r/Sourdough

Wanted to share my most recent bake which after a couple misses came out decent. Having it for lunch now along with some goulash i made the other day:)

I received starter from my friend and i have been experimenting a little bit with regards to timing and so on. Its been a while since i did sourdough so im still getting back into it.

550g of flour of which around 60g was wholemeal ölandsvete, 60g of stone milled organic wheat, and the rest a quite strong ölandsvete (Swedish heirloom wheat, sounds pretentious i know). Its around 15% protein so i felt i could increase water weight .

440g water (80%)

About 25% starter and 2.5% salt.

Mixed and let rest for 30 mins, then did 2 sets of stretches half an hour apart . Used the bulk o Matic program to determine when id reach my desired rise of 55% which would be 8 hours later at around 20:00 based. I took an aliquot jar and put some dough in it. It was at the 3cl marking and determined at my temp of 23 deg celsius, it should rise to 4.6cl when id reach 55% increase in volume.

Forgot about it for a couple hours and did some coil folds about 2 hrs later. At that point my aliquot was at 4cl so i figured the rise went faster than expected , plopped it onto my Workbench and quite sloppily folded it into a log shape. It was quite sticky still at this point . At this point the aliquot had risen to my 55% target so i threw it in a loaf pan and put it in the fridge for cold retard.

Then i baked for 15m with steam at 250 degrees Celsius, and another 25-30 at around 220-200.

Im pleased with how it turned out!

I’ve made two loaves from the same dough and the second one came out great! I shaped it with the letter fold technique and was very gentle with it. The crumb came out amazing in my opinion. It also cold proofed for way longer than the first loaf. This was interesting to me, because I thought it might overproof. My fridge is very cold at 3 degrees.

I’m a dedicated baker, as you can see, I’ve got an almost healed burn on my arm lol. Dedicated, but not very smart xD

Sourdough timeline 20/05

1kg flour, 700g water, 24g salt, 156g starter
Kitchen aid used, 23 degrees inside

9am fed starter
1.40pm autolyse 1 hour
2.40pm bulk fermentation start
Mixed 5 minutes on slow, 5 minutes on medium
3pm rest for 1 hour
Stretch and folds 30 minutes apart 2x
Coil folds 30 minutes apart 2x
Bulk fermentation done at 10pm
Pre shape, then wait 20 minutes
Letter fold
10.20pm cold proofing start

7am pre heat oven 30 minutes
1st loaf taken out of fridge at 7.30am (9 hours cold proof)
Baking at 250 degrees 40 minutes

Second loaf
Cold proofed for 17 hour and 10 minutes
Oven pre heated for 45 minutes 250 degrees
Second loaf baked around 3.30pm
40 minutes with lid, 10 without

Literally bursting from the seems now!

Have been following this recipe from Joshua Weismann: https://www.joshuaweissman.com/recipes/crispy-tangy-homemade-sourdough-recipe

But substituting the starter with a 2:1 flour and water ratio instead

Followed Bake with Jack’s recipe for both. Gas oven/dutch oven.

1:1:1 ratio to get to 100g of starter, 310 of water, 450 of bread flour. about 6.5 hours in between folds and then fridge for maybe 15 hours. process was the same for both but on the second one, i did cook with lid on for an extra 5 compared to first and maybe was closer to 7 hours for folds. everything else was the same except maybe a better starter

I think it may have been a tad under proofed. I attempted to make a loaf a few weeks ago and my starter was not strong enough + I definitely over proofed. So I tried to play it on the safe side this time. Also the bottom was a bit tough. I did put a baking sheet on my lower rack, but I’m thinking next time I should try using rice? I’ve seen some people do that but would love to hear any other tricks!

Recipe:
125g - Starter
300g - Water
500g - Flour
10g - Salt

Steps:

1. Mix.
2. Slap & folds for 5-10 minutes. (I’ve seen several creators on Tik Tok talking about building the gluten up front vs. leaving it as a shaggy dough, so I really wanted to try that.)
3. Rest for one hour.
4. 2 sets of stretch & folds 30 mins apart.
5. 2 sets of coil & folds 30 mins apart.
6. Bulk fermentation. (I believe I called it after 7-8 hours)
7. Laminate & shape.
8. Bench rest for 20 mins.
9. Gently reshape. Place in banneton & stitch bottom.
10. Cold proof overnight. (I think my cold proof ended up being around 18 hours.)
11. Preheat to 450°F with Dutch oven inside.
12. Bake for 30 mins lid on, 15-20 mins lid off. (I did my expansion score 7 minutes in.)
13. Take out & place on cooling rack. I cut into it a little after an hour. (I really wanted to wait the full 2 hours, but me & my husband couldn’t wait any longer lol.)

