1st ever loaf disaster!!
Hi all, I'm new to baking and really want to bake good sourdough long term, so I just made my 1st would-be sourdough wholemeal loaf but when I do the poke test my finger just leaves a hole and doesn't bounce back at all.
I think my starter was ok, it bubbled a bit but I put it somewhere warmer and it really bubbled up so I used it. I made it from wholemeal flour.
I did the kneading with a combination of stand mixer with a dough hook & by hand using the French method because I have a type of muscular dystrophy which makes my hands weak.
I left it to prove overnight in the fridge then kneaded it again, but it looks all dead & flat & the poke test just leaves a finger hole. I Don't even know if I should bother to bake it.
Have I a) left it to prove too long b) kneaded it to much c) used 100% wholemeal flour which I read somewhere is more difficult to use than a mix, I have got white bread flour now which I couldn't get a few days ago.
Or have I made another sort of mistake I don't even know yet.
Thanks so much for your help
Can you please give us the ratios and process, so we know what could have been the issue?
1st loaf a disaster? "Welcome to the club!" ? That's the bread-bakers' standard initiation ritual.
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Go ahead and bake it. If it is not edible for humans, the birds will still love it.
Ha ha!!! the birds haven't eaten the rubbish cake I gave them last week!!! We give them fat balls etc, but it comes to something when even wild animals won't eat my cooking! :) Glad to hear I have got through the initiation ceremony.
I used 450g waitrose Canadian wholemeal bread flour, 300g water, 150g starter & 20g salt, this is half what is advised in that new James Morton book because I didn't think I'd need 2 loaves. What I didn't do is weigh the water part of the starter, not sure if I should have done that or not.
Thanks sooo much for your help
I forgot to put my process, 1st I mixed it and kneaded a bit, then let it prove a couple of hours, then I put it in the fridge overnight & got it out this morning. It didn't look right cos it was very wet & sticky, so I mixed it in the big stand mixer with a dough hook on & kneaded it with the French method for a while adding bits of flour. Then I got worried and thought I need specialist help with this so here I am!!
A sourdough whole wheat bread is a very challenging bread to learn to bake with. That's how I tried to learn, and I really just meade bread after bread that was dense, heavy and plain not good texture.
The thing is, the first step in learning to make bread is learning what the dough should be like at each stage. And with sourdough whole wheat I just never got there...I never knew what I was aiming for!
I have two suggestions for how you might want to proceed with your learning.
Make 100% whole wheat bread using regular yeast. I would suggest using this recipe: https://breadtopia.com/all-whole-wheat-bread/
Make sourdough bread with at least some white flour. I would suggest this recipe: https://breadtopia.com/whole-grain-sourdough/
The thing is, you need to start to develop a feel for a few things:
Learning these things is going to be a lot easier with either a conventional yeast recipe, where you can count on certain things happening at certain times, or a white flour recipe where you can somewhat count on a certain dough texture being easier to develop and identify.
If you really want (or need) to continue with 100% whole wheat sourdough, then I suggest using videos from Elly's Everyday. These are the videos that helped me the most, and where I got the 100% WW sourdough recipe I use now. Give this one a try: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkA8JUmLT8k
I hope this helps. Don't give up! You can do it. It just takes some time and practice observing the dough. The reason I suggest videos is because I found I really needed to SEE the dough demonstrated to have a chance to understand what I was going for.
thanks so much jess, you've exactly got the problem, I have no idea what I should be doing, I'll try the mix with white flour first and hopefully like you say that will start me off. Do you think it matters using part mixer part hands? You can see my condition on my website lynne pardoe, its a nuisance but I can get round things eventually. Is the recipe on Ellys YouTube for a loaf with white flour? Or can I use the recipe I used last time substituting part of the flour with white? Lynne
I noticed that your salt was rather high, typically we use about 2% but your recipe was about 3.8% salt. The salt can slow the fermentation.
I’m sure more experienced bakers will be able to help you more than I can.
Benny
thanks for that Benny, I hadn't thought about that but I will reduce it in future, I'm not a big fan of salt anyway.
I'll report back tomorrow evening, Lynne
it should be finally rising by now about Six hours after posting. Salty dough eh? What about bread sticks? Pat out the dough gently into a rectangle and cut with a pizza cutter long strips. Lay the strips onto a parchment coated cookie sheet and twist them. See if you can get them all on there and let them rest and puff up a little bit. Then into a hot oven. You can mist the dough lightly with water and sprinkle with sesame seeds or cheese before cutting and twisting. Just an idea.
that was a great idea, but I'd already chucked it out! I wish I'd read your post beforehand but its a great lesson to learn for the future, I've just started a yeasted loaf just to get the hang of making bread before I start again with a sourdough.
I really liked that video by Elly recommended here, it was just right because it didn't involve kneading so was doubly useful to me, since I have weak hands. I really liked her backlist too, so thanks so much for that, lynne
just had a bit of my 1st loaf!! It was with yeast and 50% white & wholemeal flour cos someone here said it would be easier and it was! So I'll make a few like that then move onto sourdough.
Thanks so much everyone :)