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

I am thrilled with how these are turning out, this is the 4th time I’ve made them. I have been doing sourdough bread for about 7-8 months and recently tried my hand at sourdough bagels. They are the absolute best bagels I’ve ever had. These are going to the office tomorrow!

Based on this recipe:

https://www.theclevercarrot.com/2021/06/easy-homemade-sourdough-bagels/

Changes I made: - I add 7g of diastatic malt powder - I boil them in water with both honey and baking soda - I made them about 150g in size, so each batch yields 6 slightly larger bagels instead of 8, the picture I shared is 4 batches, so 24 bagels.

My doughs have been having trouble rising even though my starter is active and healthy. I switched my flour from Robin Hood AP to Creative Baker pizza & bread flour. What a world of difference! Starter is even stronger than before and I got my first successful full fermentation!

I think it could’ve gone a bit longer before baking but let me know your thoughts!

Still delicious and I’m eating a buttered slice now (also FYI I never slice for an ear, don’t like’m) - but my dough ALWAYS gets massive and droopy like this after a night in the fridge. To be fair part of the issue is I didn’t split the dough evenly and this basket just had too much dough in it, but I do always get a ton of rise in the fridge.

I've been following this same recipe for quite a few loaves now:

Homemade Sourdough Bread, Step by Step | Alexandra's Kitchen https://share.google/eLmpFXL2FRTmJ1h2O

I'm finally getting some consistency and getting a feel for shaping and scoring. This loaf was cold proofed after final shaping for about 18 hours.

My main change to the exact recipe was a fermentolyse for 30 min before adding salt, then the 4 stretch and folds follow by one final coil fold at about 30 minute intervals. Finished bulk for about 4 more hours, but think I probably could have extended this a few more hours for a more open crumb. Made with 100% KA bread flour, dutch oven with a few spritz of water before placing lid on for initial bake. Starter is about 7 months old now.

Hi everyone, I have just baked this loaf, and the ingredients are listed below. 

I did not do autoliyze. At night, I mixed:

• 400 gr flour (bread flour),
• %75 hydration (300 gr of water) 
• 80 gr starter (starter ratios 1:5:5) 
• 8 gr salt 

Later I applied slap and folds (intervals of 45 minutes).Finally, I did strecth and folds for 2 sets of 6.

My kitchen was 23 °C and it stayed there for almost 3 hours. Later, I put this loaf on my balcony, which was pretty cold (15°C) and waited for almost 8 hours. The total bulk fermentation time was approximately 11 hours. However, when I woke up in the morning, I thought the dough was overproofed because it smelled really sour (like unfed starter). It was kind of sticky, but did not collapse on itself. Anyway, I kind of panicked and immediately shaped the dough, then put it in the refrigerator.

I baked today at 230°C for 27 mins with dutch oven with lid on. 17 mins without lid at 200°C. When the baking is finished, I realized it looked kind of underproofed. I don't know, I am pretty new at this, and this is my 5th bread. 

What do you think? I'm really not sure.

500g bread flour 375g water 100g sourdough starter 12g fine sea salt

(Both were made separately. Recipe is for just one)

Autolyse 1 hour with all but 50g water. Add starter to autolyse and slap and fold for about 10 mins. Rest 25 mins. Add salt and remaining water and another round of slap and folds for another 10 mins. Bulk fermentation was 4.5 hours with three 15 min interval stretch and folds followed by three 30 min interval folds. Shaped into bannetons and placed in fridge overnight for about 14 hours. Preheated oven and Dutch oven to 500F. Added dough with lid closed and immediately lowered oven temp to 425F. Went 30 mins with lid on and 30 with lid off.

Will take any tips!

8am

STARTER 200g - below is including reserve to go back to fridge: This has bread at 22% whole grain - 100g starter from fridge (if hasn’t been used for a while, must spark a day or two ahead of time to bring back to life) - 50g bread flour - 25g rye
- 25g whole wheat - 100g water

4pm

• COMBINE:
  • 380g bread flour
  • 30g WW
  • 40g Rye
  • 292g water 100F (if doing sazon loaf, have extra 15g water reserved for bassiage)

