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Questions tagged [sourdough]

Questions regarding baking and working with wild yeasts and starters (also known as levains or chefs).

Sourdough is generally used to refer to baked goods made using a culture of wild yeasts and symbiotic bacteria (usually Saccharomyces and Lactobacillus, respectively). This culture may be referred to as a starter, chef, levain, or mother. These cultures are usually maintained by adding a mixture of carbohydrates (such as flour, starchy vegetable matter, and/or sugar) and water to the existing culture and allowing it to rest in a warm environment while the microorganisms reproduce. A portion of this culture is then added when making a dough to leaven it.

For questions regarding other biological leavening agents see , and for questions regarding chemical leavening see or .

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Sourdough starter hydration

I’m making my first sourdough starter. Actually my second; the first one dried up and turned into cement. I figured that it wasn’t hydrated enough (the original directions called for 35g rye flour, 15g AP flour and 50g water), so in my new starter,…
Just Joel
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Making sourdough bread with just flour and water (and no starter)

Suppose I do not have a starter and I am not interested in creating one. Would the following recipe work to create an edible sourdough bread? If not, why not? Recipe: Mix 10 cups of flour with about 5 cups of warm water. Mix well. Store the…
eakbas
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Making Sourdough starter in the UAE

I live in the UAE where the climate is hot and humid. I started making a sourdough starter on the 28th of October and today, 30th October it seems to be doubling quickly. It has a strong acidic sweet smell. Even though I made a stiff dough when I…
Zerin
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Revive sourdough starter after 2 months in fridge

I have a sourdough starter in fridge for nearly two months and have not fed it. Haven't even looked at it. So two questions: if it smells ok, for a starter, that is, can I use it if I feed it and let it sit out for a few hours? 2nd question: it's…
Marian Lacey
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For how long can you let dough sit there to rise without yeast?

I read that you can make a dough without yeast and have it sit at room temperature for 12 hours and it will rise due to bacteria found in the air. It didn't rise after 12 hrs, so I was wondering if I could let it sit for another 12 hrs to see if it…
Marina Dunst
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Has my sourdough gone moldy?

Today as I checked on my sourdough starter, I noticed some dry white patches on its surface. Has it gone moldy? If so, is it safe to just scrape off the mold and use the remainder as usual? The sourdough smells cheesy / yeasty, nothing that yells…
Thaoden
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Possible to make sourdough starter quickly?

I was hoping to use a recipe that requires sour dough starter tomorrow for dinner. When looking online for recipes I found several, but all of them required several days (examples here, here and here) to make. Is it possible to prepare a sourdough…
Brh
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Why does my bread rise unevenly or from the bottom in the oven?

I recently started baking loafs from a sourdough starter for the first time. I fed and maintained the starter for 8 days before using it the first time. On the first bake my loafs rose unevenly and didn't form a bottom crust, it just stayed moist…
jason
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Can I replace sugar with cane syrup in sourdough recipe

I'm baking my own sourdough bread (whole wheat-rye). Recipe calls for adding 2 table spoons of sugar with a bit of milk to get the starter, well... started. I thought about replacing it with cane syrup (unsulfered molasses) as it contains more…
Maciej Piechotka
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Why did my Sourdough starter stopped rising?

Ok so I started my starter (no pun intended) a few days ago. I got a recipe that said I should keep it at room temp and feed it once a day with 1/2 cup of any flour (I used whole wheat) and 1/4 cup of water. I live in a place over the sea level,…
Caro Valdez
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Remedy a sourdough which used milled red winter wheat

I followed a sourdough recipe that said to use bread flour, I thought a hard red winter wheat ran through our grain mill would suffice if I sifted out the bran... Apparently not. Is there any way to salvage this? The bread just is not wanting to…
Holly W
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Why the pizza is able to "recover" so quickly?

Assuming that you ever saw someone making a pizza out of a dough, you probably noticed that usually they push with quite some energy the dough down and use the other part of their energy to enlarge the disc . Even after all this stress applied to…
user2485710
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How can I make my sourdough crust chewier?

I'm making sourdough bread and am pleased with the results except that the crust is too hard and crunchy. Inside it's great, moist and a good even crumb. It makes great toast too, but I would sometimes like a chewier crust. Could the oven be too…
Maggie
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Should I use a base to offset the sour in overripe sourdough starter?

My starter is active and mature, but sometimes I don't have time to check and feed it at its optimal activity for my preferred sour (very slight). This means by the time I get to feeding it, it's getting too sour. I don't like to discard (ie…
ccsdg
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Making sourdough bread in a warm and humid climate

I live in a warm and humid climate - average temp is mid 80's. I have been making sourdough and like the flavor, but the loaves are flat, very dense texture and crunchy crust. Even when I bake in a bread pan the loaves don't rise much. I use…
user23446
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