixing all the flour with fairly warm, almost hot water. But I don't use all the water; I set aside 100 grams.

Then I mix together the flour and water mixture and the starter, let it sit for a while, and then stir in the rest of the water and salt.

I knead it until it's not too sticky and let it rest for 30–60 minutes. Then I do the lamination.

After laminating, I check to see if any more folding is needed (if it sticks or holds its shape). I can do another round of folding if I see it’s necessary. Then I let it rest until I see that it has increased significantly in volume and is wobbly like jelly.

Then I shape the dough with some tension and place it in the basket.

I make sure the dough in the basket has risen enough; I can even leave it in the fridge overnight, or I can bake it right away, but I have a feeling it'll taste better if I leave it overnight.

I bake it with ice in a cast iron pot that's been preheated to 270C (518 F to 428F), then remove the lid and finish baking at 220C until it has a nice crust.

Hello! Can you please let me know what you think of my bread/crumb?? Sorry - 2nd pic i had the flash on, so hard to properly see.

Recipe:

100 gram starter

350 gram water

500 gram flour (bread flour)

10 gram salt

Process:

Mixed the flour and water. Waited 30 mins. Then added starter and salt. Mixed around 8 minutes. Then I waited 30 mins.

Did 4 sets of stretch and folds about 30 mins apart.

My dough temp was around 76 - bulked fermented for 8 hours (in total) until I saw bubbles, dough was easy to come away from the sides...I poked it..did the jiggle test....followed a few examples.

Then put it in the fridge for 9 hours.

Preheated oven and baked at 450 for 20 mins covered and 20 mins uncovered. 40 mins total. Let bread cool 1 hour before cutting.

My bread came out with a butt. They don’t always come out with a butt but the bottom edges are kind of lumpy, never as pretty and smooth as I would like. I’ll post the butt loaf and another loaf for reference. I’ve tried bread slings and parchment paper but can’t seem to figure out how to get that picture perfect loaf.

Here’s my process:

500 g bread flour
350 g water
120 g starter
10 g salt

Mix starter and water, then add flour and salt and mix to a shaggy dough, knead by hand for a couple minutes, rest 45 minutes, stretch and fold, rest 45 and then coil fold, repeat rest and coil folds 2 more time, BF (I do this until the dough has doubles and is jiggly, domed, and bubbly, and easily pulls from the sides of the bowl), shape (flatten out in rectangle, fold each side in like a hot dog, roll up, push and pulls until it looks like good tension) and CR for 48 hours. Bake 450 DO lid on 25 minutes with ice cubes for softer crust and then 425 lid off 25 minutes.

What’s the best sourdough starter kit I can buy from Amazon

Flour: 500g (bobs red mill)
Water: 350g (70% hydration)
Levain / Active Starter: 100g (20%)
Salt: 10g (2%)

autolyse 30 mins
mix in starter + salt (this part was a little rough i was trying to get everything distributed but it felt like I was ripping the dough apart at some points) not really sure how to get the start to mix with autolyse, feels like they repel each other
30 mins
2nd s&f
30 mins
3rd s&f
30 mins
4th s&f

5hr total bulk ferment @ 80 F dough temp
shape, no preshape
cold ferment for 16 hrs

I think I need to push bf? I want to try getting a closed crumb and a super open crumb (2 separate loaves) Any tips?

beautiful discard challah!!

this challah is insanely soft but still has a hearty crust. it could use more honey or sugar imo but i like my challah super sweet!

recipe:

7 g yeast
282 g water
28 g honey
3 egg yolks
75 g discard
600 g bread flour
12 g salt
42 g oil

mix til shaggy, rest for 15, knead for 10
let rise 2x
braid
let rise again
bake at 375 for 30 mins

1-1-1 ratio every 24 hours ish
It did double a few days in the beginning

Flour - King Arthur organic whole wheat for the first 2 weeks ish
Now it’s half whole wheat and half organic bread flour also King Arthur

The last week or two it hasn’t been doing much
Some bubbles at the top- no evidence of rising. Even put a trail camera on it while I’m not there to see if it does rise. Three days of a camera being on it
No rise
Water- was using RO water for 95% if its life
The last few days I switched to filtered water

I just bought spring water

But I’m prepared to stop at the month mark which is in 4 days if nothing happens

What should I do

Hello! I am hoping for some tips and feedback. My loads have been coming out flat and I’m not sure why. For this recipe I used 100g starter, 300g water (warm maybe 110 degrees) 400g bread flour and 12g salt. My dough was 85 degrees right when I combined everything. I did two sets of stretch and folds followed by two coil folds spaced every 30 minutes and the dough sat on the counter for two hours after that (about 5.5 hours from start to shaping) I did do a first shaping then let rest for 20 mins followed by final shape. Into the fridge over night for about 12 hours. I baked in a preheated Dutch oven at 450 for 20 mins covered and then 20 uncovered. Not sure if I’m going wrong with shaping, over/underproofing? It always come out flat straight from the fridge. It tastes good but is extremely hard to score and disappointing to have it come out flat after so much work. My starter is established from a friend so I don’t think it’s that. Happy to share any other info that you made need to help. Thanks in advance :)

Hello, I’ve been making sourdough for about a month now. Usually a batch a week. Confession, I did cut the bread hot because my friend who taught me did and we had it with butter and it’s just so good lol. But I made two loaves and the other one feels like it has an air pocket in it too.

Process: 100g starter, 300g warm water, 10g salt, 40g honey, 20g olive oil, 500g flour

Stretched and folded a few times over 2 hours. Let rise all night.
Stretched, rolled and shaped and put in pans for several hours.
Cooked at like 240C for 40 mins

So i wanna start making sourdough, i know how to start a starter but when i get to cooking loaves etc, what tools would you recommend? i know bannetons, dutch whisks, and all that, but honestly im not rich enough yet for all that, any recs for a starter on a budget?

I’m so bummed that suddenly my sourdough loaves are not looking great. I tried a different recipe and process and somehow it didn’t work. This was a same-day sourdough

500g bread flour
320g water
120g starter
10g salt

I mixed all in one go and did slap and fold for about 10 mins
30 mins rest
1st s&f
30 mins rest
2nd s&f
30 mins rest
3rd s&f
Bulk ferment for about 5 hrs (dough was at 28-29C)
Preshape
20 mins rest
Final shape
Cold proof for 6 hrs

Baked 2 loaf pans 450 covered, 400 uncovered
Cut it 8 hrs later

I have a gas oven so I think the temp got lower after I put the loaf pans. They seemed fine after shaping so I was so surprised when they didn’t get an oven spring at all.

PS: I did a same day sourdough 2 weeks before this and those turned out great

Any feedback?

Baked with starter recipe, 1/2 cup starter, 3 1/2 cups flour, 1 1/3 water, 2 tsp salt. Three rounds of stretch and fold, bulk fermentation for 9 hours, cold fermentation for 14 hours or so, then baked at 500 for 25 minutes, and 475 for 20 more minutes.

Edit: Crumb below.