Sourdough Bread

kiss_me_now9

I hope there might be someone here who can help me! 

I have been trying to make sourdough bread recently and have been largely unsuccessful. The first attempt didn't rise at all. The second rose but had a HUGE hole in the top of the bread, so it was 90% air bubble and not in an attractive, sourdough way. Today's attempt has partially risen but the baking paper has completely melded itself to the dough before the cooking process and I can't get it off. The crust is very crispy and the taste is good but it resembles a frisbee and if I threw it across the room I think I'd dent the wall the other side. 

I understand the general concept of sourdough, the starter is working fine and very bubbly when fed (realised on attempt 2 that I needed to feed the starter before trying to make anything with it) but it is so sticky and no matter what I cannot get it to shape into a ball. It also doesn't rise enough to score properly. 

thriftwizard

How long are you giving it to rise, and at what temperature? (If that's a silly question, I'm remembering my daughter's frustration when she thought it should rise in a couple of hours like "normal" dough...)

kiss_me_now9

thriftwizard said:

How long are you giving it to rise, and at what temperature? (If that's a silly question, I'm remembering my daughter's frustration when she thought it should rise in a couple of hours like "normal" dough...)

The first two were over night at room temperature, the one I made yesterday was roughly 12 hours in the fridge. 

ArbitraryRandom

I'm thinking maybe three possible problems...

1. not rising consistently might suggest the room is too cold (no idea the temp of your kitchen overnight but ideally it's around 20 degrees as a minimum - up to 30 degrees and you get a loaf with a more sour taste). The fridge is certainly too cold... 

2. conversely, it could be you're proofing for too long (if the yeast runs out of food it can cause the dough to collapse - causing irregular holes and a dense loaf). If your starter is very active then it might be done in 3 hours. 

3. finally, large holes might suggest your final dough is too wet (which can depend on your flour and the temp). Higher hydration dough makes more/bigger holes. 

maryb

It could be down to the bake.  Sourdough needs steam and you need to slash the top so that the loaf has got room to rise.  I heat up a cast iron casserole in the oven and turn the dough into that, cut some slashes in the top and slap the lid on quickly and straight into the oven.  The dough then releases steam which is kept in by the lid and that makes a huge difference.  15 minutes with the lid on then 20 minutes without the lid.  I always produced house bricks until I learned this

downshifted

ArbitraryRandom said:

I'm thinking maybe three possible problems...

1. not rising consistently might suggest the room is too cold (no idea the temp of your kitchen overnight but ideally it's around 20 degrees as a minimum - up to 30 degrees and you get a loaf with a more sour taste). The fridge is certainly too cold... 

The fridge is fine for proving sourdough I regularly leave mine overnight in the fridge, there are many recipes for this on line and it works perfectly. It’s length of time proving that increases the sourness

downshifted

MaryB that’s exactly how I used to bake mine, but I now use my ninja foodi. The crust is not as good, but the bread rises beautifully and I don’t need the oven on full heat for nearly an hour.

I’d recommend the op looks online at some of the excellent sourdough bakers, but I think it does take a bit of practice to get it right.

ArbitraryRandom

downshifted said:

ArbitraryRandom said:

I'm thinking maybe three possible problems...

1. not rising consistently might suggest the room is too cold (no idea the temp of your kitchen overnight but ideally it's around 20 degrees as a minimum - up to 30 degrees and you get a loaf with a more sour taste). The fridge is certainly too cold... 

The fridge is fine for proving sourdough I regularly leave mine overnight in the fridge, there are many recipes for this on line and it works perfectly. It’s length of time proving that increases the sourness

There's a difference between first rising (where the yeast ferments) and second proving (where the bacteria adds flavour after the loaf has been shaped) - if it's in the fridge or a cold kitchen for the whole time then the yeast goes dormant.

If the bread is not rising (but is tasting fine) then one of the possible causes is the yeast not having either enough time or enough heat to be active in fermenting in the dough... at the very least, in such a cold environment, 12 hours/overnight might be nowhere near long enough.