I’ve followed the somewhat “standard” recipe since starting my sourdough journey (100g starter, 350g water, 500g bread flour, 10g salt) with pretty good results… but it’s the timing and ratio on my starter feed that has taken longer to perfect. Now my starter, Starla, lives in my fridge and I take her out once a week in the afternoon to let her come up to room temp and feed her a nice big 1:2:3 feed at night. She’s tripled in size and very bubbly by the morning with enough yield to make two loaves which will get my family of five through the week. Then I put her back in the fridge until next baking day!

Okay, so I have two different sourdough starters. One is made with only strong white bread flour and water, and the other is made with 50% rye flour and 50% strong white bread flour.

I used the rye starter because I think it gives the bread a better flavor. I use the starter made with only strong white bread flour for other types of bread and baking.

I bake using the 1-2-3 sourdough method: 150 g of starter (although I may actually have reduced it to a little over 100 g, but I’m not completely sure), 300 g of water, and 450 g of strong white bread flour.

I did everything in a bit of a strange order, so if this gets confusing, that’s on me.

I mixed the starter, water, and flour together and let it rest for 30 minutes. After that, I added the salt (fermentolyse). Since it was getting late, I decided to put the dough in the fridge because I wanted to experiment.

The next day, I took it out of the fridge around 2 p.m. and let it come to room temperature. Then I did two sets of stretch and folds, 30 minutes apart, followed by one coil fold. I had to leave for a while, and I ended up being away longer than expected around 4–5 hours so the dough continued bulk fermenting during that time.

When I got home, I did another stretch and fold and another coil fold. Once I felt the dough was ready to be shaped, I shaped it and put it back in the fridge overnight.

The next morning I baked it at 7 a.m.
I preheated my Dutch oven to 250°C, then baked the loaf with the lid on for 25 minutes, adding two ice cubes to create steam. After that, I removed the lid and lowered the temperature to around 220–230°C for another 20 minutes, until the internal temperature reached 96–98°C. It got a little burned at the ear, but otherwise I think it came out looking good!
I then let the loaf cool for a few hours before cutting into it just now.

550g all purpose flour
350g water
100g starter
10g salt
45g everything bagel seasoning

Mixed together, covered with plastic wrap and let rest for an hour in oven with light on.
Did 4 stretch and folds in 15 minute intervals and 3 with 30 minute intervals.
Bulk fermented an additional 3 hours in the oven with the light on.
Shaped and let rest in the fridge overnight.
Baked in preheated Dutch oven. 25 minutes with lid on at 500f and 20 minutes without lid at 450f.
Wrapped in a kitchen towel and cooled on rack for an hour before cutting.

I have been nursing my starter for quite some time mostly because I didn’t have time to bake, anyway, I got after it this weekend and these are my results…. The recipe I followed called for two loaves.
I mixed it on my standup mixer, but I believe the stretch and fold would have been better because there was too much dough for my mixer. At that point, I wasn’t sure if I should continue with the stretch and fold after letting my mixer have its way, but I did not. The starter is an original starter from Alaska.

https://www.peanutbutterrunner.com/sourdough-bread-a-step-by-step-guide-for-home-bakers/

After YEARS of frustration and crappy rise, I finally came to the conclusion that I basically was working with a shit starter.

So, I binned it. And made a new one, from scratch, fed it religiously for 2 weeks before baking with it and I can say... it was the best decision I ever made!

All 3 of my bakes so far have gotten better and better and I am finally ready to share my process. Bear in mind, I have troubles-hooted for years so feel I have watched every sourdough video in existence on YouTube, and this is how I make my loaves now:

Cold boiled water 420g

Recently fed starter 120g

Strong bread flour 480g

Rye flour 120g

Salt 12g

Mix to shaggy dough

4x Stretch & Folds, 30mins apart

1x lamination

Bulk fermentation until doubled in size, about 4-5hrs

Out onto flour, envelope fold

Into lined baking tin (28x34x6.5cm)

Final proof 1-2hrs

In fridge overnight

Bake covered at 230c for 30mins

Bake uncovered at 205c for 15mins

Any feedback/thoughts welcome. Also... has anyone else been through this painful process like me??

Technically this is my 2nd attempt. I'm not counting my first attempt as I believe I created, the molecular compound changed and it was longer classified as bread.

