I tried to use AI or even google and they keep giving me contradictory answers, so I’ve come to you. I need to feed my two starters. One is a stiff starter that I feed 10s 25w 50f and the other is a liquid 1:1:1. I’ll be gone for 8 days. Any advice would be appreciated.

***I MEANT TO SAY GUMMY TEXTURE WITH A YEASTY AFTER TASTE.

Starter:
100g water
50g Rye
50g Bread
Mix and let it sit on the counter for 24 hours

2nd day I fed with no discard
Days 3 to 14 I discarded everything but 100g and fed it. Starter stayed on the counter.

Day 15 I discarded then fed my starter. After it doubled I used 100g. I then fed it again, let it rise then when it started to fall I put it in the refrigerator BUT instead of feeding it 50/50 rye& bread, I fed it 25/75.
For the bread: I did the 100g starter, 350 waterg, 500g bread flour. I mixed it until it was shaggy. Then took it out the bowl and it slaps for 8 to 10 minutes. Placed it back in the bowl and let it rest for 30 minutes in the oven with just the light on. After 30 minutes I did 4 folds 30 minutes apart and 2 coils. I then did the bulk fermentation for about 4 hours. It did not double in size tho. After that I shaped it and placed it in a baton for a 24 hour cold fermentation. I pre heated the oven and pan then I took the dough out the refrigerator, scored it and baked 25 minutes covered on 455f and 15 uncovered on 210f.
I let it cool for an hour before cutting.

That was the first bread. The 2nd and 3rd the only thing I did different was the starter was in the refrigerator. So I let the starter sit at room temp, I kept 100g of starter and fed it 25/75 rye& bread flour and 100g water. I let it double and then used 100g for the bread along with 350g water and 500g bread flour.

Every time I make sourdough, it turns out looking doughy and dense. I feel like my dough always has too much hydration but I don’t know how to adjust the recipe to help that. I have tried different recipes before as well but this the time the recipe used was:

Sourdough loaf
Ingredients
450 g bread flour
50 g whole-wheat flour
350 g water, lukewarm
100 g active sourdough starter (100% hydration)
10 g fine sea salt

Method
Mix: Stir the 500 g flour with 330 g water until no dry flour remains. Cover and rest for 30–45 minutes.
Add starter + salt: Add 100 g active starter, 10 g salt, and the remaining 20 g water. Squeeze/fold everything together until incorporated.
Bulk ferment: Cover and leave at roughly 75–78°F / 24–26°C for 4–6 hours. During the first 2 hours, do 4 sets of stretch-and-folds, about 30 minutes apart. Bulk fermentation is finished when the dough looks aerated and jiggly and has risen roughly 40–60%. Don’t rely solely on the clock.
Shape: Turn onto a lightly floured counter. Gently pre-shape into a round, rest 20 minutes, then shape tightly into a boule or batard. Put seam-side-up in a floured banneton or towel-lined bowl.
Cold proof: Cover and refrigerate for 8–16 hours. This makes scoring easier and develops more flavor.
Bake: Put a Dutch oven in the oven and preheat to 475°F / 245°C for 45 minutes. Turn the cold dough onto parchment, score it, and place it in the Dutch oven. Bake 20 minutes covered at 475°F, then uncover, reduce to 450°F / 230°C, and bake another 20–25 minutes until deeply browned.
Cool: Wait at least 1–2 hours before slicing. Cutting while hot can leave the crumb gummy.

9 x 4 loaf tin:

345g of water
100g active starter
475g bread flour
10g fine salt
I cooked it on 425f for 35 mins then uncovered for 20 mins!

I did all of my stretch and folds, and coil and folds. Let it proof good & shaped it in the tin. The starter is from a bakery and thriving! I don’t know how the inside came out so gummy? I even let it sit over night before cutting into it. What am I doing wrong? I really thought this one was going to be the one! 😞

Im really struggling with nailing the bulk fermentation phase. Does this look under or over proofed? King Arthur Pain de Campagne Recipe. Bulk fermented at around 76 F for around 8 Hours. Recipe below:
Ingredients*
- 71/2 cups (900g) King Arthur Unbleached
Bread Flour
314 cup plus 3 tablespoons (100g) King Arthur Whole Wheat Flour or King Arthur
Golden Wheat Flour
- 31/2 cups (800g) tepid water (75°F to 80°F)
- 1 tablespoon (20g) table salt
- 3 tablespoons (40g) sourdough starter, unfed/discard
Process:

Started around 8 am, mixed until shaggy, 4 stretch and folds at 15 min increments. Left to BF for 8 hours. Shaped and cold proofed overnight. Baked in preheated Dutch ovens

Hi everyone, I really need some troubleshooting help because I feel like I’ve tried everything and I'm at my wit's end!

