Hi everyone! I’m pretty new to sourdough and could really use some advice.
A friend gave me a very well established starter (about 10 years old). I started baking with it and I’d say I’ve had pretty good success so far. The sourdough itself comes out great, and I’ve also made discard recipes like muffins, bagels, pizza dough, etc. Baking itself doesn’t seem to be the issue. The problem is what happens after.
A day or two later, my sourdough bread and pretty much anything I bake with it becomes rock hard. Not just a little stale or dense. I mean like a stale baguette that is hard to even cut into. I bake a lot and this has never happened to any of my other pastries
At first, I thought it was because I was storing it at room temperature. So with my next loaf, I put it in a Ziploc bag in the fridge. Still hard. Then I tried slicing and freezing it and toasting or heating slices as needed. Still hard.
It’s not that it’s chewy or dense. It’s more like it dries out into a brick. My husband loves sourdough, but this has kind of turned him off from it because it just gets so unpleasant to eat after the first day.
What am I doing wrong? Is this normal for sourdough, or is there something in my process that’s causing this?
Any tips or ideas would be really appreciated!
by froggyfig
39 Comments
If you’d like your bread to be softer, add fat in the form of olive oil or avocado oil to the initial mix. This keeps your bread soft and keeps it from losing moisture as quickly.
Home made bread goes stale, fast. I slice my loaves once cold and store them in a plastic bag in the freezer. I toast from frozen or thaw in a plastic bag on the counter for sandwiches. Enhanced doughs keep fresh a little longer, but not much.
Usually means dry bread
If something has lost its water, what do you do? Gotta rehydrate it somehow
Olive Oil
Cheese
Butter
Tomato puree / any tomato sauce
Good ol Water
Milk & Honey
Nutella
Insert favorite food fluids here 🙂
Some fat on top of it + Some protein if you want to make it a meal
I usually put one or more of the above on top of a sourdough slice and then to the microwave 30 seconds
If I have more time I grill it on a frying pan with oil or butter with cover
And to prevent it from happening… Not easy if you live in a dry climate
Mine preserve well for 3-4 days on the counter @ 20°C 70% humidity, I just wrap a cotton cloth around it
Try to slice it, spray some water on each slice, and then freeze it
Reheat on microwave 1min or until unfrozen
did you cut it in half before it was fully cooled?
You may have cut it when it was still hot.
Or you overbake it. Or you mean the crust which can be hard, but the crumb should not be hard at all
I keep my sourdough in a bread tin which actually softens it quite a bit. I’ve never had it go completely hard. That said, I’ve had store-bought baguettes turn into rocks before I was ready to use them and learned a trick to revive them. I can’t imagine why it wouldn’t work for sourdough, so maybe give it a try? Especially if the loaf is already destined for the garbage anyway.
This won’t work if the plan is to store it again, though; this is for serving immediately.
Preheat your oven to 400, dunk the loaf in water or run it under the sink…you don’t want it soggy, but you do want it to be saturated…immediately toss it on the middle rack in the oven for 10-15 min until the crust feels crisp again, then serve it up (with a generous amount of butter, of course).
Honestly I just freeze mine after a day or so. You get really delicious toast straight from the freezer that way whenever you want 🤷♀️
Run the loaf under a faucet, quickly. Dampen it. Toss it in the oven at 325F for 2-3 minutes. Should come out like a nearly fresh loaf.
I should mention this: I live in a dry climate with high altitude. I cut my bread after it has been cooling off ~2 hours. I usually rinse my bread under the sink and microwave it so it can become soft.
I use a little olive m oil in my dough. It extends the freshness.
I also live in a dry climate at altitude (7800’). I never cut my loaf in half, I always cut from one side only and leave the bread cut side down on a wood cutting board. Crust stays crusty and crumb stays moist for 3 days, day 4 it starts drying out a little but is still enjoyable through day 5. My solution was to make smaller loaves that don’t last more than 3 days, I half bae and freeze the others so I can warm them in the oven and have easy “fresh” bread whenever I want
Another thing you can try is going up a bit in hydration and proof a little longer. More hydration with the same bake time should result in a bit more moisture retained, and acid from fermentation does not evaporate as easily as water. Alternatively, you could also try extending the steam phase of your bake.
I know you wrote that you think your starter is healthy and strong, but it looks like your starter is not so strong after all. Your crumbs look weak from your photos, maybe you should feed your starter differently. In addition if your starter is not strong then the shelf life of your bread won’t be so long.
Not really big on bread although I’ve been flirting with thenidea of picking up bakery as a hobby. Never baked a homemade (any kind of) bread in my life. That being said though, I always keep bread in the refrigerator. And if I have hard bread that’s still good which I wanna eat, I heat it with care and wrap it tight in cellophane or put in a plastic bag and seal until it has softened from the steam of the heat. Not a long term fix if the bread itself is the problem but definitely can make your life a bit easier short term
I have started using beeswax lined bags and they are great at keeping the bread fresh. You lose a little bit of hardness in the crust but it toasts up perfect.
