Finally made a decent sourdough loaf after 8 failed attempts

My kitchen counter has been covered in sticky dough for the last 3 months. Tried a new starter recipe from a guy in Portland and it actually bubbled up right. The loaf came out with a real crust instead of a brick. Anybody else struggle with starter temperature or was it just me?

3 comments

3 Comments

adam4143d agoMost Upvoted

My starter took forever to get going until I realized my kitchen was too cold. I keep my house at like 68 degrees and that just wasnt enough for the yeast to wake up. Ended up putting the jar on top of my fridge where its a few degrees warmer and it finally started doubling in size after 3 days. The Portland guy probably knows what he's talking about with hydration ratios too, I've been doing 100% hydration and its way more forgiving than the stiffer starters people recommend. Also learned the hard way that tap water with chlorine kills the bubbles, switched to filtered and it made a huge difference fast.

barbaradavis3d ago

Did you try moving it somewhere warm and dark like a closet? @adam414, I had a similar issue but my house is more like 65 at night and my starter sat there for a week doing nothing. Ended up putting it near the water heater in the basement and it finally woke up. The chlorine thing got me too, I was using tap water and wondered why my levain looked dead. Now I just leave a pitcher out overnight to offgas and that seems to work fine.

david_walker972d ago

That water heater trick is smart, I might have to try that since my kitchen sits around 67 degrees no matter what. Did you notice any weird flavor changes from keeping your starter that warm near the heater? Mine developed this really sharp acetone smell when I tried the fridge-top method, almost like nail polish remover. Had to back off on the feeding schedule and drop the temperature a bit to fix it. That Portland guy's hydration advice seems solid, have you played around with lower hydration like 80% to get a tighter crumb or is 100% your go-to?