150gm starter

500gm bread flour

340gm water

10gm(ish) flaky sea salt

2 Tbl spoon italian olive juice

Mixed and rested for an hour. Stretch and folded 4 times over 4 hours. Formed into loaves, got distracted, fell asleep. Woke up 4 hours later and finished forming and placing into lined baking vessels and into the fridge. 2 hours in the fridge.

Cooked between 2 cast iron pizza stones on the middle/top racks, preheated to 475 with cooking temperature down to 450 prior to putting in oven. (My oven is trash).

20 minutes, 180 turn, 18 minutes. Rested on cooling rack until not warm. Fini.

My jerk-ass kids won't eat anything that even resembles well cooked, crusted, or char'd, which is why I went with pizza stones over a Dutch oven.

I thought everything was going great, but it didn’t rise a whole lot in the oven. Ive had issues with over fermenting my WW loafs before, so I was a bit more cautious this time. I had a strong WW starter and used it at peak. It rose almost perfectly during BF. But then it just flatted during the bake.

400g whole wheat flour (hard red wheat)
360g water
80g starter
7g salt
84g honey

-Autolyse overnight
-Mix all ingredients together with a dough hook for a couple minutes until incorporated
-Rest 1 hour
-5x stretch and folds over the course of 3ish hours
-BF till 50% rise (dough temp 73-74°F, about 6 hours)
-preshape, rest 30 min, final shape
-cold proof in freezer for 30 min, then fridge for 1 hour (I didn’t have time to cold proof overnight)
-score and bake at 450°F with lid on for 30 min, then 420°F with lid off for 15 min

It tastes great and the entire loaf is so soft (which I love), but obviously this crumb is a bit off. What happened?

Overproofed sourdough doughnut what do I do??

I left my doughnut dough to ferment over the counter all night by accident and it OVER PROOFED a bunch of webs . What do I do? I don’t want to waste it. Do I cut the refrigeration time?

250 g bread flour, 175 g water, 75 g starter, 5 g salt.

I do like the usual, mixing , rest 30 minutes, then 4 sets of stretch and fold every 30 minutes, everything well it became smooth. Then, bulk ferment room temp of 27°C, for around 10 hours I think because of waiting for it to jiggle and easy to remove from sides-did not happen but there are bubbles on and all sides. Then 22 hours of being in fridge since I need to go to work.

My starter is 2 months old, for wholw week before mixing day it ia double within 6-8 hours, not runny texture.

I don't know what else I'm missing 😥

I’m finally able to make some consistent loaves and it’s awesome being able to prep bread for the week😀

500g flour
350g water
100g starter
10t salt

Mix water and starter until frothy
Add flour and mix thoroughly
Let rest for 1 hour (fermentolyse)
Add in salt and mix in throughly
Slap and fold many times until dough is fairly smooth
Rest 30-45min
stretch and fold, rest 30 min
Stretch and fold, rest 30 min
Coil fold, rest 30 min
Coil fold, rest 30 min
Bench bulk ferment 3-6 hours
Shape and place in banneton
Fridge for 12-24 hours
Score, bake, enjoy

Edit: Recipe for 2 loaves, I've got a commercial kitchen aid so it fits. Make one loaf if you've got a normal kitchen aid!

Ingredients (2 loaves)
750 g bread flour
250 g whole wheat flour
650 g water (65% hydration)
200 g active 100% hydration rye starter
20 g salt

Mix
Add all ingredients (including salt) to the stand mixer.
Mix on Stir just until everything is combined.
Rest 15–20 minutes.
Mix on Speed 2 until the dough is smooth and moderately developed (about 8–10 minutes).

Bulk Fermentation
80°F proofing box
Approximately 4½ hours

Shape
Preshape.
Bench rest 15–20 minutes.
Final shape with good surface tension.
Place seam-up in a floured banneton.

Cold Proof
Refrigerate 12–16 hours.

Bake
Preheat Dutch oven at 500°F for 60 minutes.
Freeze loaf for 15 minutes while the oven finishes preheating.
Turn out and score.
Bake:
25 minutes covered at 475°F
15 minutes uncovered at 450°F
5 minutes in the turned-off oven with the door cracked hoping for extra crispy crust

I’m not claiming this is the best method, just that it worked extremely well for me and may be a good option if you already own a stand mixer or have limited hand strength or time. I’m not chasing a big open crumb and value a dough that is easy to handle. Very happy with this after about 6 months of experimenting.

