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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 .

285 questions
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Why stir sourdough only with wooden spoons?

When reading about sourdough (in german texts at least), they almost always say to stir it with a wooden spoon. Why do they do that? Does metal or plastic somehow interfere with the sourdough?
Jost
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Sourdough starter from regular yeast?

I live near San Francisco and I am in love with the local sourdough bread. It is very expensive and I'd like to bake my own bread. I am wondering though, is it possible to make sourdough starter from regular breadmachine yeast?
Siah
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Very old sourdough starter; how long is too long?

For quite some time, my grandmother has had a sourdough starter kept in the fridge. I observed her making muffins and whatnot on an infrequent basis, with the intervals sometimes increasingly greater than the 14 days I see recommended on various…
Dan Melks
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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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Sour Dough Starter - proofing in less than 24 hours?

I recently started with making sour dough. I created a new starter yesterday. After feeding it one time in less than 24 hours it's already doubling it's size. I'm not using self-rising flour just normal wheat bread flour. Is it usual that it picked…
Lucas Kauffman
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What went wrong with this bread?

I just baked this bread using sour dough. Why is there a large hole in it? What can I do to prevent this from happening next time? Pre oven: Post oven:
smoksnes
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When to add salt in sourdough bread mix?

I was reading around and seems that a lot of forums are saying to delay adding the salt in your sourdough mix. I dissolved the salt in water and then I poured the sourdough starter in the water and gave it a light stir and then I poured them in the…
Andrei CACIO
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Mathris broke as soon as I added it into medium hot oil

Why did my Mathris break apart (they didn't bind together) while frying? I was making Methi Mathris-Kasuri using 1 tsp methi, peppercorns, ajwain, salt, cumin seeds, 1 tsp besan I added quite a lot of oil while kneading the dough
simantini
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Why does my sourdough loaf not get an ear

My loaves seem to have good oven spring, I think. I think that because it rises up on the sides and forms an oval sort of shape each time. My cut often expands but doesn't open up much or form an ear. Todays partly opened. I dont know if I am doing…
Jon
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how to correct a problem with my sourdough starter

My boss gave me a sourdough starter that I've had on my counter for a week. I"ve fed it with just equal parts of flour and water without wasting the starter in order to increase the amount. it has increased in the amount, but have I made the starter…
samantha
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How should I adapt recipes according to the amount of sourdough starter?

I use the starter irregularly, therefore the amount I take to make the dough changes every time: I work by taking a fixed amount of starter to feed further, and by using all the rest in the recipe. However, even if the starter is fed with 100%…
FarO
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sourdough starter splits

So on my second day, my sourdough starter split pretty big and I'm wondering if this is expected behaviour. This is 30/30gr water/fullwheat flour from the first and second day. Here is a picture of the result:…
hoppa
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Sourdough starter

I was given a sourdough starter a week ago and I kept it in the fridge. Yesterday I added the flour and warm water and left it at room temp. The recipe said leave for about 8hours and when it is bubbling, add more flour and water and knead it. But…
Dotid
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Should I stir my sourdough starter before measuring?

I'm new to using sourdough starter and some directions aren't very clear. I'm not sure if it needs to be stirred down before I measure for cooking and for feeding it. I've been stirring down the starter before measuring both when feeding and when…
Cheryle Cerezo-Gardiner
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Maintaining a sourdough starter

There seems to be (much like everything else) different recipes, though most call for equal parts starter, flour and water for maintenance. However, one particular (and popular) blogger calls for the following recipe: Scoop in 50 grams of the…
Dandan
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