I’m overthinking this EXTREMELY!

If I have a main jar of starter and I only bake once a week… can I just scoop out 10g of starter from the jar, leave it out and feed that for a few days to make my levain for when I bake? And just stick the main jar of starter back in the fridge and only feed my main starter that’s in the fridge 1-2x a week so it doesn’t get sluggish? Or could I feed it the main jar of starter a few times a month?

I need help and I’m going to apologize for my lack of knowledge on terminology, etc but I need help.

I built my starter around November and I’ve baked some beautiful loaves and English muffins. But then around February.. I left my starter out on the counter for about two weeks (usually I leave it in the oven with the light turned on, or in the fridge but I forgot). Since then, my starter won’t grow. I’ll feed it how I usually do, or I’ll add more flour and water (so like 100g starter, 200g spring water, 200g bread flour) but it will not rise whatsoever.

I’ve thought about asking anyone local if they have any active starter I can add, but I wanted to reach out on here and see if anyone had any advice for me. Thank you!!

This is the starter I used. I tried making a loaf using Bake with Jack’s recipe and technique - for both starter and bread. Everything seemed to be going pretty well up to the 36 hour mark when you take it out and bake it. The dough has barely risen, and when I took it out of the loaf pan (don’t have a banneton), it fell completely flat. For now I’ve repeated the final fold and shape, but the dough isn’t holding tension. I put it back in the loaf pan, and put it on the oven on proof. Is there anything I can do at this point to make it at all better?

It’s been about 9 days now with a brand new starter. I’m completely new to sourdough, and I’m trying to figure out the starter.

So I think the first few days, what I’m learning is I got a “false rise” because it has not risen since. I’m also wondering if it’s because when I starter we had some hot days and now we are having some colder days. Spring.. yah gotta love it.

I am doing 1:1:1 but sometimes it comes out watery so the next day I am just adding flower.

Is it normal to take this long?

Any tips for newbies that have no business doing this?

I’m a good cook, but baking is… meh. However I trying to get into my baking era.

2nd or 3rd time making sourdough. I would have liked more oven spring (and a slightly more sour flavor)

Does a sourdough starter have a particular smell when it's fully mature? I ask because my starter which is about 6weeks old, maybe a bit more had a lovely slightly fruity beery yeasty smell, when fed and smelled more wine like when hungry. I usually feed it at a ratio of 1:2:2 if I'm going to bake and a 1:5:5 if I'm not going to bake for a few days, as it takes it longer to get through its food, I also usually use white bread flour, though a couple of times I've had to use wholemeal while I had to get more white from the store. I have used it to make bread and it turned out just ok, but I have not yet cracked the sourdough code, my loaves can be a bit damp inside, but that aside it seems to be ok, but today I went to feed it, and it's munching away increasing volume as normal but when I went to smell it, the smell had changed to a sweet/sour creamy yogurt/dairy like smell. My house temp is around 21-22°c (I can't bear it any warmer) is it normal to suddenly change like that?

Okay, so long story short, I’m brand new to sourdough baking. I’ve made my own starter, it’s been going well for a few months now and I’ve had no issues with the starter.

The problem I’m having is when trying to make a loaf. I’ve tried a few recipes and techniques but out of 7 loaves, only one has been “shapeable”. The rest I’ve had to bung into a loaf tin as it just will not hold shape and sticky.

At first I thought my problem was overhydration so I reduced recipes back to a 64-66% hydration (depending on recipe - I’ll list them below).

Then I though it was over/under proofing so I used the aliquot method and still no luck. My first loaf went well, had a nice crumb and taste but slightly overproofed. But it all seems to have gone downhill from there and I can’t remember which of the recipes below I used first time round.

12%protein flour used (allison’s strong white bread flour)

Can anyone suggest anything?

Scotland, temp 18-22 celcius, approx 60% humidity.

Recipes used:

1. The pantry mama

500 g Bread Flour 100% 350 g Water 70% (even tried reducing to 300g) 50 g Sourdough Starter 10% 10 g Salt 2%

2. The clever carrot (minus oil as I didn’t have any)

150g starter 250g water 500g flour 10g salt

3. Farmhouse on Boone

475g flour 100g starter 325g water 10g salt

(Even adjusted to 500g flour to lessen hydration)

I always autolyse for 30mins-1hr. And I base the bulk ferment on temperature of dough, looking for a % rise and what the dough is looking like.

When baking, crust is always lovely, tastes good, but the crum is often a little gummy and dense. Have yet to bake the aliquot experiment as it’s in the fridge currently.

I’m at a complete loss, and would just like to be able to shape my dough. Please help!

I haven’t kept track of bakes with photos so can’t offer visuals I’m afraid, but will do so from now on!

i’m following the King Arthur guide on creating a starter. it’s supposed to take 7 days, but today is day 3 and i woke up to an almost full jar this morning. My baby starter is already doubling… is that good or bad? do i continue with the scheduled twice daily feedings or is that somehow, magically, ready already?

Hi everybody!