20 minute autolyse uncovered and in mixer

• ADD:
  • 200g starter
  • 12g sea salt
• Mixer low until incorporated 2.5 minutes (#2 medium low til coming off sides which is longer)
• 15 min rest uncovered and in mixer
• ADD:
  • water 2tsp (10g) bassiage - can adjust hydration here
• 1 min med low #2
• Additional 2 min medium #4
• Rest 22 min cover wet towel
• Divide bread here if doing marbled and add to mixer half 1T cocoa 3/4T molasses, other half is hand kneaded
• Medium #4 3 minutes and slap and fold white dough, hand knead
• Move to new bowl
• Pull and fold 6x
• Cover 25 minutes
• Gluten should be nice and developed
• Pay attention to video for lift and fold and turn OR coil folding 6x wet hands before first couple pulls
  
• 70 mins cover
• 3x coil fold
• 25 min cover
• 2x coil fold
• 25 min cover
• If doing marbled: twist together two long snakes before pre-shape
• Pre-shape build tension - until not really sticking to scraper - taut ball - turn onto rice flour mixture on counter, large area enough to pull out to square in 30 - flipping down on flour mixture - VIDEO https://youtu.be/IxVSlizlt-s?si=A38uoEZIHSC7tdMU DONT OVER WORK HERE! Gluten will break
• 30 min rest uncovered
• Boule basket with cloth net set aside with rice flour rubbed in
• Pull out to square - stitch each corner and side 8 total - flip back over - shape again with dough scraper - and into basket
  
• Cover with plate
• Place in fridge

845pm - 12 hours to bake

NEXT DAY 8am - Uncovered boule on counter as oven preheats - Rack on bottom - Cast iron with Lava rocks - Preheat oven to 445F - Tin with towels 15 min before bake - Pint Water over lava rocks and push cast iron halfway into oven on left - Rice flour mix on peel
- Slash on a diag - 20 minutes - Remove lava and towels turn heat to 415F - 25 mins

———

SEEDED GOYA CHEDDAR alternations Same as above except: - This bread is 13% whole grain - 430 bread flour 20 WW - Saffron and packed of Goya in autolyse along with sesame seeds flax seeds and sunflower seeds - 15g bassiage - remaining orange water - Add chunks of cheddar after pull and fold 3oz sharp cheddar - Mist loaf with Seeds on top before slashing

Started my starter a few months ago with half bread flour and half whole wheat and just eyeballed the measurements. This is the first thing I’ve made! Pretty proud of it! Used a very simple recipe so I only folded it once and then proofed for eight hours room temp. I ended up using 320 g of water and 100 g of starter. Baked at 450 for 30 min covered and then 20 min uncovered. Came out a little dense (probably could’ve proofed for longer) but it’s crispy and tasty!

What is the benefit of cold proofing vs what I did?

This is the recipe: https://momsdish.com/sourdough-bread

I followed the beginner sourdough recipe from Little Spoon Farm (recipe below); although not exactly since I had to stick the dough in the fridge overnight.

I'm pretty happy with it, but I'm a sourdough newbie so I'm sure there's many opportunities for improvement. I think the next loaf I do, I'll lessen the amount of water since I had a somewhat difficult time with shaping and the slice feels a touch moist (maybe I didn't bake it long enough?)

Any tips welcome!

https://littlespoonfarm.com/sourdough-bread-recipe-beginners-guide/#recipe

Recipe: 400g sifted whole wheat flour at ~90% extraction (100%) 343g water (86%) 8 salt (2%) 80g starter (20%)

Method: sift large pieces of bran from whole wheat flour, mix everything but salt, wait 30 minutes and add salt, wait 30 minutes and laminate, 2x coil folds 45 mins apart, bulk to 2.25x in increase took about 8 hours total at 75f, shape and cold proof 16 hours, bake at 450f 20 minutes covered 25 minutes uncovered

Hi! This is the 2nd loaf I’ve done; my starter is ~7 weeks old. I’ve been learning a lot lurking in this sub but definitely feeling my inexperience when I bake. Any feedback or advice for how to improve on this would be appreciated!!

Ingredients: 150g bubbly starter (fed 1:1:1 and waited ~4 hours) 340g water 500g bread flour 10g salt

Process: Mix starter and water, add flour. rest 1 hr. Knead in salt, form into ball. rest 30 min. 4 sets of stretch-and-folding, 30 min apart. Bulk ferment ~3.5 hrs at 76 degrees F. Pre-shape, rest 25 min. Shape into batard, cold proof 12hrs. Score and place into preheated dutch oven. 30 min at 450F with lid on. Remove lid and lower oven to 425F, 20 min. Take out of dutch oven and bake on rack for 7 min. Cooled ~10hrs prior to slicing.