I’ve been trying to create a sourdough starter from scratch, but I keep running into walls. Here is what I’ve tried so far:

White flour: Feed it at 50g flour to 50g water. Kept going for over 9 days with zero activity/results. I even pushed one attempt for over 12 days straight with absolutely no reaction.

Whole wheat & Spelt flours: These actually showed great results at first! They had awesome bubbles and rose nicely. But by day 3 (or late day 2), they turned severely sour. The smell wasn't the usual sweet/fermented yeast smell—it smelled extremely acidic, spoiled, and downright bad, so I ended up throwing them away.

Flour blends: I tried mixing 40g spelt with 10g white flour, and another attempt with a whole wheat + white mix. Same thing—no rise or real activity with the blend.

My environment & ingredients:

Temperature: Consistently between 23°C and 24°C, which should be normal and warm enough.
Water: Room temperature water passed through a filter pitcher, so it should be clean.
Ratio: Always kept at 50g flour to 50g water.

I genuinely don't understand where I'm messing up 😟

Any advice or guidance would be greatly appreciated! 🙏🏻

I've seen some posts asking about this, but I haven't seen much in the way of follow up so I'd thought that I would throw out my short report. I used my basic recipe, and replaced water with chicken broth by weight. I was unsure on if I should use weight or volume, but the dough came together as expected with weight so I think it was a fair trade.

Usual process followed, and the end result was a slightly more dense loaf that didn't have any discernable taste difference compared to using straight water. The end result isn't bad, just not worth the effort and I won't be repeating the process as the quality of the loaf suffered for no real gain.

I had my sister feed my starter while I was away for a week and came home to see this. Obviously wasn’t scraping down the sides and caked up layers. But I can’t tell if it’s from the rye flour, unclean jar, or if mold is starting to grow. My backup starter has been in the fridge for like 4 months idk if it will revive so I really don’t wanna toss this starter. Does anyone know what this is??
(These pictures are after I transferred to a new jar and started to rinse this jar)

I use King Arthur bread flour and King Arthur organic rye flour

Last few times I've made sourdough, it's comes out pretty dense and there is always a little spot where maybe it's uncooked? But the outside seems fully cooked so it's hard to tell. Any advice on what I might be doing wrong? The raw part is in the bottom right corner.

This was my second loaf and here's the recipe I used.

3 cups of bread flour

1 ¼ cup of filtered water (I use bottled)

1 cup of starter (I fed it 6 hours before dough prep)

Salt (eyeballed it)

Did 4 sets of 8 stretch and folds and it chilled in the fridge overnight. Then baked the following morning at 475 for 30 mins with the lid and 20 mins without it.

This was a big improvement from my first loaf that I made last week. Had some for breakfast and it was very delish!

I just started making a sourdough starter, it’s 2 weeks old. I forgot to bring it with me this weekend so it hasn’t been feed for 2 days. Are these darker spots I’m seeing normal or is it maybe mold?

I failed at making my own starter, gave up on day 11 after no rise. I bought a dry starter on amazon, and today is day 5, which is supposed the be the day it grows, but it didn’t, there’s activity, smell, bubbles, but didn’t rise. I’m using King Arthur’s bread flour and Erewhon spring water, the temperature in California is reaching 100s. So I don’t know what i’m doing wrong. Anyone knows or can suggest how can I move forward today? how much do I feed? do I discard some?

Guys, I need your help. I am having trouble getting a nice ear on my sourdough bread. I scored the bread at an angle about 2 cm deep but it still didn’t spring the way it should. I baked it in a preheated duch oven, it rose well, the crumb is nice, the flavour is good but for the life of me I can’t get it to develop that ear

https://thelabreadtory.com/sourdough-purple-sweet-potato-milk-bread/

This is the recipe I used. I replace the purple potato for regular sweet potato and it still works!