Today I was planning to do a sourdough loaf with both wheat and rye flour. I was wondering what could be a good ratio of the two (and water) so that I can still do stretch and folds or coil folds.

Any suggestions?

Thank you!

I have a big chunk of wild garlic leafs and want to incorporate them into my next loaf, but I'm a beginner and a little worried about messing it up.

Can anyone give me some pointers of what to be aware of? How would this affect fermentation/proofing times? When should I add the herbs? Do I have to be worried about water content? Would it affect the bake? Am I way overthinking this and should just proceed as I would normally?

Thanks guys I really appreciate the help!

So my sourdough obsession has returned. as i've just been to a workshop.

However, i would love some feedback on my latest bread about the fermentation and what else that can be deduced from my pictures.

Recipe:
40 % all purpose flour
40% manitoba (16 g protein)
20 % whole grain
25 % sourdough (50 % rye / 50 % all purpose flour)
2,5% salt

• Autolyse for 1 hours
• 10 min initial mix
• 20 min rest
• 3 min fullspeed mix with salt
• 3 coil fold with 20 min in between
• Bulk fermentation for a total of 6,5 hours
• Rest in fridge over night

Baked for 20 min at 230 celcius with damp + 18 min without damp.

https://preview.redd.it/le9xq3qeozvc1.jpg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f896d12095e5c61f9bce7d5a02fb15269baf8321

https://preview.redd.it/aju6bbreozvc1.jpg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2c9f706e07b8252d26ef3620ba63c55c9c34e208

I am incredible unsure about this one… I‘m feeding it once a week and keep it in a jar with a glass lid on and this week it looks like this… it smells sour but otherwise good and I don‘t think that these white spots are fuzzy. But again- I‘m an amateur and could really need a second opinion on this one. Thanks!:)

135g active starter, 320g water, 450g all-purpose flour, 5g table salt.

Decided not to go fancy ingredients for my second try.

Steps followed: -Mix starter with lukewarm water til milky, added flour and salt let it rest for 1 hour. -3 stretch & fold sessions with 30 min rest periods in between -rest for 1 hour after third stretch & fold -stretch and shape on table and let rest on table top covered with light cotton cloth 1 hour -preheat oven at 450F with DD Oven inside -stretch and shape let rest in banneton basket for 30 min -25 min in DD Oven covered, 15ish min uncovered

Will cut in the morning.

my starter is around 3 weeks old, after week 1 i’ve been feeding it about every 3 days with a 2:1 ratio (2 flour 1 water).. whenever i check on it the top looks flat but i see air pockets when i move it around, and it rises as well. i’m just a little confused…

Hello Sourdough bakers! 👋

• Post your quick & simple Sourdough questions here with as much information as possible 💡

• If your query is detailed, post a thread with pictures, recipe and process for the best help. 🥰

• There are some fantastic tips in our Sourdough starter FAQ - have a read as there are likely tips to help you. There's a section dedicated to "Bacterial fight club" as well.

• Visit this wiki page for advice on reading Sourdough crumb.

• Don't forget our Wiki, and the Advanced starter page for when you're up and running.

• Sourdough heroes page - to find your person/recipe. There's heaps of useful resources.

• Basic loaf in detail page - a section about each part of the process. Particularly useful for bulk fermentation, but there are details on every part of the Sourdough process.

Good luck!

made brand new starter last night. 1 cup APF, 1 cup water. stirred till smooth. covered with cloth and left out overnight.

peeked at it this morning... no bubbles and about 1/4-1/3 inch of clear water separation on top. stirred it up again, covered, took it outside and left it all day.

i'm at 24 hours after initial mixing. water is still separated and bubbles are minimal. what gives?

So my starter is fairly established. 6 to 7 months old, and has always been perfect. It triples within 6 hours of a feed, and seemed perfect. The only time it would smell strongly of alcohol was in the beginning, or when it needed to fed and had clearly consumed all the flour available. However lately, it reeks of alcohol no matter what. Even when it's at peak after a feeding. I usually feed a 1:2:2 ratio, but have done a 1:5:5 ratio the past few feeds attempting to correct it. Any ideas what's caused the sudden increase in smell, or ideas on how to remedy it?

I'm starting my sourdough journey and have found a recipe that I like and works well for me, but I want to start doing different flavors. Ive found different recipes that I want to try but they all have different stretch and fold timing.

Can I use the techniques from the recipe I know or do I need to follow the recipes timing? Side note: I am working on how to adjust the recipe I use for different flavors but don't want to do the math myself just yet...I know lazy. But Anyway

For example the recipe I use has me do the stretch and folds every 30 mins for two hours. The recipe I'm following for blueberry lemon has me reshaping (not stretch and fold) every hour for 3 hours.

Some recipes have me doing a couple of stretch every 15 minutes and then after the bulk fermentation, has me do one more stretch and fold and rest. While the one I do does not do any additional stretch and folds after the bulk fermentation.

Is it just preference, or is there a science behind the varying techniques?