November 7, 2016 - 1:40pm
Help Needed!: gummy, dense loaf
I'm new to baking sourdough and my bread seems to always come out flat,dense, and with a gummy texture. It still tastes nice/sour and the crust is crunchy as well, but I just can't seem to get it to rise. I proved my bread twice (once overnight after kneading, and the second time for ~5hrs after shaping the dough), chilled the dough for 30min, slashed it, and then baked for about an hour in a dutch oven- removing the lid for the final 20 min or so. However, my dough does not rise significantly during the first proof. It doesn't seem to rise in the oven either.This is the recipe I use:
-600g/4cups bread flour
-12g/2tsp salt
-30g/2tbsp starter
-360g/1.5cup warm water
I just can't figure out what the problem is! Any help appreciated :)
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Here's my recommendation: buy Hammelman's Bread. This book has everything you need to know about how to make excellent sourdough bread, the methodology is solid and easy to follow, and the recipes are numerous and also easy to follow. It is a medium difficulty book, a perfect first book for a daring baker.
I've never tried the method you used, but the typical SD recipe uses between 15-30% pre-fermented dough. Here, you use 5%. Most people take active starter (recently fed and then doubled), then use a small amount of that to build levain (e.g. 20% of the total flour weight), which ferments anywhere from 4-14 hours (depending on philosophy) before being added to the final dough. The final dough can be fermented warm (e.g., 76F generally for Hamelman breads) for a few hours, or cold, and then shaped after coming back to room temperature. Experts on this site will be able to tell you if your loaf is under- or over-proofed.
Thank you!! I'll check out the book and try this method with the preferment as well.
what filomatic said. Make a preferment.
Indeed, there is probably not enough active starter. Try a 123 sourdough - 100 grams of active, bubbly starter; 200 grams of water; 300 grams of flour (you can use a bit more if your flour is not strong, say 350 grams); 6 grams of salt. Mix the flour, water and starter and let it sit for 30 minutes. Add the salt and mix until the dough is strong and stretchy. Let it rise (bulk ferment) for 3 to 4 hours at room temperature, then put it in the fridge overnight. Take it out, shape it and let it proof for a couple of hours, then bake.
Check out the 123 challenge post here for more ideas about easy 123 sourdoughs.
Looks like a much simpler recipe than what I've been using- definitely will try it out next! Thanks :)
Looks like a much simpler recipe than what I've been using- definitely will try it out next! Thanks :)
While 30 grams of starter certainly COULD leaven a kilogram of bread (approximately), that starter would need to be mighty active and I would give it a good bulk rise at room temp. to ensure a solid fermentation. I would start by upping the quantity of starter, up to 30% of the flour weight (you can go even higher). And build up progressively to whatever quantity of starter you want . . . drogon has a good simple method for so doing, which I will demonstrate. Say you want 180 grams of starter (for, say, 600 g of flour). You divide by 5. 180 / 5 = 36. Divide by 5 again. 36 / 5 = 7.2 (let's say 7 for the sake of round numbers). That magical number 7 will be the amount of starter from which your recipe will depart. You will then put double the mass of starter in both water and flour (7 x 2 = 14, 14 g of water, 14 g of flour), mix it up and let it ferment. You have now 35 grams of semi-active starter. Once it's nice and fermented, repeat the step you just did, adding double the weight of the starter you now have (35 g) in both water and flour (35 x 2 = 70, 70 g of water, 70 g of flour). Mix it all up and let it ferment. You will have 175 g of active starter, ready to go.
Although I don't necessarily use this method, I think it's about one of the most fool-proof out there, and gives you something a little more active than what comes straight from the fridge, without any waste, either.
or 600g and divide by 30g of starter that gives a ratio of one to 20. The water divided by 30g gives 11.6 so in terms of comparing to a starter feeding... (s,w,f) you have in the dough (1, 11.6, 20) The fermenting time is way too short for that amount of flour and doing in in one bulk rise will give you a very sour bread. Using steps to increase the starter amount to flour will give you more reasonable and predictable rise to work with.