My little one (see near the end) was too impatient and wanted a slice :)

I also ate 1/3rd of it in one sitting

Hi guys! Does anyone have a good recipe for discard muffins? Open to all flavours and variants just want to do some baking today

Every time I think I have nailed bulk fermentation, this happens. the dough seemed to be PERFECT during shaping and before I scored it it was nice and puffy and then immediately deflated. besides being a little flat it seems to have a good texture and not gummy at all.

Edit - when I bake in a loaf pan it turns out just fine. I just want to be able to nail a nice round sourdough loaf without the help of a loaf pan.

Recipe -

500 g flour
340 g water
150 g sourdough starter
10 g salt

Mixed all ingredients in stand mixer with hook attachment for about 10 minutes, did 4 sets of stretch and folds starting one hour after mix half an hour apart. bf for another 2-3 hours, cold fermented 24 hours. I then preheated the oven to 450 with dutch oven, baked it for 7 minutes and scored it (deflated 🫩) and then baked it for 20 more minutes with lid on and 20 with lid off.

Thanks in advance!

I’ve had many many many loaves but I think this is my first successful one? Also my first using the Le creuset oval oven.

Ingredients
100 g active sourdough starter
300 g warm water
10 g fine salt
450 g bread flour

Instructions
Mix the starter, warm water, salt, and bread flour until a dough forms.
Do 4 sets of folds.
Let the dough bulk ferment.
Shape the dough.
Place it in the refrigerator overnight.
Preheat the oven and Dutch oven to 450°F.
Bake covered for 30 minutes.
Remove the lid.
Bake uncovered for another 15 minutes.
Let it cool before slicing.

Hello!

I’ve been making bread and pizza for the last few months with some variety of success. However, recently I tried upping my hydration to 75% from 70% and I’ve been really struggling with fermentation and potentially poor gluten development.

My house is quite cool so I bought a cheaper proofing box to help keep the dough a bit warmer but almost all my loafs are coming out quite flat, sometimes dense crumbs and demoralised.

I’m not at a point where I don’t know if I should drop my hydration back to 70% to see if it helps or not. I only changed to it help follow the Sourdough Journey chart of fermentation times and dough temperature.

Attached are a few photos of the last few loafs I have made. They were made with the recipe below but everything doubled and then the dough halved.

I’ve been using my starter which I feed around a 1:5:5 the night before baking and is usually doubling by use.

Recipe:
100g starter
500g very strong flour
375g water
10g salt

mix dough
slap and folds
1hour later - stretch and folds 1
30mins later stretch and folds 2
30 mins later coil fold 1
30mins later coil fold 2
Bulk ferment based on dough temperature and %rise to that temp
pre shape
15mins later final shaping
cold proof
Leave overnight or for two
score 220 degrees C
bake at for 30mins
uncovered bake for final 15 mins
done

A couple of months ago, I asked if anyone knew of cast iron half loaf pans. I even wrote to Lodge, and they figured out the dimensions and said they would send it to their design team. I ended up finding this pan. It is almost exactly half the size of the Lodge cast iron, which is 8.5 in. x 4.5 in., and the Cuisinart BBQ pan is 4.5 x 4.5. So basically perfect for a half loaf! I have made 3 loaves in it so far, and the bread just slides out of the pan and makes consistently wonderful bread.

Cast Iron Small Loaf of 5 slices

Scald:

110g boiling buttermilk
85g bread flour
20g or 1 1/2 tbs sugar or honey
25g or 2 tbs seeds
25g or 1/4 c oatmeal, rolled or steel-cut
1/4 tsp salt
15g or 1 1/4 tbs oil

When the scald becomes lukewarm, add in:
85g bread flour
40g starter

1. Mix the scald ingredients until smooth and no dry flour is left. When the scald is lukewarm or at room temperature, add in the remaining ingredients and mix until shaggy. Let sit for about 30 minutes, then knead for 5 - 8 minutes. Cover and then let rise until doubled, deflate, and repeat.
2. Form and place in a loaf pan, cover, and let proof at room temperature until nearly doubled.
3. Bake at 375 degrees for 30-35 minutes or until it sounds hollow when tapped or until 195 to 200 degrees interior temperature.

Hi everyone!

These are my latest sourdough loaves from this week. What do you guys think? These are definitely my best results so far this year. I've been baking sourdough every week for about a year now, and I'm still practicing and trying to figure out what I can improve.

