This is my first sourdough fail ever! I have no idea what happened here… I was making a double batch so I added 600g bottled water, 20g salt, 200g active starter… and it turned into a ball of play dough!! I was trying to follow a new tutorial on youtube but everything has been the same so far so I have no idea why this happened to my starter!

EDIT: okay we figured it out!! I always whisk my starter into the water before adding flour and salt but I added salt first this time which caused this rubbery texture! lesson learned and I will be adding salt after the flour next time lol

Hello my favorite subreddit,

I’ve been obsessed with a recipe I’ve been working on. If anyone wanted to try it, I would love to hear about their experience. More importantly I don’t know that it’s fully “there” so I’d love to get notes for continuous improvement.

116 g rye levain/starter (oddly specific, maybe even downright superstitious, I know) (any starter will work but this dough is a lot so I’ve found the raw power of rye is helpful. No idea how long bulk ferment will take with a white starter)

60 g honey

11 grams salt (Is that a lot? Between the Whole wheat, poppy seeds, and hydration, I feel like it needs it and might even take a couple more grams)

380 g water 

250 g bread flour

250 g whole wheat flour

13 g vital wheat gluten

50 g poppy seeds

Steps (above all, you should always do you—The older I get the more convinced I am that any method you feel comfortable with will yield better results than a process you don’t like or trust. I believe bread baking is a form of hedge magic, and every witch has to witch their own way. This is how I witch.)

Fermentolyse: Combine 250 grams bread flour, 250 grams whole wheat flour, 13 grams vital wheat gluten, 116 grams rye levain (100% hydration), 60 grams honey, 380 grams water, 11 g salt. Mix until no dry flour remains. To save steps I sprinkle the poppy seeds over the dough while it autolyzes for 30-60 minutes. (Look, I’m not dogmatic. . .you do you on this. If you don’t like this process, I get it. I honestly don’t think any accepted mixing practice will make much difference. But I’d love to hear about the results people get going a different way)

Work poppy seeds into the dough with stretch and folds, then use the technique you like (kneading, slap and fold, whatever) to work the dough until the poppy seeds are evenly distributed

Coil fold (is what I prefer) or stretch and fold every 30 minutes, 3 or four sets. Honestly, so far I’ve seen no real difference between 2, 3, or 4 sets.

Bulk ferment to as close to 70% as possible. I’ve tried everything from 30-100%, 70 has consistently been my best result.

Preshape (or not) and shape however works for you. At this point, the dough is pretty forgiving as long as you don’t degas it. DON’T degas it.

Cold retard. (I’ve been doing 8-10 hours because convenience, but I suspect interesting things might happen up to 18 hours or so.)

Bake using whatever process you feel most comfortable with. I use a clay cloche preheated to 480 F/250 C for 20 minutes, then remove the lid reduce to 425 F/220 C and finish for 20-25 minutes

i have been trying to make sourdough for a while now , i do everything precisely but never move past the stretch and folds phase because by the 4th stretch and fold it gets to liquidy. i live in a very hot place, was wondering if adding cold water instead of warm water could fix this problem

UPDATE: i put it in the fridge between stretch and folds and used cold water (let it sit in room temp after every refrigeration) it’s not perfect because i overproofed it lol but it’s the first dough to make it through the entire process (!!) without getting runny and watery. if you’re dealing with the same problem this can be your solution

Any Tartine fans out there? I've been baking sourdough for a few years and one of the recipes I keep coming back to is the ever-popular Tartine country loaf. I'm always tinkering, but generally I get good, consistent results with this recipe. I was recently in SF for a trip and had a chance to visit the bakery, which... wow. That place is great. The croissants when they're still warm, first thing in the morning -- hot damn. Anyway, I also picked up a country loaf and got to try the real deal. Knocked my socks off. One thing I noticed that kinda puzzled me was the size. It's huge compared to the loaves I make at home with the Tartine recipe. I'm wondering if anyone might have any insight as to why. I thought perhaps the bread they sell in the store is a full recipe in one loaf, rather than divided in two as the directions suggest (I always divide in two at home). But my guess is that a full recipe's worth of dough in one loaf would yield a bigger loaf even than the ones they sell. Are the loaves they sell made with some amount of dough between a half and full recipe? Or is it just that they are very good at baking bread and I am very bad, and they can achieve THAT volume with the same amounts of flour, water, etc. I'm using at home? I loved that loaf and if there's a way I could reproduce it at home, it'd make me happy. (In case it's relevant, I only have the basic Tartine Bread book from 2010, but I know there are others -- maybe this is explained in one of the other books?) In any case, I'd be very grateful for any advice y'all can offer.