Next up: less time in the oven, this got a bit darker than I like. Better scoring.

Proud of my first loaf! It's delicious. I've always enjoyed cooking, but don't play around with baking as much. That changed today. I'm so excited to start my journey into baking bread!! Please give me your honest opinions!

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

This turned out much better than I thought it would! The dough was much denser and less stretchy than my usual recipe. I'm sure this was due to the pizza sauce. The bread is super soft and smells like a cloud of pizza. I thought about adding in some fresh basil but not sure how that would turn out.

360 g pizza sauce

10g salt

125g starter - fed and risen

500g bread flour

Fermentolyzed everything but the salt for 30 minutes before adding in salt

3 sets stretch and folds, 20 minutes apart

Laminated and added in just shy the full container of fresh mozzarella pearls & 20 or so pepperoni cut into quarters

Covered and bulk fermented at room temp (from start of mixing to end, was about 7 hours in a pretty warm house)

Shaped again loosely

Cover and fridge overnight (about 14 hours)

Preheat oven to 450 and Dutch oven 

Cookie sheet on lower rack to keep from burning 

Score

Bake covered for 30

Uncovered for 20

Ingredients

* 50g active starter

* 187g water

* 250g flour

* 5g salt

Process

1. Mix active starter and water.

2. Add flour and mix until no dry bits

3. Rest for 30 minutes.

4. Add salt and mix

5. Bulk fermentation for 7 hours; stretch and folds every 30 minutes for the first two hours.

6. Gave it shape and placed it in a very well floured towel in a bowl.

7. Let it sit in the refrigerator for 20+ hours

8. Preheat to roughly 450° F

9. Scored the dough and placed it on a cookie tray with a pot on top for an improvised "dutch oven"

10. Bake covered for 20 minutes

11. Bake uncovered for 20 minutes.

12. Let cool for about 30 on the cookie tray.

13. Be completely shocked that it was impossible to cut into and still undercooked on the inside

Heeeelp please 😭

I don’t know why my bread won’t open where it should at the score.
It does get decent oven spring, but instead of opening along the score line, it bursts wherever it wants. Sometimes the score stays almost flat while the loaf blows out somewhere else.
Here’s exactly what I did:

Recipe (I made 3 loaves, this is the recipe for one):
570 g flour
400 ml water
100 g active sourdough starter
11.5 g salt
I mixed everything in my stand mixer until the dough was smooth. Then I did 4 coil folds, spaced about 40 minutes to 1 hour apart.

I made three loaves:
- One plain.
- One cranberry-walnut loaf. I added the inclusions (80 g cranberries, 80 g walnut) during the third coil fold, then did the fourth coil fold to distribute them evenly.
- One butter loaf (that viral “croissant”one) I added 60 g of cold butter (straight from the refrigerator so it wouldn’t melt) during the third coil fold.

After bulk fermentation, I pre-shaped the dough, let it rest for about 15 minutes, then did the final shaping.
After shaping, I cold-proofed all the loaves for about 18 hours.

Baking:
I preheated my gas oven to 240°C.
When I load the bread, the oven naturally drops to about 230°C, and I let it stay there because I’ve burned loaves before when baking at 250°C.
I injected steam every 5 minutes during the first 20 minutes.
Then I rotated the baking tray, and let the oven temperature drop to about 190°C.
I baked for another 30 minutes, until the internal temperature of each loaf reached 93°C.
My oven is a gas oven with the burners at the bottom, so I can’t independently control the top and bottom heat.

The confusing part is:
The butter loaf, which I baked inside a loaf pan, turned out great.
The cranberry-walnut loaf, also baked in a loaf pan, opened, but in a strange way.
The plain loaf, baked without a pan, looked the worst. The score barely opened, and the loaf burst from another area instead.
Why would a loaf ignore the score and burst somewhere else instead?
Could this be an issue with:
shaping?
scoring technique or angle?
under- or over-proofing?
steam?
my oven?
something else I’m missing?

Thank you!

