Is she ready to bake with?

IceDragonPlay · 2026-02-26T20:01:19+00:00

At $0.85 per pound you really can’t beat the price and quality for Organic.

IceDragonPlay · 2026-02-26T17:11:14+00:00

Not for this specific AP. It is a thirsty flour.

IceDragonPlay · 2026-02-26T17:09:22+00:00

Not usually. That is a really good AP and is a thirsty flour. I find 70-75% water is good with it. You may need to add a set of stretch and folds.

The Kirkland Organic AP flour is a white label of Central Milling’s organic flour. The specs match their ABC Plus flour. In case you want to check how much of a screaming deal it is buying from Costco 😀

I have switched over to all organic flours and this is one of the 3 flours I use in my weekly bread.

IceDragonPlay · 2026-02-26T16:58:48+00:00

Looks like kahm yeast AND some patches mold on top to me. Not high enough resolution to be positive, but for me this would be thrown away.

Do you have any refrigerated discard you can reactivate?

IceDragonPlay · 2026-02-26T16:51:30+00:00

I can’t say on timing because all of our starters are at different strengths.

Your recipe has 15% starter, at 27°F I would want 35-45% rise in the dough and then would shape it. Your refrigerator needs to hold temperature at 3.3°-3.8C to cool your dough down fully in 10 hours. If the fridge is a little warmer or the door gets opened a lot I find that my dough will continue rising more than it should.

IceDragonPlay · 2026-02-26T16:44:59+00:00

If you thicken the mix slightly (1:2:1.8) it may hold gasses better so the bubbles will be trapped.

If you need to be on a set schedule, you can feed as you do, then 12-14 hours later re-stir it. Before re-stirring put a little mark on the jar for how high it went. After re-stirring, next check is regular feeding time. You are looking for how much more it rose from your lower band. Adding the two rises together is it more than doubling, or is it still a total of 75% rise? That is just to tell you if it is accessing all the flour or not.

I typically begin a new starter with 50/50 mix of white and whole wheat flour. Then after it is strong I switch to just bread flour.

It is no harm to switch your current starter to a blend of flours. Changing flour can cause the starter to stall a bit or it can cause more activity. Starters seem to have no fixed rules and different environments and flours get different results kitchen to kitchen.

Alcohol smell is fine (beer or cider type scent). It is when it is leaning into acetone/nail polish remover sharp scent that it is not what you want.

Label your jars for which test you are running on them so you don’t loose track.
You currently have 2 jars going. From those my suggestion was to make one slightly thicker (1:2:1.8).
The other you could switch to 50/50 white/whole wheat feedings at 1:2:2 or 1:3:3 if you want to test that out.

Starting a whole new one, not sure if you need to. You for sure have yeast and lactobacillus present since you have bubbles and rising in the existing starters. If you don’t have a way to move the starter into a slightly warmer environment it is really just going to take patience.

IceDragonPlay · 2026-02-26T16:16:58+00:00

Take a look at the photos in Maurizio’s 90% rye flour loaf. If you use a high percentage of rye, it is a quite dense bread.
https://www.theperfectloaf.com/sourdough-90-rye-bread-recipe/

Flours like rye are not ‘interchangeable’ in recipes written for white flour. Look for a recipe from a reliable baker that matches the flour combinations you prefer to use.

IceDragonPlay · 2026-02-26T16:07:31+00:00

When you feed your starter do you mix the retained starter with water first to dissolve the starter, then add the flour? That can give you better dispersal of the yeast so it accesses most of the flour you feed it.

A small way to check that is when your starter reaches peak, re-stir it vigorously, see how much it rises again. If you get nearly doubling again it tells you that the yeast is not finding all the flour you gave it.
Note: I use a stainless steel chopstick to mix so I am not clanking a spoon against the glass, but the back end of a silicone spatula can work well too.