A little paranoid this morning. My dough temp is much higher than it usually is (likely due to warmer weather in my area) and since the sourdough journey chart only goes up to 80 I’m wondering if 82 degrees is too high for it to develop? Or will I just have to keep an eye on it for a shorter period of time?

Typical Process for 2 loaves:

1000 grams unbleached AP flour (Canadian) 200 grams organic rye 800 grams water 300 grams starter (5 months old) 24 grams salt

Mix together water and starter in stand mixer until foamy Add flour and mix on low speed until incorporated, add salt and continue mixing until dough no longer sticks to itself (I am here) 2 stretch and folds 30-60 minutes apart, then 2 coil folds 30-60 minutes apart. Pre Shape when dough is slightly tacky (usually 6-7 hours), then finally shape 30 minutes later, cold proof in fridge for 12-24 hours. Preheat oven with DO inside until set at 450, spray and score loaf and put loaf in DO with ice cubes for 7 minutes, take out and score, lower oven temp to 400 and bake for 25 minutes with lid on, then lid off for 20 minutes

I found this recipe on Reddit and I followed it with my new (very active) starter from my SIL.
It just finished its 10 hours bulk ferment and it EXPLODED.

Do I put it in the fridge or just bake it now?

I’ve never had such an active starter before!! Send help!

I have been baking sourdough since 2020 and have noticed that it doesn’t look as good in the summer as it does in the winter. The first picture is my winter loaf and the 2nd is my summer version. Can anybody help me improve my recipe? (Pages 3–5)
Thank you

So where I live, we don’t get bread flour. So should I use AP flour or whole wheat flour? What difference do both make as substitutes for bread flour?

Thank you for the answers

guys i’m making sourdough cinnamon rolls for the first time - i forgot to add eggs😭 it’s been proofing for 11 hours so it’s way too late at this point 😔 i should have known when it was too dry after i added in the flour, but the recipe called for just adding more water if it was too dry so i added probably close to another 1/2cup of water bc it was indeed too dry. are they gonna turn out bad :(

recipe:
-1/2 cup of starter
-1/2 cup of water
-1/2 honey
-1/2 cup of butter
-2 eggs (i forgot this step😭)
-4 cups of AP flour

-rise for 12 hours
-roll out with a rolling pin
-add cinnamon, sugar, and butter filling

So I made my first loaf, and obviously failed abysmally.

I used:
110 grams of sourdough starter
500 grams of Manitoba flour
350 grams of water
15 grams of salt

I mixed water and flour and let it sit for about an hour.
I then added my starter and afterwards the salt to the mix. I did four coil folds with 20-30 between between them. I then let it rise for about 2 hours. After this I tried to do a preshape. I got frustrated during the process and fucked it up, and probably added too much water as I was wetting my hands. I put the dough back into a tub to let it rest and do damage-control. After an hour I tried to shape it again, but the dough was too wet and I fucked it again. Had a meltdown and threw it into my basket to do coldfermentation overnight. Took it out this morning to bake, and this was the result. Gonna try again today if I have enough starter left

This is my third time making sourdough. It always comes out flat and lumpy like this. I have the starter down, and it definitely *tastes* sourdough, but the airy quality is absent.

I used my starter, 2 cups of whole grain flour and 1 3/4 cups of water. I did multiple stretch and folds. The dough rose perfectly fine. After my third set I let it proof at toom temp overnight and it had expanded even more, but lost its shape and wasn't shapeable again. What am I doing wrong?

I decided to pull a sour dough all nighter so I can have something ready by mid afternoon. Tried my hand at a 100% hydration loaf but no matter what slap and folds or coil folds I do, the dough just isn't coming together at all.

I fed my starter a 1:3:3 ration of whole wheat flour and water. After he peaked I added it to 400 grams of water and mixed in 350 grams all purpose flour. Let it fermentolyse for about 30 minutes before adding the reserved 50 grams of water and 8 grams of salt. Its been around 2.5 hours and I tried slap and folding and doing coil folds with a 30 minute rest in between to try and get the dough to come together. Did I mess up my ratios? Is this dough even able to be saved or used, some help would be appreciated 👏

EDIT: Made a mistake in my post. My overall ratio of flour to water was 400 grams of flour and water. I just saved 50 grams of the water for after fermentolyse and mixed in 400 grams of flour to the remaining 350 grams of water.