I did also mist the top of the loaf right before putting into the oven as well as when I took the lid off.

My recepie

6.5 dl water

700 g flour

20 g salt

1 dl starter

Mix everything by hand in a bowl

Wait an hour

3 sets of stretch and folds with 30 min in between

Rest overnight in bread basket in fridge

Bake in a cast iron pot for 1 hour, with lid removed for the last 20.

Rest 1 hour before cutting open.

500g flour with 12.5g protein
350ml whey
100g starter
10g salt
30 min autolysis
4 folds with 30 min intervals
First stretch and fold, others coil fold
Total 3 hours 30 min bulk fermentation
15 min steaming in the tray, total 40 min baking
First 15 minutes at 230 degrees Celsius, remaining time at 210 degrees Celsius. Internal bread temperature 98 degrees Celsius.

Soo I am new to the sourdough world, truly have been testing various recipes and local flours to see what comes from it.

As of now I have my starter locked in and healthy and I doubt my lack of an ear comes from that matter.

Here is my current recipe for a hybrid between a white and whole wheat loaf.

-300 g water
-120 g sourdough starter
- 150 g whole wheat bread flour (king arthur's)
-350 g white bread flour (local flour from my country)
-10 grams of salt

Starter is fed usually with 12 grams of starter ,60g flour and 60g of water. Twice a day.

I do want to mention my usual climate is very hot, lately ranging from 27 celsius to 32 celsius everyday. This of course makes everything go faster than usual. Online recipes indicate a bulk fermentation of 5-6 hours. Honestly that sometimes feels like overkill for my dough and climate. It usually takes around 4 hours for my dough to become extremely jiggly and full of bubbles, looking over-proofed almost.

I do worry that I might be over proofing my bread to certain extent. But then my latest loaves came out as if they were under proofed, but the dough was definitely ready when i pre shaped and placed in banetons.

My usual process:

Fermentalyse of an hour before adding the salt and 20 grams of water that I save for later.

I do like to work the dough very well with slaps and folds and I knead extensively until a decent gluten window forms.

I usually do 4 stretch and folds the every 30 minutes , 2 of the last ones are coil folds.

With my recent loaves i had to do only 3 stretch and folds as the weather was hot and the Dough had already almost doubled in size and huge bubbles and webbing were visible. The dough did hold its shape nicely after the pre shape though.

I do a pre shape and rest for 20-30 mins and then shape and place on banetons to cold proof for around 12-18 hours.

When it comes to baking and scoring I have tried different scoring angles and even scoring after 7 minutes on the oven (this dos give me a slight ear) but it felt like cheating. I sometimes bake on a dutch oven and sometimes do open baking. My oven is not a convenction oven btw. When open baking a do spray with water or add a hotel pan with ice at the bottom of the oven.

Please ask away if anything is unclear and give me some advice on how to master an ear and bulkfermentarion cues I should follow.

I will attach pictures of my latest loaves , one came out extremely flat and the other one looks decent. They do taste incredible dough and they toast very nicely.

Edit: I bake at 450 F sometimes on a preheated cast iron dutch oven and sometimes I do an open bake with a preheated cast iron underneath

I started sourdough last week as something to think about and use my brain. I have a newborn at home and in between naps I like to keep busy.

My third loaf pictured! It’s far from perfect but I’m pretty proud of it.

Recipe:

100g starter
510 g KA flour
390 water (I just use tap bc ours has a filter)
10g salt

Mix, sit for an hour covered. Do 4 stretches 30 minutes apart, sit for 3 hours- fridge overnight.

Preheat oven 450 with Dutch oven in it.
Bake 25 minutes top on, 25 min top off.

Cool on back for 2 plus hours.

Shaping it can be difficult so I’m working on that now.

I want to get into flavored breads.

My ask, what are the easiest flavored sourdough loafs to make with the greatest return on investment (flavor investment!)

I started this as something to really keep me busy during maternity leave & now it’s becoming a fun hobby to help with post partum depression!

Edit: Alright nerds, due to popular demand, I made a GitHub repo as quickly as I could. Feel free to have a look and build the thing if you'd like to, and feel free to send me any critiques or changes you think should be made. I don't know what I'm doing so I'm very open to suggestions. The files and info can be found at https://github.com/ChronoConstant/Sourdough-Monitor. Have fun.

I like making things and I’m enjoying getting started with sourdough so when I started my starter this idea popped into my head and I decided to build it for fun.