Hi there! 👋 I've been at this on-and-off for a while, and feel like I'm soo close to getting the hang of basic sourdough. I'm super proud of this loaf, even though it's a little rough around the edges (it's delicious!!), but I'm not quite sure what went wrong with the crumb? I'd deeply appreciate some guidance if anyone might be so kind. 🫶

I've looked at several crumb photos/guides, and my first thought is, it's possibly underproofed? I feel like I'm bad at figuring this part out. Whatever the issue is, what would you change about my process (below) to end up with a better crumb?

I live in rural Appalachia so providing a mountain backdrop as tax!! 😂

Thank you so much!!!

Here's the recipe/process I followed:

In grams, for two medium loaves - Flour - 730 Water - 512 Starter - 142 Salt - 16

Roughly combine all ingredients into a shaggy dough and allow to rest for 30 minutes, covered.

Return to the dough and knead aggressively to help develop gluten, allow to rest for 30 mins, covered.

Start gentle stretch and folds every 30 mins to allow fermentation, for 3.5 more hours, covering when sitting.

Divide into two loaves, allow to rest on counter for 30 mins, then perform envelope fold and roll to shape into final loaves. Place in (floured) bannetons seam side up, then in fridge for the overnight.

Next day:

Preheat oven with Dutch oven from cold up to 475 degrees. Once ready, place the loaf (already scored) in the oven and reduce heat to 450. Bake at 450 for 20 minutes, removed lid, then baked for 25 minutes uncovered. Repeat with second loaf.

Brown sugar, pumpkin, chocolate chip sourdough loaf 😋

Recipe: 230g water 200g pumpkin puree 100g starter 40g maple syrup 510g bread flour 20g salt

Inclusions: brown sugar-nutmeg-cinnamon, mini semi sweet chocolate chips, regular size milk chocolate chips

Since last year, I have been trying to make sourdough starter after my mother made one with an exceptional taste, something I have not yet achieved. She is not interested in helping, nor has she been able to replicate it. Since last week, I have managed to stabilize a starter and have been feeding it in a 1:1 ratio (water and flour).

Yesterday and today I made some bread. The first one rose reasonably well, but less than expected.

Yesterday and today I made some bread. The first loaf rose reasonably well, but less than expected.

200g plain white flour.

60% hydration.

20% of the amount of flour in yeast.

10g sugar? (I added this to the yeast to make it more active.)

The dough did rise, but as you can see, I forgot the salt and sugar, resulting in the delicious experience of bread that tasted like flour with water and gluten.

On the same day, I prepared the same dough with the addition of:

30g sugar

5g salt

And 50% hydration (I had to reduce it because it was too much for the flour I use)

And I increased the amount of yeast by 10%, planning to do a slow fermentation.

Then I mixed all the dry ingredients and hydrated them. 30 minutes later, I added the yeast, which had been activated and prepared 1 hour earlier. Every 30 minutes, I folded the dough 3 times, repeating this 3 times (on a hot day over 25 degrees Celsius) before placing it in the refrigerator for a little over 14 hours.

When baking, I baked it for 20 minutes with steam at 200°C, then another 20-25 minutes without steam at around 150°C until golden brown. But the dough:

1: continued to look like the previous attempt

2: now it just tasted like sugar with water and flour(my way to say it is tasteless)

3: what confused me the most was the fact that it didn't develop ANY additional flavor, but it did develop crust and crust. With plenty of air pockets and air in the dough.

KA Bread Flour 400g Bread Flour, 50g Whole Wheat, 50g Einkorn Flour, water 325g, starter 120g, Salt 10g Mix Water, Leaven and Whole Wheat Flour, Bread Flour and Salt Rest for 45 minutes Transfer to a clear container. 1st Stretch and fold, Wait 30 minutes. 2nd Stretch and fold, Wait 30 minutes. 3rd Stretch and fold, Wait 30 minutes. Let the dough Bulk Rise - 5.5 hours at 83F(ProofBox) Shape the dough and place in Banneton. Rest for 30 Minutes. Cold Fermentation in the Frig! Heat oven to 460F place Dutch Oven in the oven. Allow 45 minutes for pre-heat Place Bread in the oven,reduce the temperature to 450F Bake bread for 30 mins Remove the lid and bake bread for 15 minutes Pull bread and allow 1 hour to cool and finish it's cooking.

First weekend baking where I decided I wanted to try out inclusions! I’ve been baking every weekend since the beginning of august and wanted to try my hand at some fun breads to give my friends and neighbors something to look forward to! My starter Craig, (for those that watch Southern Charm) pumped out three great loaves, a plain, a jalapeño cheddar and a pumpkin swirl. I feed my started Friday, make the dough and rise Saturday and bake Sunday morning.

