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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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How can I reduce the amount of hooch my sourdough starter is making?

Sometimes my sourdough starter goes hooch (the brown liquid, alcohol) nuts and produces a ton. Other times it goes days and produces very little. I've never been able to isolate what causes this. What promotes and discourages hooch growth in a…
rfusca
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Can I make sourdough starter with raw potatoes?

Looking at different websites I found sourdough starters using potatoes instead of wheat or rye. They all used cooked mashed potatoes. I wonder if it is possible to just grate raw potatoes or other starchy vegetables and use them. I still have some…
Amelse Etomer
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Why does my sourdough starter have in the top the liquid separated from the flour?

Why does my sourdough starter have in the top the liquid separated from the flour? 2 days after beginning a new one, a liquid (water) appeared on top of it, it appeared after I fed it the first time. To feed it I discarded half of the starter and…
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How do I properly substitute flour and water for sourdough starter?

I have a sourdough bread recipe that I want to try. The recipe calls for 2 cups starter but I do not have that much. It says I can use less and to just make up the difference with equal parts flour and water. If I use 1 cup of starter does that mean…
GJ.Baker
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How do different techniques impact sourdough bread?

I have recently started baking sourdough bread (with a 100% hydration starter). My current method is: Take starter from the fridge, feed, wait a couple of hours. Add flour and water (approx 70% hydration), wait a couple of hours. Scatter through…
lainie
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How do I make my sourdough bread dough stretchy and not have it tear?

I've been trying to make chewy sourdough bread and it's not going as planned. I read somewhere that if you mix and knead the bread a lot and avoid adding a lot of sugar and use a lot of water that should aid gluten development to make the dough…
Creature
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How to Judge the Appropriate Feeding Schedule for Immature Sourdough Starter

I am a week into the development of sourdough starter. I initiated the starter on spring water and a flour mixture that is 1/2 whole grain rye (Hodgson Mill) and 1/2 whole grain wheat (King Arthur). I am maintaining the standard 100% hydration in…
Stephen Eure
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Very old sourdough starter; how long is too long?

For quite some time, my grandmother has had a sourdough starter kept in the fridge. I observed her making muffins and whatnot on an infrequent basis, with the intervals sometimes increasingly greater than the 14 days I see recommended on various…
Dan Melks
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How can you change the environmental factors to change the proportions of sourdough microbiological cultures?

How can you increase/decrease the proportions of lactobacili and yeast in a sourdough starter. For example, if I wanted a more acidic bread, increasing the lactobacili, or if I wanted a less acidic bread, then less of them. Is this possible to…
Sebiddychef
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Why would a fully-developed dough lose consistency (elasticity / extensibility)?

I've been experimenting with panettone and I've come across the issue time and time again of losing dough consistency while mixing the secondo impasto (i.e. the final panettone dough). What makes this super bizarre to me is how I can go from…
YenForYang
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Can I use a rectangular ceramic pan instead of enameled cast iron to bake bread without losing the nice crust?

My wife has been baking sourdough bread in an enameled cast iron Dutch oven and has been getting a very nice crust. She preheats the pan and oven to 500 °F (260 °C), then puts the dough in the pan, cooks a while at 480 °F (250 °C) covered, then at…
Ross Millikan
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How do I feed a sourdough starter?

The cookbook I'm using tells me how to make a sourdough starter, but not how to feed it after I take out what I need for the bread. What do I do with the starter once I've used some? I don't think I'll use all of it at once.
Elizabeth Schechter
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Working with a slack (sticky) sourdough

My background is in microbiology and I have fairly recently started making sourdough. I have been working up my sourdough recipe getting lots of information from friends and the internet. The recipe I have now put together is a 3 day process; the…
Jeremy Hackett
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Sourdough starter bubbling but not rising after months of feeding

I have successfully made sourdough whilst living in Texas - USA then back in Australia and now i am currently living in Nashville - USA. Since moving to Nashville i began a new starter and have currently been feeding my starter for 2 months. Every…
Bonnie
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Is there such thing as "active dry sourdough-variety yeast"?

Apologies in advance if this is a stupid question, or if it doesn't sound coherent, but: Is it possible to buy sourdough yeast, ready to use? You can easily find "active dry yeast" for sale in supermarkets. I realize this regular bread yeast is a…
Lorel C.
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