Ok, I admit it, it has turned into an obsession :) sourdough Q

[ORChick]

I am making a fairly wild guess here, but maybe you should cut back in the starter. You are making your sponge with 1 cup starter, and 4 cups flour, and letting it work overnight, so you are ending up with 5 cups sourdough the next day. If you were to cut back the SD by half a cup, and add another half cup flour, you would still have 5 cups, but not such a concentration of *sour*. I think. But I could so easily be wrong. Also, my "Alaska Sourdough" book says that adding baking soda helps to neutralize some of the sourness, but I don't know that I would want to do that with bread; works with pancakes and English muffins though.
I must admit that I haven't made much *totally SD* bread; I usually make a SD and yeast hybrid.

So it's not possible that the white flour is lacking beasties and microorganisms and because the SD is being fed the same thing that it has 'grown' or evolved to the point that it is at right now, and needs to get back on a different track?

- BB, the flour doesn't need beasties of its own; the starter supplies them, and the flour supplies the food for them.

 

[miss_thenorth]

Hi ORchick, glad you came by.. what about getting a fluffier not so heavy loaf? the sour is not as much of a concern, but for a nice sandwich bread, ds would like a lighter bread.

 

[ORChick]

Hi ORchick, glad you came by.. what about getting a fluffier not so heavy loaf? the sour is not as much of a concern, but for a nice sandwich bread, ds would like a lighter bread.

Like I said, I don't usually do a pure SD loaf. My DH likes the Italian type breads, with a crisp crust and lots of holes, so I have modified a recipe for that, starting with a SD sponge overnight, but using yeast for the main rise the next day. This is not a quick bread; it probably is about 18 hours from setting the sponge to pulling it out of the oven - but, like most breadmaking, not much of that time is "hands-on" . Because of the holes though it is not really good for sandwiches, so probably not what you want.
There are several websites devoted to SD, which you may have already visited. If you haven't it might be a good idea to check them out, and see if they have any tips and/or recipes that might apply. These are the 3 that I have bookmarked:
http://www.northwestsourdough.com/
http://sourdough.com/
http://www.sourdoughhome.com/index.html

 

[miss_thenorth]

Thanks, the last two look familiar, I must admit though that I get totally confused when they weigh their ingredients, I am so used to measuring. I'll look at the first one.

 

[aggieterpkatie]

Sooo....after reading y'alls tips, I'm thinking my SD starter is different. What do y'all typically feed your starter? When I feed mine I add water, sugar, and potato flakes. Then, when I make bread I use 1 cup of starter and go ahead and make the dough. I'm "supposed to" let it rise overnight (or a long time) for its first rise, then in the morning punch it down and knead again, then form into loaves or rolls (I usually make rolls), then let rise in the pan and bake it later that day. Sllloooow rising. I usually am impatient, so I make the dough in the morning but add a packet of yeast. I let it rise until doubled, then form into rolls, then let rise again, and bake that afternoon. Is that different than what y'all do?

 

[miss_thenorth]

As I said before, when I started my starter, I did a 3:2 ratio flour to water. I did 2 parts whole wheat flour, 1 part rye flour and 2 parts water. (2/3 c ww, 1/3 c rye flour, 2/3 cup water) I think I fed it every day, waiting for it to bubble and double. usually to make bread(or whatever) yo make the sponge the night before--starter, flour water and sometimes sugar and oil. Then again in the morning add more ingr. and knead, rise and bake. I love it.

Although, I am not realy eating it, I enjoy baking it alot. (I';m not eating it due to the fact that i want to lose some more weight, so I'm still low carbing it. i discovered from this low carb diet that I was gluten intolerant, and I suspect ds is too. It is for him that I took on the sourdough obsession.)

(for more info on that, see http://www.listen2yourgut.com/blog/hope-for-gluten-intolerant-and-coeliac-disease/

I will eat it occasionally, and have had no ill effects, and my son is doing great--no problems like before.

 

[miss_thenorth]

Orchick, that Northwest sourdough link had an e-book that i started reading. i think I may have discovered something.

According to the ebook, what I am doing with my white flour starter is a 166% hydration starter, meaning that my method isa ratio of 3:2. The author reccommends for a white flour starter to be 100% hydration, which is a ratio of 1:1, as in one cup of sater, one cup of flour. It says that this will produce a more open crumb.

So, I will try this tomorrow. but, b/c I am afraid to mess up, I am going to keep my discard and make another starter to continue what i am doing now, just in case.

Thanks for that link!!

 

[ORChick]

Orchick, that Northwest sourdough link had an e-book that i started reading. i think I may have discovered something.

According to the ebook, what I am doing with my white flour starter is a 166% hydration starter, meaning that my method isa ratio of 3:2. The author reccommends for a white flour starter to be 100% hydration, which is a ratio of 1:1, as in one cup of sater, one cup of flour. It says that this will produce a more open crumb.

So, I will try this tomorrow. but, b/c I am afraid to mess up, I am going to keep my discard and make another starter to continue what i am doing now, just in case.

Thanks for that link!!

Keep us up to date on how it works for you. And yes, always keep a back up; I actually dyhydrate a bit of the active starter "just in case". After about 6 months I have been discarding the dried stuff, and repeating the process (this is probably overkill). I haven't needed it yet, but you never know

 

[Blackbird]

Thanks ladies!!

Golly, I had no idea bread could be so confusing!