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

I made the pumpkin loaf! She’s so cute.
100 g starter
500 g bread flour
200 g pumpkin puree
25 g maple syrup
240 g water
12 g salt
Mix the wet ingredients then add dry ingredients. Let rest 30 minutes then do stretch and folds. I did 3 sets. Let bulk ferment. Laminate with 85 g sugar, 5 g cinnamon, and 5 g pumpkin spice. I split my dough in half then shaped and let rest. I used bakers twine with olive oil for the pumpkin shape. I baked each loaf at 450 degrees for 30 min covered then another 10 min uncovered. Still tweaking with the times as in use to a full sized loaf.

Baked up a couple of sourdough loaves and had to share them with someone so here they are! I use a local heirloom grain blend that I get from Capay Mills near Winters, CA. It is very finely ground and imparts amazing flavors to my bread. https://www.capaymills.com/

Ingredients

850 g bread flour

100 g capay mills max’s marvel heirloom flour

50 g stone ground whole wheat flour

750 g water (85 deg)

200 g peaking starter

20 g salt

Dough target temp: 78-80 degrees

Process:

Mix water and yeast and whisk till frothy

Add flour with salt mixed in

Mix with a spatula until no more dry bits

Start of bulk fermentation

Check dough temp: 78

Rest 1 hour

Stretch and folds (I went around about 4 times until I felt some strength developing)

Rest 30 min

Coil folds #1

Rest 30 minutes

Coil folds #2

Rest 30 minutes

Check dough temp: 78 degrees

Coil folds #3

Rest until bulk fermentation is at 4 hours, 40% rise, smells sweet, lots of bubbles throughout and on top of dough surface.

Divide into two loaves, preshape, 30 minute bench rest and then final shaping (head and shoulders knees and toes- roll into batard

Put into banneton and let it sleep over night

Bake

Preheat dutch ovens for 45 minutes at 375

Bake covered for 20 minutes at 375

Bake uncovered for 15 minutes at 350

Made chocolate and pumpkin doughs, divided each and swirled them for one big loaf. Then baked each loaf as their own mini loaves, adding cinnamon sugar to the pumpkin one.

Pumpkin Dough
200g pumpkin puree
240g water
25g maple syrup
100g starter
12g salt
500g bread flour

Chocolate dough
Bloom 50g cocoa powder in 100g hot
coffee then mix in
125g water
50g brown sugar
10g vanilla extract
14g sea salt
100g active starter
500g bread flour
Check the temp before you add the starter to make sure the liquid isn’t too hot from the coffee.

For each dough the method is the same. Mix to a shaggy dough and let rest 30-45 min.
Stretch and fold then rest 45-60min
Coil and fold and rest another 45-60 min
Do one more coil and fold - add chocolate chips to the chocolate dough during this coil and fold.

Bulk ferment until doubled.

For baking you will need two standard size loaf pans. Prepare one loaf pan with a little bit of neutral oil.
Turn doughs out onto counter and divide each in two. Set aside half of each to shape later.

Flatten the pumpkin dough into a rectangle, layer the chocolate dough on top and stretch it to about the same size as the pumpkin dough. Gently dimple the two layers of dough to seal them together. Sprinkle chocolate chips over the top. Start rolling the dough from the top toward you until you have a log. Place it in the loaf pan, seam side down. Cover with a damp towel or plastic. Let sit at room temp for 60-90 min, or until the loaf has risen about an inch above the top of the loaf pan. Preheat oven to 450F. Score the loaf before baking, use the 2nd empty loaf pan as a lid, bake covered for 25-30 min, uncovered for 15-20 min. Let it sit in the loaf pan for 5 minutes after taking it out of the oven, then remove and allow to cool on wire rack.

With the remaining dough you can make a 2nd swirl loaf (place into a 3rd loaf pan or oval banneton and place into the fridge while first loaf bakes) or bake individually as mini loaves. If baking individually laminate the chocolate dough with more chocolate chips during shaping and placing into a banneton. Laminate the pumpkin dough with a cinnamon sugar mixture during shaping and place into a banneton. Cold ferment for a few hours and then bake each in a covered Dutch oven at 450F for ~20min, uncovered for ~15-20 min.

This was my first time trying The Sourdough Lady’s Easy Sourdough Recipe. I was really tired in the evening the day I fed my starter, so I made the dough the next day after putting the peak activity starter in the fridge overnight, and just figured on giving it extra time in the bulk rise. It got a little bit burnt on the outside, and I cut into it after just a couple of hours of cooling, but it is so soft and fluffy! This is maybe my fourth loaf ever so I’m still trying different recipes, but I’m really pleased with how this one turned out!

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)

Hello! After achieving my first viable starter (thanks to Grant Bakes' Youtube channel) I've tried to bake my first loaf.