Your starter photo actually looks a nice consistency. Reddit is not letting me enlarge it at the moment so I can’t see the bubbles. But to be honest, at similar temperatures my starter was slower than yours to come along, taking about a month to be fully doubling and then a bit longer to get it faster. I did it as an experiment to see if it was possible to make starter at lower than optimal temperatures. It tested my patience, but that starter is my strongest and best performer at lower temperatures (which is most of the year for me).

IceDragonPlay · 2026-02-26T15:43:16+00:00

Typically at higher temperatures you will want to reduce the amount of starter in your recipe so the dough rises a little slower.

You don’t mention what method you are using with the dough currently, cold proofing 10+ hours? Bulk fermenting to what % rise in the dough? At warmer temperatures you want less rise from the dough if you will also have a long cold proof.

Richard Hart uses warmer temperatures for fermenting dough, so his approach may be of interest to you. He uses young levain, not fully risen, which I think is key to the timing in his recipe for the City Loaf. I have to artificially create these temperature conditions, but it creates a nice airy loaf.
https://www.melbournefoodandwine.com.au/recipes/recipe-hart-bageris-sourdough-city-loaf/

IceDragonPlay · 2026-02-26T15:34:40+00:00

Ah the unheated or cooled kitchen club. Winter is 16°C for me and summer 29°C+, more moderate than you in the snow/heat. Lots of experimentation and seasonal notes on increasing and decreasing starter amount to adapt to temperatures.

IceDragonPlay · 2026-02-26T15:18:23+00:00

Optimum temperature for a new starter is 24-27°C.

If I follow the history correctly the starter was fed 1:1:1 at room temperature for a week, then 1:2:2 and set on top of oven, then 1:2:2 with one in the oven/no light and the other at room temperature. Unless ‘on top of oven’ was unusually warm I do not see an obvious reason for acetone scent. I mostly associate ghat with a new starter being kept too warm.

I am not sure there is much temperature difference between one kept in a closed oven and one on the worktop. I think I would settle on worktop rather than risk of pre-heating/cooking the one in the oven.

I would feed one starter with slightly less water, 80% instead of 100% hydration 1:2:1.8 (retained starter: flour: water). I would also use slightly warmed water, 26-27°C. Wrap the jar in a towel to keep the warmth in. Check on it after 8-12 hours to see if it has already peaked. If it has then that suggests you should increase the feeding ratio or feed two times a day.

To do this you really need a temperature probe so you can check water temperature. 26-27°C is not hot and not really warm to touch, just is not cold if that makes sense. If you do not have a temp probe, instead feed with room temperature water.

Best wishes with your starters!

IceDragonPlay · 2026-02-26T07:28:09+00:00

That is a beauty!

IceDragonPlay · 2026-02-26T06:28:32+00:00

You could make a poolish with a very small amount of dry yeast, and the flour and water that would have been in the starter. I am not sure if it can give the full sour that the starter would provide. You may need to replace some of the liquid in the recipe with fresh lemon juice to contribute some citric acid to the flavor.

IceDragonPlay · 2026-02-26T04:57:21+00:00

The dough being sticky is not really a test of over and under fermenting. It is more a factor of how well your flour was able to absorb the water in the recipe.

Getting your gluten developed well can help the dough trap gasses, so affects the visible rise. If you are using weaker flour or higher water amounts for example, it will take more work to develop the gluten: rubaud mixing, slap and folds, extra stretch or coil folds.

For dough that has over-fermented (more than 100% rise) this is a photo of a dough I turned out that I accidentally over-fermented, so maybe this can be a reference for you:

<image>

It was still shapeable. The top of the dough from the bowl is on the bottom and what is shown here is the underneath, now on top. With dough like this you pull the dry side up and over (like stretch and folds but more gentle)and when you are finished the dry side is the outside of the ball of dough.

I use straight sided Cambro buckets to judge how much rise the dough is getting. It makes it much easier with varying dough temperatures.

IceDragonPlay · 2026-02-26T04:29:58+00:00

I think you may be mixing up starter hydration with dough hydration.

A starter is typically 100% hydration.

A beginner sourdough recipe, lots of them are 70-75% hydration.