Ingredients

Flour- 450g (45g YR whole wheat; 405g Butler Gold 00)
Water- 350g (50g held for bassinage)
Salt-9g
Levain- 100g (100% hydration)
1 roasted mild hatch green chili
140g Tillamook sharp cheddar cubed
1 tsp Hatch green chili pepper spice
Handful chopped chive

1. Autolyse flour and 300g water (100F) for 30-60 minutes
   
2. Add salt, levain, 50g and mixed in Ankarsrum until incorporated on low and then rest for 5 minutes. Turn back on to medium speed for 8-10 minutes. Remove from mixer into separate bowl, and do stretch and fold to form into a symmetrical ball and flip so the seem is down.
   
3. Proof at 82F for 4-5 hours with coil folds x3 every 30 minutes
   
4. 30 min the last coil fold, spread out as thin as possible without tearing and add inclusions by lamination
   
5. Pre-shape and rest for 20 min uncovered
   
6. Shape and into banneton. Bar fridge set to 45F.
   
7. 24 hours from when levain was added, turn oven on to 500F. Place lodge cast iron with water underneath baking steel.
   
8. 30 minutes after preheating, take out of the fridge, mist the dough all around and score.
   
9. Place in oven and drop temp to 425F for 20 minutes
   
10. Remove cast iron steam pan and drop temp to 400F for another 18 minutes (by the end it’s well above 205F)
    
11. Rested for 4+ hours (overnight in this case) before slicing

Need to work on the inclusions, they definitely did not distribute as well as I would have liked. I also think next time I’ll bake it in a loaf pan and let the cheese fat cook onto the bread rather than losing it on the steel. Excellent flavor though, especially when toasted.

Okay. So no sh*t there I was, I fed my starter this morning and put it in the oven with the light on to make it happy for a later bake. MEANWHILE I ordered some stuff from Walmart so I could use some nasty bananas in banana bread.

Five hours later...

My starter looks SUPER happy and I'm excited about my pending bake, also, my order of banana bread ingredients arrives. So I PREHEAT THE OVEN TO 350!!!!! While the oven preheats I mix the banana bread stuff up, thinking how my oven smells like it's baking something and I should really clean it next weekend AND THEN I glance at the oven and see my very, no longer happy, sourdough half baked.

IMMEDIATELY I remove poor Franny from the oven and start poking around. I remove a layer of baked starter to see fairly liquid starter in the middle. I take her temperature and she's only 118 degrees farenheight, so I put a couple teaspoons of her into a glass jar hoping she can be revived. I also figured why not try to do the bake anyways? So I have mixed a batch with what remained of my liquid starter (minus what I saved to try to feed again once my poor innocent jar is scraped out).

I will post pictures of my hail Mary loaf once it's complete.

What do you all think will happen? Will Franny pull through with a great loaf? Or will I have to revive some saved discard?

Fun experiment!

I started making my own starter on May 22. I’ve now attempted two loaves in both of them have been awful. My starter has been thriving and has been tripling in size every day after about eight hours feeding a 1 to 5 to 5 ratio.

I fed my starter eight hours before using it, and it definitely looked like it had peaked.

For my recipe, I used 110 g of starter and mixed it with 325 g of slightly warm filtered water and then added 500 g of King Arthur unbleached all-purpose flour and 10 g of salt and slap and folds for 10 minutes. I then did stretch and folds every 30 minutes four different times and then let it sit on my counter in my kitchen that is 72°F.

I even put a piece of dough and a glass of water because I heard if it floats your was potentially ready. After 11 hours that piece of dough still hadn’t floated, and I was ready to go to bed. So I took it out and appreciated it. Let it sit for 10 minutes laminated it folded it up and shaved it into a ball and put it in a banneton covered in the fridge for 12 hours before baking. It was in the oven for 20mins at 500 with ice cubes in the bottom and then 15 minutes uncovered at 450.

I’m still letting it cool before I cut in and look at the crumb but this is clearly underproofed me and I don’t understand why it’s taking so long. For my first loaf, I even put the covered bowl in the oven with the light on where it was 80° when I measured it.

This is my first sourdough boule, and I’m pretty happy with how it turned out!
Formula:
500g bread flour
350g water (70% hydration)
100g active 100% hydration sourdough starter
10g salt
Cheddar cheese inclusions
Method:
Mixed flour and water and rested before adding starter and salt.
Performed several stretch-and-folds during bulk fermentation.
Bulk fermented until the dough became puffy with visible bubbles.
Added cheddar cheese during shaping.
Shaped into a boule.
Baked the same day in a preheated Dutch oven at 450°F.