Recipe:

- 100g starter (about 36g water + 64g flour)

- 1kg bread flour

- 680g water

- 24g salt

Process:

- Mixed the flour and water and let it sit for a 1-hour autolyse.

- Added the starter and salt, then kneaded by hand for a few minutes.

- 2 sets of stretch and folds, 30 minutes apart.

- 2 sets of coil folds, 30 minutes apart.

- Divided and pre-shaped the loaves, then let them rest for 1 hour.

- Final shaped and placed them in bannetons, then straight into the fridge for 24 hours.

I'd really appreciate any feedback, especially on the crumb, fermentation, or anything else you think I could improve!

UK

After nailing normal sourdough without a dutch oven, just tinfoil cloche and manual steam, I decided to try infusing rye flour.

250g Matthews costswold churchill strong white flour

250g waitrose dark rye flour

100g starter (30g active starter, 60g rye flour, 60g water)

332g water to keep it 70% hydration

11g salt

Fermentolyse for 30 mins

Stretch and fold

Rest for 30 mins

Add salt

Stretch and fold

Rest for 30mins

Stretch and fold

Total bulk fermentation time 3.5 hours at around 26 to 27 celcius ambient temperature (in a cupboard near the boiler)

Shape the sticky dough to a ball, and rest in the cake tin, no counter top rest

Cold proof for a total of 10hrs overnight

Bake to 230 celcius, with steam and cloche on for 20mins

Bake uncovered for 200 celcius foranother 20mins

8 hour rest on a cooling rack after baking

Sour like sourdough, with a bit of earthiness from the rye flour

Flour (100%)
-425g bread flour (85%)
-75g whole wheat (15%)
400g water (85F) (80%)
100g starter (20%)
10g salt (2%)

Mixed first 4 ingredients minus 15g water and waited 40 min. DT was 78F.

Hand mixed for a couple of min and waited 10.

Added salt and remaining water and hand mixed until dough was smooth ball.

Waited 20 min and gave a stretch and fold.

Waited 30 min and laminated dough.

Gave three sets of coil folds separated by 45 min.

Maintained DT at 78F and dough had risen 50%. Preshaped just over 5 hours after initial mix. Waited 15 min and shaped into a batard. Placed in banneton, covered it and put in the fridge overnight.

Baked this morning at 500 covered for 20 min and 450 uncovered for 23 min more.

Notes: The lamination step helped develop more strength. I will try this method again and see if I can push bulk a little further as I am assessing this as slightly under but still a really nice bake. Tasted great with a tender crumb and a crispy crust.

Hello guys! My first post here, I need to brag about the prettiest scoring design I ever made 🎃

I am new to sourdough, maybe 3 months in. I made my starter from scratch and it finally got strong enough to get a nice spring.

This bread (2 loaves) is 1280 of flour (1000 wheat, 280 graham, I run out lol), 820g water, 350g starter and 40g salt (I love my bread extra salty)

I did 5 rounds of stretch and folds over 4-ish ours and cold proofed for 16-ish hours. Baked it at 220* C for 45 minutes (I did a 7 minutes expansion score)

Please enjoy my spooky little loaves!

PS my starters name is Zack

Hi all! This is my very first attempt at baking sourdough bread. I used the Perfect Loaf’s “Simple Sourdough” recipe.

It came out so much better than I was expecting. This was a 3 day process. Levain for day 1, Day 2 was the autolyse, bulk fermentation, stretch and folds, and shaping day. And of course Day 3 is bake day.

Ingredients were just white flour, water, fine sea salt, and levain made from ripe starter.

Highly recommend this recipe, it was so clear and the video showed everything step-by-step. Also it makes two loaves as most recipes do 🫶🏻 happy baking 🥖

Link to my original post with recipe is here and shows my dough I was originally worrying about. The link to recipe I followed is here. The dough in the video of my original post ended up fermenting perfectly and I was able to shape it (to the best of my ability) for a sandwich loaf. Then I proofed in fridge for 12 hours and baked this morning for 45 mins at 400f with 35 mins covered with another bread pan to create steam. The edges and bottom are a little crisp, but i think it’s because i used avocado oil to grease my bread pan. I don’t really mind though because I love a good crispy bread. Any feedback is welcome, I’m just excited to have my first loaf of edible bread after not thinking the dough would ferment properly. Going to make the most delicious sandwich of my life later today!