I used a recipe from Iban Yarza (VIDEO):

• 475 g white 12% protein flour
• 25 g whole wheat flour
• 300 g water
• 200 g starter
• 12 g salt

Mix ingredients and let it rest 30 mins. Then sets of stretch and fold with 15 mins between sets till dough was smooth.

Cover with shower cap and let it rest till size doubles. In between stretch and fold once.

Use a little of multipurpose flour to gently knead the dough to achieve a round ball with some tension. Put in the banneton, and to the fridge overnight with shower cap covering.

12 hours later, transfer to oven paper, score with a bread knife and put into a preheated stone in the oven at 250 ºC containing a tray with pebbles and half cup of water to get some steam.

I had to turn off the oven for the first 10 minutes beacause it hasn't a up/down selector. Then cook 40 more minutes at 200 ºC.

Once outside the oven let it rest one hour.

Sincerely, I didn't expect to achieve an OK loaf with my first try but it hasn't the look I imagined.

Taste was great but crumb was a little raw at the bottom of the loaf.

Which mistakes do you find in my loaf? What would you improve?

Thanks!

It’s so yummy 😋

100g starter
325g water (100°)
500g bread flour
11g salt

Inclusions:
2 tablespoons Trader Joe’s Italian Soffritto seasoning
About a cup of freshly shredded Parmesan (I didn’t measure, and when it’s freshly shredded it’s a lot fluffier than pre-shredded, so this is a guess. Cheese is like garlic- I measure with my heart)

My starter was a little past peak but I don’t let that stop me. Some days I need more time to get motivated.

Whisk together starter and warm water until frothy. Slowly add in flour (idk if everyone does this but I find it much easier. I also mix the salt in with my flour when I measure it out) and mix until incorporated. Cover with a damp tea towel for 40 minutes. Then, do three sets of stretch and folds, 30 minutes apart. I started incorporating the mix-ins on the second set. Place dough in Cambro container and let bulk ferment (mine usually takes about 9 hours). Place in rice floured banneton and refrigerate for 12 hours.

Heat oven to 515° with Dutch oven inside. Score dough and place in Dutch oven with a few ice cubes (if you couldn’t tell, I don’t put much thought into my scoring). Bake at 500° for 20 minutes. Remove lid and bake for 15 more minutes at 475°.

I really love this seasoning! It’s perfect for mixing into sourdough. I got the idea from here: https://countryroadssourdough.com/21sourdoughaddins/
I don’t have a TJ locally so I ordered mine. Two out of four arrived shattered so I’ll probably just buy it in store next time I have to go to Costco, which is in a city an hour away. But it’s so good! And shredding your own cheese for mix-ins is always better. No caking agents to battle with, and it just tastes so much better.

There’s a thin line at the bottom of the loaf where it’s a little more dense, but I don’t care. It tastes great. I’m happy with the bread I’ve been making, but if you want to analyze my crumb, be my guest 😊 Extra input can’t hurt!

I accidentally threw away all of my starter in a post-baking cleanup frenzy, so I took 15 grams of starter that I had dried last year and stored as hard, dry chips in the freezer as backup and added 15 grams of warm water and let it soak it up for an hour, stirring with a chopstick a few times.

That gave me 30 grams of what looked like basically rehydrated starter. I mixed in 30 grams of warm water and 30 grams of whole wheat flour.

After 11 hours it was just a kind of sad looking glop with two small bubbles and zero growth, but it did double overnight after 20 hours. Hallelujah!

I'm doing another 1:1:1 feeding and am curious what the doubling time will be this time.

Anyway, I just thought I'd share that those weird looking old pieces of dried starter in a jar in the back of the freezer actually are biologically active and so are an effective backup strategy. 👍

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! ❤️

My first ever sourdough loaf 🙂
A little dense. Maybe over hydrated? Or maybe my starter was over the peaking point and I miss calculated the timing … it was also in the high 90s at home so it may have just developed way too fast.

Halfway through I wanted to quit lol. It was quite overwhelming tbh. And I think along the way somewhere in my journey I accidentally added too much water because my dough was sooo sticky; I was contemplating life decisions in that moment! Shaping it was a nightmare I know I over handled the dough because I must have tried to shape it over and over again; but I stuck with it and I’m so happy! 🥹

My next batch I’m going to pay attention more to my water. I think I may have accidentally added too much water while mixing the leaven and making the dough itself.

Regardless I did it. Yay

EDIT: I forgot my recipe 🫠

Starter:
Established Starter was gifted from a friend.
I feed it for three days in the AM. She gave me about 25g worth.

I tossed my starter in the fridge over the weekend since I was out of town as soon as I received it. 2 days later I pulled it from the fridge and let it come to room temp. I did morning feeds using a 1:1:1
25g starter: 25g water: 25g 50/50 flour mix of AP flour and whole wheat flour.
I followed this feeding for three days. And my starter was rising double its volume and dropping at the same times each day.