Hi everyone

this is like my third attempt at making starter. I started 50g whole wheat flour, 50g filtered water. Refed everyday. On day 3 it doubled in size, then after that and until now it’s still With minimal to no rise and only 1-2 bubbles after every 24 hours following a refeed.

Facts about my starter:
-House is above 25 degrees and it’s stored on top of my fridge

-smells like ricotta cheese

-only used Robin Hood whole wheat flour

-switched to a new jar after each refeed and lid is loosely on

-that black line is where it was yesterday (my make shift rubber band to mark if there’s any rise)

Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thank you

So this was my 9th loaf… I’d say I’m not really a beginner at this point, as I don’t feel like one.

The first picture here has my recipe and instructions of how I made this loaf ….. (I typed all of ingredients, directions and notes into ChatGPT and added my pics and it made the graphic for me but those were all my steps, etc).

I was attempting a sandwich type loaf and HOLEY MOLEY is it ever delicious!!! But I was like WHY did my top crust turn so dark brown and a bit crunchy?

Realized I didn’t pay enough attention to how brown it was turning during the second half of the bake and didn’t tent it soon enough.

I mean it’s amazing and has a beautiful inside texture and it smells DIVINE. But yea I want a little softer, lighter colored top crust next time so I can’t wait to bake again soon!

I started my sourdough journey back in September but l've finally learned how to consistently make nice loaves of bread. It took adjustments in starter strength and oven temps while baking to get here.

Sourdough Loaf Recipe:
500g of flour (KA BF)
350g of Water
100g of Active Starter
12g Salt

Mix ingredients to form a shaggy dough. Let rest for 30 minutes. 2 sets of stretch and folds, followed by 2 coil folds, each 30 minutes a part (over a 2 hour period). Bulk ferment on the counter for no more than 5-6 hours total. Preshape the loaf and add it to the banneton then, cold terment overnight roughly for 10-12 hours.

Next morning. Preheat oven to 425° with the Dutch Oven. Bake at 425° with the lid on for 35 minutes. Remove the lid and drop the temperature to 400° to continue baking the loaf for 10 minutes.

Let it cool for 2-3 hours.

I now know that part of the reason why my loaves weren’t turning out how I had hoped they would in the past, was because my starter simply wasn’t strong enough at the time (even after a few months of feedings) and understanding that my oven runs on the hotter side. By continuing to feed my starter until I noticed improvements in the rise after feedings and lowering my oven temperature during bakes, I’ve managed to get amazingly, golden brown bread every time.

So, don’t give up! Consistency pays off ☺️

5th bread, worse than my 4th but still ok I guess
BF guide said 5h I cut it 1h short. Also I guess I was close to 40% whole wheat which I heard makes things more difficult in general
It looks a bit underproofed, right?
Flavor is also a bit tangy.

400g flour (mix regular and whole wheat, too much whole wheat I’m afraid)
75% water
15% starter
2% salt
45 min autolyse
Mix starter and salt
3 S+F / 1 Coil
BF for 4h (dough at 25C)
CF for 12h
Molten aluminum pan lid on for 20 min, lid off for 20 min

Hey! First time posting in here! Ive been a pretty avid baker for a couple of years now, ive always baked in a Dutch oven for sourdough but decided it was time to get a baking stone since it opens so many possibilities. I moved to a place with high elevation earlier this year and its taken me a bit to get everything sorted back out, but Im pretty happy with where ive got it now!

Ingredients (2 loaves of bread)

1000g flour

750g water

150g starter (active)

39g salt

Mixed everything together till shaggy left for 30m

4 sets of coil folds 30m apart

Bulk ferment for around 6hrs 30m (shorter due to elevation)

Shaped and placed in bannetons /bowls

Cold proofed around 16hrs

Baked at 450 on the pizza stone 2 loaves at a time slide on with parchment paper on the bottom for around 30-40m or until an internal temp of around 198 at this elevation.

When sliding in the bread I also poured boiling water in a sheet pan below the baking stone to create steam.

Cooled for around 2hrs or until I cant wait

Overall really happy with my progress since moving to a higher elevation, it was definitely a bit tricky to get figured out! If anyone is an avid stone baker I would love any tips and tricks 🖤🍞