Wrap it in tin foil
Search YT. Theres a baker who shows how to restore softness on your SDB. Good luck. 😁
Try using a tangzhong. It only takes a few minutes and makes a big difference in the lifespan of your baked loaves.
I have this problem as well. my solution was to wait until the bread cools down, then I would slice up the whole bread into portion sizes. then I would put the slices into freezer storage bags, 4 slices in each bag maximum. finally, I would store these bags in the freezer and I will use a toaster oven at 400°F to bring them back life. the time it stays in the toaster oven will affect the texture. the longer is stays, the crunchier it gets.
Look at your ingredients and you’ll realise there is very little preservative in there. That’s the beauty of fresh bread, but also the down side. Personally I’d rather bake more often than consume stuff full of preservatives (supermarket bread, I’m looking at you here).
Just eat it faster, my breads don’t have the chance to get stale hahah
I bake in loaf pans. I bought bags from Jeff. After just one hour I put the bread in bags and they fog up. Then the bread soaks up the moisture. They stay soft for a few days. Longer if my freaking wife would put it back in the bag….
Probably need to increase hydration. There is a noticeable difference in how long my loaves last between 65 and 85 percent
Did you try freezing it as soon as you cut it? I bake once a week let the loaf cool to room temp slice the whole thing and individually wrap groups of 4 slices in plastic wrap. Then freeze. Once thawed or toasted it’s just like fresh baked.
I slice mine a few hours after cooling and then leave it in a ziplock on the counter — we go through it in about 3-4 days, toasted. Or I freeze it whole or sliced or cit in half , stored in a ziplock and let it defrost when we’re ready for it. We eat 2 round loaves per week. (I know, hubby and I eat a lot of bread!)
Mine used to be the same until I started cutting it from the middle and keeping the two pieces together wrapped in a tea towel. I sometimes put it in a zip lock bag on the counter but I don’t like how the crust goes this way.
Do you have a bread box? They’re magic – my loaf will last 4-6 days in a bread box. I have this one: https://a.co/d/0FAva3n 10/10 recommend.
Dont mix the strong cement flour until the very end
I usually use line seeds and psyllium (or other seeds, old bread crumbs, etc), poor hot water over it and let it rest for some hours and than put the resulting pudding into the bread. Gives a ton of moisture to the dough and is good for the digestion.
Bread like this stays moist for over a week.
You have to vary a bit with the recipe, but i found it pretty forgiving and just add water until the consistency feels correct. You don‘t get a very open crumb, but a perfect one for sandwiches, butter, etc
I add 25g of olive oil to my loaves and it helps. I also live in a dry high altitude climate and cut my bread into slices after it cools. Store in zip lock bag on the counter. Our bread doesnt last long enough to mold lol 😆
Try adding the oil to your loaf next time and see if it helps! I dont know the science behind it but the fat is supposed to make the bread more malleable.
I live in a high altitude, dry state. I store mine in a plastic bread bag! If it’s feeling dry (depending on what I’m doing with it so toast or something) I’ll mist it with a little water before using! Sounds weird but it works wonders. You can also try upping the hydration of the dough too, I usually do about 73-75% hydration!
I freeze whatever I can’t eat within 12hrs. Keeps it nice and soft
Lil blue pull finally kicked in?
Is it the whole bread, or the crust? If it’s the crust, it’s really just a matter of learning how to form the skin and tensioning the skin you form. I’ve found that spreading the dough out and folding it in on itself really helps even if I can’t get picture-perfect oven spring.
In my experience and my humble opinion, this is just the nature of bread with no extra “stuff” to keep it soft/fresh/etc.
I slice my bread, freeze it, and toast the slices when I want fresh bread. This has been the best way I’ve found to preserve it and make it last longer.
I’ve heard that in restaurants they often wet the bread that has gone rock hard (like give it a quick rinse or literally quickly submerge the bread under water) and bake the bread again.
I don’t know the details like the temp on top of my head, but maybe you can experiment with this technique
Could be a storage issue! I do a ziploc on the counter (the fridge dries it out), freeze in slices like other commenters have described, or put it cut-side down in a bread box.
I put mine under a glass dome cake saver on a wooden board and it keeps well. Also beewrap is wonderful to save bread.
I live at slight altitude in a “high desert” climate. I have the beeswax lined bags for storing my bread but feel it actually makes it too soft (like I basically lose the crust storing this way). So far I like the plastic bags that King Arthur sells best. They seem to be just air tight enough that my bread lasts about a week (5 days).