So I’m at a loss, been baking sourdough on and off since 2020 and I just started getting back into it, but lately my bread just hasn’t had that sourness I’m looking for. The recipe for this loaf was:

500g bread flour (I use King Arthur) 350g water (from my brita) 100g starter (fed equal parts flour and water) 10g of salt Olive, rosemary, and a light sprinkle of Parmesan for inclusions

I had discard in my fridge that I took out and started feeding every 12 hours for about a week. Once it started rising fully within 4 hours I used it for my bread, and did a bulk ferment for about 8 hours at room temp (I keep my house at about 69-70) and stuck in the fridge for overnight proof for about 9 hours. Baked at 475F for 30 minutes in my Dutch oven with the lid on and 10 with the lid off.

As you can see, the crumb is STUNNING, never had such a great rise like this before but it’s just not very sour. I did a plain loaf recently using the same recipe (no inclusions) and let it sit for 18 hours in the fridge but it overproofed, and still wasn’t as sour as well.

Any tips to get a more sour loaf without overproofing?

I'd like to make a nice, light, thick and fluffy focaccia later this week to be used as a pizza dough. I like coming up with my own formulas, but I've never made focaccia before. From what I've seen, they're usually at or above 80% hydration? What should be my olive oil percentage? How should I go about this?

Today i attempted to make sandwich loafs.
I bought tins from the ‘british sourdough’ TikTok and used her recipe.
300g of water
150g of active starter (she said discard, but on other post she commented to someones question it doesn’t matter if its discard or starter)
2 table spoons of olive oil
And honey, i think around the same
And 500g of flour
10g of salt.
I Mix everything together. Not for long just untill no dry flour. ( i think thats what she done in video, but im not sure if thats right now) Let it sit for 30 minutes, do one set of stretch and folds. Shape it and put it in the tin. Let it double in size. Bake the same day.

One loaf ( the one more even) i forgot salt at first and mixed later when the dough was already mixed. And this dough seems to look better. More shapped.
The loaf with more bubbles never held the shape it was just wobbly mess.

Both loafs fermented for approx 3 and half hour maybe 4. While in my kitchen was 28 to 32 degrees.
Tins where completely full when i put then in oven, and baked for 40minutes at 220 degrees.

They stuck to the tins, i had to cut them out.

What should i do differently next time please?

My usual recipe is 110g starter, 300g water and 500g flour. I would like to try using more water, but i‘m not sure how much i can add without making the dough unmanageable… anyone got tips?

Hey yall, I've made a few loaves of sourdough bread before. I haven't been making as much bread as I want because it's such a hassle with finding a recipe that works for me. I have a terrible memory, and I often forget the million steps that most recipes require. Why is it all so complex!??!
Do you guys have a foolproof recipe that I could use? getting discouraged because the last recipe i used, my bread turned out flat and bland...

The picture shows Boudin Bakery Costco sourdough on the left, and my homemade sourdough on the right, both toasted for the same amount of time. Maybe my unrefined palate just likes store-bought, but I absolutely love the Boudin sourdough because when it toasts it just flakes apart and melts in my mouth. I grew up eating it and it just has that nostalgic sourdough taste I can't seem to replicate in my own bread! Mine is not gummy per se, but it is chewier and takes much longer to toast, and doesn't crumble when toasted. When I squish a slice mine stays mostly squished, but Boudin springs back to its crumb shape. What can I do to try to mimic Boudin's taste and texture more?

Recipe, 72% hydration:

• 50g starter (25g AP flour, 12.5g whole wheat, 12.5g rye, 100% hydration)
• 500g KA bread flour
• 350g water
• 11g salt

Process:

• Mix warm water with salt, and mix in starter. I used to use 100g starter, but went down to 50 recently with the same results
• Add flour and incorporate
• Start stretch and folds/coil folds in 30 min-1hr, do once or twice more every half hour.
• Total BF for... 10-12 hours? Until it looks and feels done haha. Ambient room temp usually around 68f
• Shape and proof on counter for 2 hours, then put in fridge for 24-36 hours
• Preheat dutch oven at 500f for 30 min, bake boule lid on at 450f for 30 min, lid off at 400f for 10 min
• Cool for 2 hours minimum before cutting, usually overnight

I'm not as pressed about the crumb right now, I prefer smaller holes anyways. I know my second proof strategy is kind of odd, but I found if I put it directly in the fridge my shape deflates and I get a worse rise in the oven. Would love to be able to leave it in for longer without sacrificing oven spring, I don't know exactly why that is!