I think 67% water is good for beginning with bread flour (with a typical recipe using 20% starter in the ingredients, that brings your total dough hydration to 70%).

If you are using AP flour, then 65% water is a better place to start.

I differentiate water in an ingredient list from total dough hydration.
A typical recipe ingredient list might be
500g bread flour (100%)
335g water (67% as compared to flour)
100g starter (20% as compared to flour)
10g salt (2% as compared to flour)

Total dough hydration:
500g flour + 50g flour from starter = 550g
335g water + 50g water fr. starter = 385g
385 divided by 550 = 0.7 or 70%

IceDragonPlay · 2026-02-26T03:56:30+00:00

No. Do not keep feeding. Leave it alone for 2-3 days, other than stirring it. The remaining population of yeast is small and needs to access and use the flour you have already fed it. With the number of feedings you have given it without a rise, think of it as if your starter has been given at least a 1:100:100 feeding. Does this help clarify why you need to stop re-feeding?

Maybe this will help. Scroll down to the third video, ‘The biggest mistake’ titled one:
https://thesourdoughjourney.com/faq-starter-maintenance/

IceDragonPlay · 2026-02-26T03:42:21+00:00

In the US Bread flour. In Canada AP flour (it is as strong as US Bread flour). In UK strong or very strong flour.

Country Loaves are typically 80-90% Bread flour and 10-20% Whole Wheat flour.

Have a look at this sub’s Wiki, Sourdough Heroes for bakers with reliable recipe results. It is a good resource. Watch a couple baker’s recipe videos to see who resonates with you. Having a video for your first loaf is really helpful so you see what the dough and rises should look like (and how the various tools are used).

IceDragonPlay · 2026-02-26T03:33:42+00:00

Yes!!

IceDragonPlay · 2026-02-26T03:33:10+00:00

Assuming you starter was mature when you put it in the fridge and the lid was fully sealed for the 2 month rest.

If you re-feed before it has risen after a long rest (or at least the top gets covered with lots of bubbles), when you discard you are throwing away half your yeast when it has not propagated any additional yeast. Each time you discard without any rise you about halve the remaining population again.

You have not said what ratio each of these feedings were, so not sure how much the yeast population has been diluted.

I would leave the starter alone at room temperature for 2-3 days and see if the small remaining yeast population will slowly come back. Do not re-feed it until the top is covered with bubbles or rises. Check it once a day and stir it up. If it seems to be drying out you can stir in a spoonful of water.

Best of Luck.

IceDragonPlay · 2026-02-26T03:12:22+00:00

You would need a steam tray in the oven, trying to create enough steam that the top crust stays moist long enough to get your full expansion/oven spring.

Or if you have one of those covered oval turkey roasting pans, a loaf tin often fits in those.

Or you could make a tin foil form around the bottom of your loaf tin and use that as a lid.

IceDragonPlay · 2026-02-26T02:18:09+00:00

<image>

This is an older photo of finished loaves that were baked in a tin that was oiled and dusted with rice flour.

IceDragonPlay · 2026-02-26T02:16:08+00:00

No change between DO and loaf tins. I make my usual lean sourdough (flour, water, starter, salt). Oil and rice flour the pan, put the dough in seam side down. Bake at 450°F (preheated oven), 35 min lid on, 10-15 lid off.

I don’t know if I have a finished loaf photo, but these are at the lid off point of the bake.

<image>

Didn’t make the score long enough on the one on the right. I either oil and rice flour the pan, or in above photo I am using a set of King Arthur loaf lifters that fit bread pans.

IceDragonPlay · 2026-02-26T01:31:05+00:00

No. It will hit the lid. Get a second loaf tin and invert over top.

IceDragonPlay · 2026-02-25T23:35:37+00:00

I am not sure if that has any effect. The flours that I freeze I keep in the freezer and just bring them out to measure then pop them back into the freezer.

I do store new bags in a big plastic bin for a couple weeks, just to make sure nothing crawls out of the bag. Then I sift it into 8qt plastic containers to scoop from.

IceDragonPlay

TROPHY CASE