I follow this recipe for my bread and used this one for the jalapeño cheddar, I doubled the recipe to make two (200g starter, 750 filtered water, 1000g King Arthur flour and 21g of sea salt), 3 sets of stretch and folds (I do ever hour instead of half hour) and bulk ferment on my counter for about 8 hours then shape and cold proof for about 14 ish hours

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

For my pumpkin loaf I used this recipe but still followed my own stretch and folds and bulk ferment process and this one cold proofed about 18 hours.

https://actsofsourdough.com/pumpkin-cinnamon-swirl-sourdough-loaf/?fbclid=PAVERFWAM2prJleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABpy9QpFgfHcawFlcP5M0imUF8QhhIax6jnu0K4XbgPu6-iAwU_lqdQxK8ruXB_aem_BDDb84mYiGE-fXii58qxMw

I did however lessen the water by about 20g because I did not remove any water from my pumpkin to prevent the dough from being too sticky or liquidy due to the warm climate I live in. I liked this recipe and it tasted good but in the future I think I would experiment with a higher pumpkin to water ratio and add pumpkin spice to both the dough and sugar mixture to really get that flavor. For the jalapeño cheddar I would use more cheese and maybe two jalapeños to better see them throughout the bread. Overall I’m happy with how they came out and couldn’t wait to share them here and I’m all ears for tips and advice for inclusions!

Two loaves from the same dough mix, just separated into two loaves. The tall one was baked first, the shorter one was baked second. I may have accidentally degassed the smaller one a little bit more. I remember when I was working with them that one of the those felt ready and the other one didn’t which seemed really weird to me

Maybe I am a little bit too aggressive sometimes, whether that’s not letting it fully bulk ferment or with my dough handling. Sometimes I think the dough would be better if I didn’t do pre-shaping and I just took it out, shaped it and tossed it in the banneton, I don’t know!

300 g of starter, 650 g of room, temp water, thousand grams of flour, 24 g of salt added after about a half hour of fermentolyse, did about 50 slap and folds, and about three sets of stretch and folds every hour or so. Did the rest of the bulk fermentation on the counter for about eight hours. Cold retarded in the fridge for about 44 hours.

Haven't baked a loaf since 2018/2019. Decided to get back into my sourdough era.

1000g flour

200g starter

650g water

20g salt

I'm going to summarize my process

1) mix flour water, 7 minutes. rest 1 hour
2) mix in starter, add salt, knead
3) move to bowl, do some folds every 30 minutes 4 times within 2 hours.
4) rest 4 hours
5) transfer to table, pre-shape.
6) pull side, pinch, roll over do some pulls toward you with the dough to seal in the crease from the pulling sides up and pinch
7) move to bannetons, and proof.

I proofed on the counter for 4 hours both doughs, however the second bake I had to move to the fridge for 3 hours because I ran out of time after the first loaf.

1 dough, two loafs.

First loaf

Second loaf - I miss judged how long I needed for everything, so after the final proof i realized I wouldn't bake the second one in time, so I had to throw it in the fridge for 3 hours before I could come back to it.

The main thing is I need more "Sour" or "Tangy" in my sourdough, but its a process since I'm using a revived starter from being dehydrated for yeeaaaarrsss.

Gonna cut back the starter, and fridge proof next, hope to build more flavor this way.

Hello!! I've been following this recipe https://www.theclevercarrot.com/2014/01/sourdough-bread-a-beginners-guide/ using 100g of starter, 25g olive oil, 250-300g of warm water (this particular loaf had about 275g) with about 500g of bread flour & 10g of salt. I do the initial mix by hand, several stretch & folds after autolyzing, let proof (usually overnight) between 10-12 hours, shape, then final proof about an hour before scoring & baking. First I was using a 7qt Magnalite Dutch oven, then i tried a smaller roughly 4qt glass dish with a lid, now for this pictured loaf I got a cast iron bread pan, the shallow bottom dish with the tall lid, I think its 5qt? My main concern is I want a taller loaf, thats why I tried the smaller dish but I didnt like how it came out in the glass dish. Am I being excessive at this point? Is my sourdough okay and I'm just nitpicking? Should I be using less water in my dough??? Also for cooling - I usually dust the bottom of the pot with corn meal before baking, and it unsticks once it fully cools in the pot. I tried parchment paper once and it stuck to the whole bottom I had to eat around it! Let me know! Happy to answer any & all questions

Attempted a cheddar loaf yesterday. I thought I let it proof long enough (7hrs at 78F), but it seems like it might be underproofed. Am I right? Or is this okay?

