July 21, 2017 - 7:31am
Bulk fermentation ain't happening
Hi breadlovers,
I'm a home baker from Belgium. I'm having trouble with my sourdough bread.
The facts:
- my starter is very active (no problem there)
- I'm using the recipe from The perfect loaf (https://www.theperfectloaf.com/best-sourdough-recipe/)
The picture is from my dough 3 hours and 4 stretch and folds in the bulk fermentation. The dough stays very wet and sticky. It never becomes smooth or holds its edges. (No bubbles appear). It stays a wet mess.
For this one I even reduced the water % to 60.
What am I doing wrong? Can someone help me please.
Best regards,
Tom
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Hi Tom, It's just getting started. I can see it starting to puff up. Give it more time. With this recipe I wouldn't even bother to look at it for the first 3 hours, then start my folding and then once an hour if it needed it. Lowering hydration may also slow down the fermentation so relax and just wait for the dough. It does look wetter than 60%.
How long did the levain take to rise before mixing up the dough?
Do let us know if it starts turning to liquid goo. Then I will ask you to look up Thiol in the site search box.
Hi,
Thanks for the reassurance :-) My leaven had 5 hours before mixing up.
How long can the bulk fermentation last?
it's a one to two ratio at 100% hydration. How much did the levain rise in those 5 hours? The dough has a very low % of levain and the author even makes a comment about it even to suggest later a 30 min. waiting on adding salt Just wait it out. The dough is 1 to 6 and includes malt and a tiny bit whole flours. You will want to keep it in a warm spot. I'd guess at about 6 hours. You won't need to fold as often with a lower hydration.
Once it gets to rising, it will speed up. It's just has a long lag time and only looks like nothing is going on, then, the minute you turn your back on it, it will surprise you.
Freaky colour. cool!
Ten hours later and still no fermentation. I don't want to give up.
A complete and concise history
spread it out and fold in a tablespoon of instant yeast and then get that thing going like a yeasted bread. It should have a lot of good flavour from the long wet time. Just sprinkle instant yeast across the dough, mist it a tiny bit to get it dissolving, finger paint in it, roll it up and squish it in to distribute.
We need to know more about the starter to get it back up to slaving for you.
you used to see that they are all good and none of them rancid. (oily tasting with a bitter after taste.)
https://photos.app.goo.gl/RcpHa4HBJ6s5y1Mb2
This is my starter at the beginning of the bake. For the last 5 days I fed and discard it daily, the evening before the bake I discard the contents of my starter to 15g mature starter and refresh with 50g white flour and 50g wheat flour and 100g water at room temperature. It's very active, smells are amazing
At 8am I made my levain:
40g Mature liquid starter
80g white bread flour
80g H2O @ room temperature
and let it rest voor 6 hours.
But how old is your starter? 5 days?
The starter came from a package I've got.
I activated it a month ago and kept 3 parts in my freezer. Last week I took 1 bag out of the freezer and have been feeding it for a week. (7 days)
It's very active, so I thought it would be ready to bake. Can a new starter provide enough rise power?
You're reactivating an established starter which looks ready to go.
Now that you've told us a bit more about it Mini will be able to help you more. Do you remember the company that sells this starter?
I suspect greater feedings of at least 1:5:5 for a few more days would be the best way forward. E.G. 5g:25g:25g
Keep at room temp allow it to peak then feed again. This should help build up a good yeast population.
feed it twice or three times at peak per day, once may not be enough depending on the starter temperature. (which is?) Thicken it up to a soft dough and at the same time try reducing the water to something more like a dough and see how it behaves.
http://imgur.com/Kvl8hBH
http://imgur.com/a/QoSy8
I followed your instructions, i made it more like a dough. Temperature is around 21°C.
seeing the pre-fermenting just fed level mark. The pinholes in the second picture look typical rye starter, I would expect more gas bubbles before the rye matrix got deteriorated enough to let the gas bubbles break on the surface. 21° is rather cool...stir the starter and warm it up. See if it will rise again before feeding and give it a one to two ratio of starter to flour. Boil a mug of water in the microwave and then push it to the back or side and set the starter inside to get cozy above 24°C.
:) Mini