At its core it’s really just an ESP32-c3 that uses a time of flight sensor to measure the distance from the lid to the top of the starter and uses that value to calculate how much the starter has risen. It sends and logs that data via MQTT to my Home Assistant dashboard which I have hung on the wall in my kitchen next to my stove. It also logs temperature and humidity as well as the time since the starter was last fed. I can trigger a feed from either the button on top or from the button on the dashboard and that tells the device to reset the rise percentage and log a new baseline height for the starter. Battery life is still up in the air but it’s looking like probably at least a month between charges so that works for me. The lid itself is just something I whipped up in Fusion and printed out. Not the most aesthetically pleasing but it’s functional.

The plan going forward is to begin logging the data in a more robust accessible database so I can use it to create some predictive algorithms for rise times in different temperatures and humidity.

It’s overkill but I’m enjoying the pretty graph and it scratches a little itch in my brain so I’m happy with the results.

Just to be clear I’m not selling anything. I built most of the code for the firmware with AI and just made adjustments where it was necessary. This is just a personal project I wanted to show off. I’d love to hear any critiques or ideas on how to improve it.

This is my first sourdough I baked I think it was a succes. Am I correct? I am doubting because sometimes I see fails that I think look good.
I started it way to late so I just did lne stretch and fold. It was baked for 30mins with a lid on and 20without the lid on 225*C .The flour I used was 300g whole wheat and 100g rye. 80g starter en 280g water

I do my loaves in batches of 4 using
- 2000g of bread flour
- 1300g water (65% hydration)
- 500g starter
- 20 diastatic malt powder
- 40g salt
I use the ooni halo pro spiral mixer to mix till shaggy, autolyse for 20mins then mix at 65% speed for 6-7 mins till smooth and gluten is well developed. I check the temp to make sure it doesn’t go above 85 degrees Fahrenheit. I then separate into two proofing boxes and do a couple sets of coil folds in the first hour for a little more structure while bulk fermenting. Then I leave them alone for the rest of the bulk fermentation. From start to finish it’s about 5-6 hours. I then shape and put them in the fridge overnight and bake them through the following day.

Give me any tips!! I followed this recipe: 150 whole wheat, 350 all purpose white, 70 starter (4 weeks old), 10 salt and 380 water. Mixed until I had a shaggy dough. Sat for 30 minutes before doing 4 rounds of stretch and pulls 30 mins apart. I did my bulk ferment in the fridge for 20 hours but it didn’t double! Preshaped and allowed a final proof of 3 hours on the stove (slightly warm) and then baked at 500 in a preheated vessel for 20 mins, dropped temp to 450, 20 more minutes and then 5 minutes without lid. I assume my bulk ferment just wasn’t good enough. I’m trying again tomorrow and will be doing my bulk ferment on the counter for like 6-8 hours unless you all think that’s bad :) thanks in advance!

Recipe- 300g water, 100g starter, 13g salt, 500g bread flour (whitelily)

Mixed at 10:30 am dough temped at 80°F, rested 45 mins. 4 rounds stretch and folds 30 min apart. Bulk fermented 5 hours on counter(beginning at mix) Shaped at 3:30pm. Left in banneton to proof.

Preheated dutch oven at 450°F was ready at 5pm. Baked 25 mins. Dropped 25° and baked another 20 lid off.

Ingredients:
500g bread flour
350g water
100g starter
10g salt

Process:

1. Shape and fridge overnight. I did the fold one side to the middle, alternating, then roll it all up method, whatever that’s called, and then two attempts to create tension by gently rolling. Hopefully that makes sense lol
2. Flip dough onto parchment paper and score

This is my first attempt at a boule, 4th attempt at sourdough bread overall. Just got a Dutch oven, I’d previously been doing the steam in a baking dish trick and baking in a loaf pan. This was a huge win for me! Last pics were my first ever loaf. EDIT: also should mention I am using my sister’s well established starter!!

I am about a year in my journey and I have tried 75% 70% and I must be doing something wrong. Generally the process is the same besides BF time, I just have better success (to me) with around 65% hydration.

Recipe:
2 Loaves

1200 grams King Arthur bread flour
725 grams water
320 whole wheat starter
30 grams salt

Hand mix ingredients until shaggy dough and no dry flour.
3 sets stretch and folds every 30-40 minutes
1-2 sets coil folds every 30-40 minutes
These two loaves temped around 78 degrees during BF
Preshape approximately 5 hours after initial mix and bench rest for about 45 minutes.
Final shape and into bannetons then into fridge for 24 hours
About 6 hours total BF time.

Dutch over preheat at 500 for 30 minutes.
Lower temp to 450 and bake for 25 minutes covered and 20 minutes uncovered.

I do think these could have had long bulking but still turned out ok.