My 3rd attempt at baking sourdough 🥹

Hii! I’m here for any feedback you can give about how I can perfect my sourdough. This is my 3rd loaf and I think I did pretty good. My first loaf was a complete disaster since I didn’t really understand the whole process and I followed a recipe which didn’t say I needed to bulk ferment. So it turned out flat and gummy. My 2nd attempt had a lot of rise, looked beautiful, but was a bit gummy inside, but still delicious. So this time I extended bulk fermentation even more and it turned out amazing. I think I’m addicted now and I wanna bake more and more lol.

However, I wish it had bigger holes inside. It might be my starter, because after I feed it 1:1:1 ratio after 5-6h it only barely doubles in size. It smells nice, is bubbly, passes the float test, but for some reason never rises more than double. It’s about 1 month old now. So does anyone have any advice to help strengthen it? 😇

Btw, for this recipe I used:

100g starter
400g bread flour
100g whole wheat flour
375g water
10g salt

I bulk fermented it about 9 hours on my counter and then about 16 hours in the fridge.

by atiduokkarve

Fine_Platypus9922 7 months ago

Definitely try to feed your starter in 1:2:2 ratio, or even 1:3:3. Use lukewarm water (80 F), preferably filtered or boiled, for starter feeding. Then it should have more rising power.

For bigger holes, you could increase your hydration a bit more, but try some other things first:

Do you do autolyse? It’s basically mixing all water and flour (without the starter) about 1-2 hours before your starter is ready and leaving it to stand. This should help gluten development. (Then you add other ingredients as you usually do).
In some recipes, after autolyse, you add starter first and mix / knead the dough thoroughly to incorporate it, and then after 30 minutes you add salt and do more kneading / slap and folding. People have mixed opinions on whether it’s worth the hassle not to add starter and salt at the same time, but I just find it a good way to space out kneading and handling the dough to build up stretchiness and allow more air to be trapped in.

And I assume during bulk fermentation you apply stretch and folds, or coil folds as methods to develop more gluten in the dough?

And finally, what’s your baking temperature / technique? I found I have better oven spring and holes if I preheat the Dutch oven with the oven to 500 F for at least 15 minutes at max temperature, put an empty sheet under the Dutch oven to deflect direct heat, and bake the loaf straight from the fridge at 500 F for 20 mins with lid on and 15 mins at 460 F with lid off.

Your progress is remarkable though! This is a good looking and nicely fermented loaf and many people in this sub will tell you to stop chasing bigger holes so that your butter doesn’t fall through the cracks!
IMO, there’s nothing wrong with chasing bigger holes!

2 Comments

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Fine_Platypus9922 7 months ago
Definitely try to feed your starter in 1:2:2 ratio, or even 1:3:3. Use lukewarm water (80 F), preferably filtered or boiled, for starter feeding. Then it should have more rising power.
For bigger holes, you could increase your hydration a bit more, but try some other things first:
Do you do autolyse? It’s basically mixing all water and flour (without the starter) about 1-2 hours before your starter is ready and leaving it to stand. This should help gluten development. (Then you add other ingredients as you usually do).
In some recipes, after autolyse, you add starter first and mix / knead the dough thoroughly to incorporate it, and then after 30 minutes you add salt and do more kneading / slap and folding. People have mixed opinions on whether it’s worth the hassle not to add starter and salt at the same time, but I just find it a good way to space out kneading and handling the dough to build up stretchiness and allow more air to be trapped in.
And I assume during bulk fermentation you apply stretch and folds, or coil folds as methods to develop more gluten in the dough?
And finally, what’s your baking temperature / technique? I found I have better oven spring and holes if I preheat the Dutch oven with the oven to 500 F for at least 15 minutes at max temperature, put an empty sheet under the Dutch oven to deflect direct heat, and bake the loaf straight from the fridge at 500 F for 20 mins with lid on and 15 mins at 460 F with lid off.
Your progress is remarkable though! This is a good looking and nicely fermented loaf and many people in this sub will tell you to stop chasing bigger holes so that your butter doesn’t fall through the cracks!
IMO, there’s nothing wrong with chasing bigger holes!

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