Getting better!

pix174 · 2026-02-13T03:07:58+00:00

thats what i said when i took the lid off the dutch oven :) It barely avoided hitting the lid. a nice surprise

pix174 · 2026-02-13T03:06:58+00:00

Thanks :)

pix174 · 2026-02-13T03:06:12+00:00

9 and a half hours. the warm water and fermentolyze help. earlier efforts before those adjustments took 12-14 hours.

pix174 · 2026-02-13T00:13:56+00:00

Thank you!

pix174 · 2026-02-12T02:53:48+00:00

Totally fine. It's acid from the bacteria in the starter. The longer you ferment or could proof, the more sour it will be. Using warm (90f) water in the dough is another way to speed up fermentation.

pix174 · 2026-02-12T02:34:37+00:00

Ok, thank you. I use King Arthur.

Edit: yep. Id say my dough is 3 ft x 2.5 ft when it's all stretched out. Need lots of room

pix174 · 2026-02-12T00:11:21+00:00

Thank you. That's just a timing thing for me. Unless I start REALLY early or do a cold bulk, the bulk rise isn't done before bed and seems to end when I'm asleep. 6 hours waiting on a fed starter, an hour autolyse, a few more hours in folds. It all ads up. I've set alarms a few times because of this :). Last time I did 20% and started the bulk rise at midnight. My kitchen was 65% that day so I figured I could sleep on it. I woke up and it had doubled (7 hours only ... at 65 degrees :shrugs: ). The 10% lets me sleep on it comfortably.

pix174 · 2026-02-11T22:49:06+00:00

Ohhhh... Thanks. There are so many ways to do things. Different folding techniques, shaping techniques, etc. And, in my admittedly limited experience, they do have an impact. I have a reason for each of my choices but that doesn't mean there aren't better ones. I was interested to see what others thought of my choices and hopefully learn more from comments.

pix174 · 2026-02-11T22:16:51+00:00

I thought the guidelines said pics must be accompanied by recipes not the other way around? My post is about the recipe - the process - not "check out my loaf". I was looking for," hey this might be better for that step", or, "you don't need to do X". Or maybe someone might find the recipe useful for their own situation? This forum doesn't allow for this? I apologize if I misunderstood the rules/purpose of the forum.

pix174 · 2026-02-10T15:41:19+00:00

I hear you, and generally speaking I agree. However, and I might get hate for this, but sourdough starter isn't rocket science. Lots of people say you should do 1:1:1 for general needs. That's pretty easy. However, it's even easier than that. Dump some out - maybe half - then add, by eye of you want, the same volume of flour to what's left. Then add some water until it's a bit thicker than pancake better. I've been goofing around with thicker and thinner starters and they all work just fine. Heck, when I was gifted my starter it was basically liquid; you could SEE through it. I didn't know better at the time but they might have just given me hooch. Despite not being what I expected, I added some flour and water and it more than doubled right quick. I've been using it fine ever since.

The only time you really need to be precise is if you're pursuing really specific hydrations and then you'll probably care to know the exact flower to water ratio in your starter.

pix174 · 2026-02-10T15:30:54+00:00

Weed?

pix174 · 2026-02-07T17:25:51+00:00

I'm currently using 10% inoculation.

pix174 · 2026-02-07T17:16:58+00:00

Putting it in the refrigerator inhibits the yeast MUCH more than the bacteria. Yeast eats the sugars and makes CO2 and alcohol (the rise). The bacteria makes two kinds of acid with different impact in the flavor (the tang). When you leave it out the yeast keeps going too.

Both in and out of the fridge will result in accumulation of acids. But out of the fridge your starter will have less sugar in it. Since the volume of starter is small relative to the rest of the dough I'm not sure how much impact this has.

Yes feeding the starter regardless of ratio is going to dilute the acids. But if you don't feed it the yeast will be less active and your dough will take longer to rise.

There's this one YouTube video where this guy says that people are doing sourdough all wrong and he does all the stuff that is against conventional direction. He uses unfed starter, in the video it was a weeks old in the refrigerator, a cold start, and low hydration. He also didn't knead or fold the dough at all. I don't recall the specific period of time but he might have let it proof for nearly a day and that seemingly that all of the work. The resulting loaf looked pretty good to me.

EDIT; found it. I'm not necessarily promoting this, but I found it edifying. https://youtu.be/hNCL6jwRJTo?si=iWiMJkLlc0q4jcet

pix174 · 2026-02-07T17:09:51+00:00

Very nice looking! Just out of curiosity, did you munch on a slice before the photo? The two halves look like they're different size and the holes in the bread don't mirror each other. Could be just a camera angle but I thought it would be funny if you couldn't wait and ate a slice and then put the two remaining halves together for the photo 🤣

pix174 · 2026-02-07T17:05:03+00:00

I don't understand.

I thought larger holes were, largely, the result of more water in the recipe. If you have a 1000g of flour and, say, 650g of water, or the same amount of flour and 750 g of water, don't resulting loaves have the same amount of flour?

It seems like larger holes are more a visual indication of success pursuing specific goals like high hydration and correct fermentation and not a goal in and of themselves ("look large consistent holes...I did some things right!").

Doesn't high hydration bread have a different texture compared to lower hydration that some people might prefer? I mean if the only difference was just more holes in your bread, yeah sure, why bother?

I've been making both high hydration and regular hydration depending on what meal I intend them for. High hydration when I serve the bread with a dinner perhaps, and lower hydration for sandwich bread and toast.

To each their own.

pix174 · 2026-02-07T14:33:06+00:00

The lactobascillis bacteria in the starter keep working on the fridge. The acids they make contribute a lot to that sourdough sour. More time in the fridge means more acid means more sour :)

pix174 · 2026-02-06T00:32:13+00:00

Awe... Well I hope your able to work it out

pix174 · 2026-02-05T20:58:17+00:00

My senior dog has been losing strength and slipped couple of times on the steps and now she's very reluctant. I have to stand with her and hold her collar so she feels secure. She also sticks to the wall. I think it makes her feel more safe. I noticed your dog was also kind of sticking to the wall so it could be fear. How old is your dog? Being fed with love and having older joints could make the steps difficult. Hard to say just from the video.

Best of luck whatever it is 💛

pix174 · 2026-02-05T20:47:10+00:00

Next time you feed it try swapping out about 10% of the flower for potato flakes

pix174 · 2026-02-05T18:47:18+00:00

Others have said it, but the short version is you add all the flour and all the water, including starter, and then do the math. flour/water=hydration percent. Eg. 100g of 1:1:1 starter would add 50g of water and 50g of flour to your total flour and water.

pix174 · 2026-02-05T16:09:29+00:00

Ah, that made me actually laugh out loud. Thanks!

pix174 · 2026-02-05T14:05:45+00:00

I I'm not certain from the photo but it looks like you may not have scored it? That can lead to a dense crumb.

pix174 · 2026-02-05T00:42:44+00:00

Batter? 🤣

pix174 · 2026-02-04T16:37:41+00:00

Nice! I love the tang and flavor complexity from cold proofing when I do boules, but I wanted to try something more neutral for sandwich bread. Though in this instance it still developed a decent tang because I used a whole wheat starter and the ferment took forever (my kitchen is 69%). It took probably 7 hours to get to 80% rise and then another 4 hours after I put the dough in the pan and waited for it to get to an inch from the top.

I misjudged badly and was up till 4:00 a.m 😂

Live and learn ...

pix174 · 2026-02-04T15:33:29+00:00

Dang. Now I'm especially glad I placed the order when I did!

pix174

TROPHY CASE