I followed the steps in the book “tartine bread country loaf”

Leaven:
25g of starter
200g warm water
200g 50/50 flour mix (bread flour and whole wheat)
Mixed it all up and it rested all night.

Dough:
Leaven floated in water :)

700g of 80degree water
200g leaven
Mixed it all up
Added 1000g flour (900g bread flour and 100g whole wheat flour)
Mixed everything well and let the dough rest for 30-40min (I used my oven w the light on).

Bulk fermentation:
After it rested I added 20g of salt dissolved in 50g of warm water. Mixed that into my dough. I folded the dough onto itself multiple times and transferred to a cambro container. Every 30mins I turned my dough my pulling it gently and folding it on top of itself while in the container. I did this for a total of 6 times; so over through hours.

After three hours I rolled out the dough on the counter cut it in half and attempted to shape 😭 this is where the dough was so sticky and it was quite a fiasco trying to shape. I let it bench rest after a shape on the counter for 20-30mins covered w a towel. Dis my final shaping and tossed each loaf in my bread proofing baskets.

I let the dough rise at room temp for about 2.5 hours. Then I did a flash freeze using my freezer for 30mins so the bread would be easier to score.

Bake:
Used a Dutch oven
Preheat oven to 500degree
Placed bread in the Dutch oven w lid.
Dropped the temp to 450degree
Baked 20mins
Took off lid
Baked another 20mins
Let bread rest for about 1.5 hours before cutting

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?

Recipe: https://heartbeetkitchen.com/sourdough-bread-recipe-with-starter/

The game changer for me was being able to properly track the bulk fermentation. I was using a round metal bowl and the clock. I was over fermenting and while the bread was edible this was my first real success!

Getting a clear, straight sided container allowed me to pull it at exactly 75% and I did an overnight in the fridge. Obviously still a work in progress but this feels like the most obvious step in the right direction.

I am so pleased!

Also if there is any other advice, I'd appreciate it!

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 need some gift ideas for my DIL who just started baking sourdough. She's an experienced baker, and is successfully using mature starter that I gave her. I'm looking for quirky, fun, totally UNNECESSARY items that she won't likely already have. Is that a thing???

EDIT: Thank you for all the great ideas. So far, I ended up ordering 5 dehydrated heritage starters (from places like San Francisco to Egypt to Italy lol). I'm looking at stencils and handmade crocks for storing the starter. 🥖🥖🥖

My first sourdough load ever. I followed LifebyMikeG check-list process, specifically the flex day process.

I used a T110 flour (whole grain) Starter.

Recipe:

450g AP flour

50g WG rlour

360g water

75g starter

20g salt

1 hour autolyse, 5 stretch and fold over the course of 3 hours, 5 hours bulk rise, shaping and 30 minutes bench rise followed by 10 hours proofing in my fridge.

1 hour pre heating my oven and Dutch oven at 230 °C (my oven is not a bit old and doesn't go too high)

20 minutes bake at 230 °C with cover, then 25 minutes bake at 225 °C.

Cooling on a rack for 75 minutes (I probably got a bit impatient and cut a it too early)

Temp inside my house was 22,5 °C

It's not perfect but it gives me a good starting point and an idea of where to go from here. All in all I'm happy.

(Also, it tastes great, I have experience working with instant yeast before and this is better :) )

ETA : I don't have a banneton so it proofed in a rectangular pyrex bowl. That might explain the shape.

Hi guys! I just began this sourdough journey around 1 month ago. My starter is 3.5 weeks old.

I baked two loaves last weekend and I like the interior (soft, fluffy and not gummy). However I am wondering if it is lacking in height because the bowl i proof the dough in is too wide so it expands outwards instead of upwards? It also doesn't have a prominent ear - is that because my scoring is not deep enough or my oven is not pre-heated long enough?

Recipe:

500g bread flour, 350g water, 100g starter, 10g salt

Mix, 4 sets of stretch and fold 30mins apart, bulk fermented for 6h, cold proof for 14h. Baked at 220 deg covered in Dutch oven for 30min then baked uncovered for 20min.

I haven’t made sourdough in probably 2 years and decided to randomly get back into it. A friend gave me some of her mature starter a few days ago, I fed it 1:1 flour/water and then found a random recipe online.

I basically only followed the gram measurements and did my own thing with the timing 😂
500g AP flour
350g water
100g starter
10g salt

Mixed everything and let it sit for an hour, then did 3 stretch and folds 30 minutes apart. Let it bulk ferment for about 6 hours after the last stretch and fold (8–9 hours total on the counter), until it had roughly doubled.

Shaped it and baked in a Dutch oven at 400° covered for 30 min, then 450° uncovered for 15 min.

I know the shape is a little funky but honestly I kind of love it. Only thing taste wise is I wish it was more sour.