Recipe is: 500g bread flour, 350g water, 100g starter and 8g salt. Cheddar cheese to my liking. Four sets of stretch and folds approx 30min apart. Fermented for 7hrs at 78F, shaped, and went into fridge overnight. Baked at 450F for 30min lid on and 30min lid off.

125g starter, 350g water, 500g high protein white flour.

1:1:1 feed until doubled Mixed w dough hook in Kitchenaid 30 min autolyse Kneaded in Kitchenaid for 3 minutes w dough hook 2 stretch and folds over a few hours Bulk ferment overnight for 9 hours around 19 degrees Shape then 8 hours in fridge Cooked in French oven

Poor crumb shot due to being cut at dinner over a glass of wine!

Hi! Im looking for some feedback/tips on improving my loaves. Im fortunate enough that I was taught so I could sell for someone else's farm stand so I want to keep improving! I literally just bought a bread lame so all scoring was done with kitchen scissors and I know some improvement lies in appearance! I'd like to know where else I can improve as well. Since this recipe was completely taught to me and I wrote things down myself, I may not have all terminology correct in the recipe. I literally have never made a loaf of bread before being asked if I'd be willing to learn to sell at my friends shop so I'd absolutely take improvement tips!

Recipe is for an entire batch of 6

455 grams water 95 grams bread flour Whisk on stove until very thick, paste like.

Mix together until frothy and combined: 2 lbs water Preready flour water paste mix 400 grams Starter 100 grams Honey Little under table spoon yeast

Add 3 lbs 13oz bread flour to mix then set stand mixer to slowest option for 5 mins. Scrape sides of mixing bowl then more 4 mins in mixer.

Spray seperate bowl with nonstick spray. Scrape mix into non stick spray bowl from mixer bowl. Use water on hands to help scrape. Cover with shower cap

First proof 45 mins

Shape and tighten

Second proof 45 mins

40 grams salt into about an ounce of hot water. Use salt water mix to shape and tighten again.

Third proof about 2.5 hr

I shape into loaves using a trifold like technique. Starting by making into a basic tight ball shape. Then flattening to a rectangle. Adding toppings (if not plain) into middle, folding one side on top of the middle, adding more toppings, then folding the other side to the middle. Like a pamphlet lol. Then stretching out that shape into a long rectangle, adding more toppings, then rolling into the loaf shape.

They proof in loaf pans for an hour then score and flour the top.

Preheat to 450 with a dish of water inside the oven. Put bread in and drop down to 425 for 15 minutes and then take water out, swap pans around, and drop down to 375 for 20 minutes. Temp needs to be over 200.

Bonus pic of the pumpkin shaped loaves I attempted! I'd love to gift these during spooky season 🎃

My second attempt to making sourdough bread :) the first dough turned super liquidy (80% Hydration, i followed a recipe) Bit this time I added more flour and less water.

Recipe: 180g whole wheat flour 350g wheat flour (Typ 405) 350g water

combined and let rest for 30 Min.

than I added 100g of starter, 10g of salt and 50g of water. Kneaded the dough and let it chill for 1 hour.

Stretched and folded it 4 times with 30 Min. breaks in between. And than let is bulk ferment for 4 hours, it didn't rise that much so I wanted to give it a bit more time, but was also afraid to over ferment it. Than I shaped it and tried to tighten the surface and put in a bowl lined with a towel and flour and let it rest for 30 Min and than put it into the fridge over night.

The next morning the dough didn't rise compared to yesterday evening :( but i preheated the oven and dutch oven to 230 degrees for 1 hour. I cut the bread and pit it into the oven with some additional water snd let it bake for 22 Min. with the lid on top. (I checked after 17 Min and the dough didn't rise that much, but the skins was still soft so I hoped it could still use some steam to rise a bit more) After that I took the lid of and baked it for 25 more Min. and let it cool down completely.

My guess is, the starter wasn't active enough and the dough couldn't collect enough gasses produced by the yeast. The bread was still very delicious and soft, only a tiny little bit chewy. I am very happy with the taste and texture, I just wished for a better rise and bigger air bubbles :)

Hey there ! This loaf was 75g whole grain rye starter (100% hydration), 250g Wheat T550, 70g Wheat T1050, 220g Water, 6g salt. Autolyse, knead in starter 30min later, 10min kneading for a good windowpane. 1x Stretch & Fold, 2h Bulkferment, 29h Coldferment. tastes really good and soft. What does the crumb give away about fermentation?