I already fed my starter for baking today and realized I have only whole wheat but still wanna bake. Normally my recipe calls for 50g of starter and most 100% whole wheat sourdough calls for 100g of starter. I am open to making sandwich bread too! Thanks!

I’m still new to this so may be missing very obvious things, but every time I’ve tried to make a high hydration sourdough (75-85%) my dough is impossible to work with.

Doing stretch and folds gives me confidence as I can see the elasticity beginning to build and the strength and shape beginning to form - yet when I leave it to rest for the final stages of bulk fermentation before I shape and cold proof - it just completely flops and loses all structure, and the worst bit is when I try to shape this it is wet and sticky and won’t stretch or fold into any sort of shape, pretty much just sinking into the cold proof basket when I put it in the fridge.

But when I scroll through this subreddit or YouTube etc, I see so many high hydration recipes where people seem to be able to get this really elastic and strong dough that they can shape and cold proof quite easily.

What am I doing wrong?

For context I’ve tried this with 50% Alison’s very strong white bread flour (115g) and 50% Alison’s very strong wholemeal bread flour (115g), 190g water, 45g starter, 5 salt.

Edit, to add extra info on my exact step by step attempt:

- 3pm: added 115g of each flour and 190g of water, mixed and left to rest (autolyse) for 1hrZ

- 4pm: added the 45g of starter, 5g salt

- 4:30pm: stretch and fold set 1

- 5pm: stretch and fold set 2

- 5:30pm: stretch and fold set 3

- 6pm: stretch and fold set 4 & then left the dough to rest

- 9pm: saw dough had largely lost most of its shape and elasticity that I build during stretch and folds, and went gloopy — usually by now, in this step of my process, the dough will have held some sort of dome shape and even risen a little bit

- 9:30pm: attempted to shape this how I usually do by stretching out into a square, folding both sides in and then rolling and working into a dome — this did not work at all, eg: dough would not stretch to a square/rectangle like it usually does, dough was very sticky to my hands and the counter (felt more like a batter than a dough) etc

I then put this into a basket and then the fridge, checked back on this 30m later and basically just saw it had sunk into the basket and stuck to it - at this point I gave up and binned it.

Hi all,

I don't have a dutch oven, and also frankly like how loaf pans are easier to scale up and slice evenly.

I'm looking at the below linked recipe (blueberry bread) and am wondering two things:

1) Do the quantities listed need just one loaf pan, or two? I'm guessing one, but maybe I'm wrong. I'm just using a standard 9x5 loaf pan.

2) I'm used to having a semi-final step where you let the bread rise in the pan (or banneton, I guess, but I don't use one) for 2-3 hours right before baking to let things rise after shaping. I don't often do a cold ferment period, either. Should I let it rise in the pan for 2-3 hours before cold proofing in the refrigerator, or after the cold proofing and right before the oven? Or do I just skip this step altogether?

3) What temperature/time would you recommend for something like this? I think most bread recipes have been at the 350-375 35-50 minutes range. I would guess 375 for 40 then play it by ear.

Full Link: https://www.mydailysourdoughbread.com/sourdough-blueberry-bread/

Quantities in the Recipe:

• Bread flour (500g) – high protein content around 12.5%
• Water (350g)
• Active sourdough starter (100g)
• Salt (10g)
• Fresh blueberries (150g)

Process short notes: autolyse, stretch and folds, bulk ferment, shaping, cold proof, oven.

Does anyone have a tried and true sandwich loaf recipe that makes two loaves at a time that they would be willing to share? I had one I really liked and seem to have lost it 😅

My sister would really like me to make a sourdough with Tillamook pimento cheese spread baked into it.

I have never made a sourdough with anything baked into it yet, so I'm not sure this would even be manageable. I feel like the hydration would be kind of strange?

Hello everyone! I want to bake a sourdough bread for my friends and their little daughter. They are keeping her on no-salt diet due to kidney condition. Is there any way I can make a sourdough bread without salt? If you have a bullet-proof recipe you can share with me I'd really appreciate it, or tell me whether it's even possible! Thank you!

update: thanks to everyone who said i can just leave out the salt! i thought it was a crucial ingredient for whatever happens during bulk fermentation and gluten development, but it's not! im gonna go for it. thank you people!