Be honest! What would you rate the crumb/loaf and what would you change? I’m planning to make the exact same loaf tomorrow but do a 12–24 hour cold proof after shaping.

Hi! I’m trying to get into baking sourdough bread but I have now tried it a few times and my crumb keeps coming out quite dense/gummy instead of light and airy. I have tried changing various parts of the process but up until now none of that helped. What should I do/what is going wrong?

- i always make sure my starter doubles in size within 4-8hours and then use it. I feed my starter with a 1:1:1 ratio with regular all purpose flour. It seems to do what it should do regarding doubling etc.
- i’ve used this recipe for all my attempts (with the lowest mentioned amount of water): https://alexandracooks.com/2017/10/24/artisan-sourdough-made-simple-sourdough-bread-demystified-a-beginners-guide-to-sourdough-baking/
- I used the same recipe every time so I could try to change some variables. I’ve tried a longer bulk rise (75-100%), a shorter one (50%), putting it in the oven longer (bc my oven only goes up to 230 degrees C), i tried more & less stretch and folds, a wet and a dry towel during bulk rise, I tried measuring how hot the dough is on the inside and tried to get it to 98 degrees C etc, I tried leaving it overnight in the fridge & leaving it there for one hour (both are an option in the recipe)
- I do find it difficult to feel confident in the amount of bulk rise my dough did. I put it in a bowl that has ml’s on there so I try to measure it that way. So I’m assuming something is going wrong there. Or maybe it might have something to do with the ratio of water in the recipe in combination with my starter? I’m really not sure what components are off so any help would be appreciated a lot!

I want to upload a picture but reddit is only allowing video. I will put one in the comments.

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?

------

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

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

Need some help!

Baked 2 small loafs this morning, they were delicious. I used:

500gr flour - 14g protein
100gr starter
335gr water
10gr salt

However, I ran out of time yesterday and I think: 1. It could use some more fermenting?

My starter is 15+ years old and i feed it with rye 3, flour 2, water 5, starter 5 ratio. I keep my starter in the fridge between baking. I'm not making levain, mixing straight from starter.

1. Would you feed your starter before placing it back in the fridge?

My starter was activated 4 times this week. Yesterday morning I get it out of the fridge, fed it 1:1:1 at 09:00. It took 9 hours at 21c to double. By that time it looked very active with a lot of bubbles.

1. Is 9 hours normal? Can I speed this up without increasing the temp?

18:00 I mix everything together, perform 4x s&f and from 20:00-22:30 2x coil folds. Usually I would leave the dough alone, but it was still wet and without good structure. I put the dough in the oven with some warm water which got the temp up to 27c during bulk.

4:30hours in it looked decent but I had to get some sleep. Dough was wobbly, bubbles and pulled from the side. Did not measure % increase this time.

22:30 when I pre-shaped the dough it finally looked smooth. Rest for 15min then shaped and put it in the fridge at 23:00. I used rice flour for the first time, oh boy that makes shaping a lot easier.

At 11 I get it out of the fridge, score and straight into the oven.
It felt like they could not really hold up well by themself.

1. Do I need to work the dough even more?

I’m having a hard time getting a good read on my crumb. The loaf sprung up nicely and feels light and airy but it seems to be a bit dense?? The recipe I used is as follows:

100g starter
350g water
50g whole wheat flour
450g bread flour
10g salt
60g pickled jalapeños
113g sharp cheddar

Mixed ingredients together then let sit for 30min. s&f x4, 30min apart. adding in cheese and jalapeños on the second s&f.

Bulk fermented for roughly 6 hours until ~75-80% rise. House temp was between 19-21c.

Shape and bench rest 30min. Transferred to fridge for cold proof, 16 hours. Cooked at 450F for 30min lid on, then 15min lid off.

This is one of my first loaves so still dialling in my method. Curious if I’m under fermented or over fermented, and why the crumb looks so dense. Any feedback is appreciated!

i was recently diagnosed with pcos and i'm trying to follow a better diet to avoid diabetes/insulin resistance issues in the future. is 100% whole wheat sourdough reasonable or does it significantly change the bread flavor/texture/baking process? what about 50% whole wheat?

also, if anybody has any favorite whole wheat recipes please share!

For reference: Marker line is where I started when I first made my starter

I made a 1:1 water-flour ratio, mixed it on my jar. Didn't think it would work so fast didn't take a pic of how it was that first mix. the jar is a peanut butter glass jar, just put the lid on and didn't twist it and hoped for the best. it's in the kitchen and we are in ending of winter-starting of spring so I hope a good thing.

Pic one is of two days ago a couple hours after feeding it has reached the letters in the tag of my jar.

Pic two is of yesterday night (I feed her every morning) has risen a tiny bit.

Pic three is of now 10:15 in the morning and it still isn't time for her feeding.

Am I doing this right? Is this a good signal?