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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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Why do tomatoes react with sourdough starter?

I sometimes make sourdough and have found by accident that by adding fresh tomatoes to the dough, it seems to swell substantially more during proving, or more quickly. There must be some chemical reaction and I just wondered if anyone knows more…
Alan Spark
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What happens if I forget to feed my sourdough starter?

Is there something wrong that can happen if I forget to feed my sourdough starter? I kinda forgot to do it twice, but it still appears to have a few bubbles in it. Previously it contained hooch, which I discarded. Also, my starter has a dense…
Michael Ben David
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Why is baking soda included in sourdough cracker recipe?

I'm following a recipe for crackers made with unfed sourdough starter (other ingredients are flour, oil, and salt). It also calls for 1/4 tsp baking soda and I'm wondering why since the dough sits on the counter several hours before baking, and can…
Arlo
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Why are sourdough crusts thicker?

I'm used to the crust on sourdough bread being thick and chewy, but had always attributed that to the longer rise, and baking with steam, that one normally does with sourdough. However, this week I made a hybrid sourdough* in my bread machine, and…
FuzzyChef
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Why did mold develop on the top of my sourdough?

I made some sourdough starter from scratch, using garden grapes, flour and water. It was wonderful for the first few batches. Today, I was going to get another bread batch going, and when I looked at the refrigerated starter, there was a good…
mamadalgas
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Why is my gluten so weak?

I’ve been making sourdough bread regularly for over a year now. But since about half a year ago, the bread has consistently come out badly because the gluten doesn’t seem to develop properly: the dough doesn’t hold its shape: immediately after…
Konrad Rudolph
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How to reduce cracking and increase browning in sourdough loaves?

Lately I've been learning how to make these delicious sourdough breads and I have managed to create very flavorful breads but I always get very ugly results... The picture below is my latest try. Notice how my scores seem totally useless, since the…
arvere
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Make sourdough starter without discarding

I understand the point of discarding half the sourdough starter as the yeast develops so that you don't have exponential amounts of starter. Why not start with a half ounce of flour and just add the same weight as what's in the container? (I plan to…
motorbaby
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Can you make sourdough starter without throwing any away?

I'm curious if you can make the sourdough starter by adding flour to it, in a sense doubling the volume each time. So many recipes I see in books and online require you to throw almost half of it in the garbage on each refresh. If you are buying…
erotavlas
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Why throw away so much sourdough starter? Tartine Book no. 3

this is the first time I've use this site to ask a question: I've been meaning to bake some sourdough bread for a long while. I've been just hung up on the recipe for the starter. A book I'm currently using for inspiration says to do roughly a 1:1…
user33830
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Blue/green mold on sourdough starter

I have been following instructions from KAF to start my own sourdough. On day 3, some small patches of blue/green mold appeared on the surface. The starter was fairly since the last feeding, increasing in volume about 30% or so. I carefully scooped…
mumrah
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Sourdough starter developing alcohol

I have been dealing with my sourdough starter since about 1-2 months ago, when I started it from scratch with just water and flour . In the last 2 refreshments I have added some honey, just 1 teaspoon each time to deliver some easy-to-digest sugar…
user2485710
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Milk instead of water for sourdough?

I have a nice, healthy Type 110 wheat-based sourdough starter that I use to make bread and pancakes. I've recently discovered that it may be possible to feed the starter with milk instead of water. Is this true? I'm a bit paranoid that rotting milk…
Kricket
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Does beer in bread retard the yeast?

I want to make a bread with a stout in it for extra flavor. The stout will replace most of the liquid content of the bread and I am worried whether it will kill the yeast due to the alcohol (4% volume) content of the stout.
Sebiddychef
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What is sourdough bread?

I'm intrigued by all the questions about creating and 'feeding' sourdough starter. But I am unfamiliar with the bread itself. What is sourdough bread? how is it different than 'regular' bread. Is it sour? Why is it worth all the hassle of…
Ken
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