I tried my hand at making a starter years ago and it went poorly. I was gifted some starter earlier this week and have been bulking it up in order to bake some bread this weekend. The starter is MUCH better than any of the ones I've ever made, so Ive had high hopes all week that my sourdough will actually come out decent this time.

I've been following this recipe, and it's been going....not well. Everything was weighed to the gram, including the starter, and "lukewarm" water was about 80ish degrees. The dough is so unbelievably sticky that I can barely scrape it off the sides of the bowl.

Is this normal? It's been years since I've done this so I'm back to questioning everything. I'm planning to just drop the whole thing into a Dutch oven and cook it, but I understand that I'm deviating from the recipe. My Dutch oven cooks were just so much better.

Cna anyone provide a better recipe for just a basic sourdough boule that you've had decent success with? I'd really like to continue baking bread, but I know for a fact that I'll wind up giving up again if I have too many failures (I think I baked 8 different times a few years ago, and I gave up because they were always so dense, and flat.). Really want something with a good, fluffy, stretchy crumb.

Any advice or questions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

I’ve been getting back into backing sourdough. Looks quite good but I suspect possibly slightly under proofed

Took y'all's advice to heart and it's looks like it's working well!

Crumb:

Not my best bread ever but this is pretty normal issue. I totally over proofed it because I fell asleep during the proof xD

And here's the crumb

Today's loaf. ~350g water ~45g starter (I didn't feed it enough Thursday lol) ~350g Strong Multigrain (Matthews Cotswold) Flour ~100g Very Strong White (Allinson's) Flour ~50g Very Strong Wholemeal (Allinson's) Flour ~10g salt -added in that order and mixed all at once.

I don't autolyse without starter cause I can't be arsed with the extra steps and the few times I've done it I didn't find any difference.

This was the first time I used the multigrain flour (normally I'd use all white, recently with the 50g wholemeal) - dough was much wetter/stickier than usual, so I didn't get as many stretch and folds in as I normally do.

Mixed approx. 9pm, as many stretch and folds as I could get in considering tackiness of dough before midnight.

Preshaped, rested for about 30 minutes, shaped and baked straight away at 240°C fan oven in a Dutch oven (steel pot with lid) for 30 minutes, uncovered at 220°C for 20 minutes.

I've found pre-shaping makes a humongous difference to the shape of the boule - normally my loves would sink out to the sides a bit.

Recipe from "Homemade Sourdough: Easy, At-Home Artisan Breadmaking" by Jane Mason with Ed Wood et al.

I halved the below recipe, but used the same amounts for the levain.

100g starter 850g bread flour 550g water 15g salt

1. Make a 100g/100g/100g starter/flour/water levain, let sit for ~8 hours/overnight until peak activity.

2. Add remaining ingredients, knead until passing the windowpane test, then bulk proof on counter for 4 hours.

3. Shape into baguettes and set on a heavily floured dish towel with pleats between the loaves. Cover with plastic wrap and let proof again until it passes the poke test. The recipe estimated 3 hours, but I let it go for closer to 6, as mine weren't really passing the poke test, but that may be because I'm bad at loaf shaping and didn't get a tightly shaped surface.

4. Transfer to a parchment lined baking sheet, score the tops, and bake at 450 F for 20-25 mins. I also added a tray of water to the bottom rack of the oven to try and steam the crust a bit.

They aren't perfect loaves visually, and they may be slightly overproofed, but not disastrously so, and they taste delicious!

They're an all sourdough bakery.

King Arthur recipe, I used Miyokos plant butter for these and they came out great!

Hello friends!

I'm keen to start baking sourdough and want to create my own starter. There are a slew of recipes online, but I'm keen to know your tips/tricks/ratios/steps to begin this journey.

Much love from this UK loaf lover 🥖

Hi I tried out Beth Hensperger's whole wheat sourdough in my bread machine from "Bread Lovers Bread Machine Book". as she notes, the dough is very dry, and I added a bit of milk to it and just ran it overnight on the zojirushi programmed to do all 3 rises, the last 2 at their longest settings. this morning it was very lumpy, looked like a german coffee cake, but also very tasty. she does mention to add more milk which i'd did and i suppose id do more of, but wondering about the rises or any other ways to get a good sourdough from the machine in the morning? Thanks

I love the flavor of sourdough pizza crust. 00 flour is a must for the chewyness.

Great minds think alike I guess. These are 10% whole hard wheat, 10% white whole wheat, 20% all purpose white unbleached flour, 60% strong bread flour, and 70% hydration, just water, salt, flour, starter.

cross-posted from: https://programming.dev/post/7422998

Recipe is The Country Blonde from Flour Water Salt Yeast.

75% bread flour, 25% whole khorasan, 10% scalded flour, 77.5% hydration. Cold retarded then baked in a dutch oven with ice.

I am a total bread baking noob but I love to eat it. Sourdough is my absolute favorite, so I need to give this a try.

I know I will need starter (I was planning on buying some online as I don't know anyone irl), and I have a Dutch oven. Yes, there are tons of recipes online, but I want your tried-and-true ones, especially if they are suited for altitude.

Or maybe I need to read a book? If so, which one?

Basically, how do I stuff my face with homemade sourdough in the easiest way possible?

Thank you all!

This is 30% wholegrain rye, the rest white strong bread flour, 75% hydration (rye is thirsty, the dough was quite easy to handle). Splash of olive oil, sea salt, caraway seeds.

• 80% bread flour
• 10% scalded whole khorasan flour
• 10% whole khorasan flour
• 77.5% hydration
• Bake 38 minutes at 450°F with steam

I'm new at this but this is one of my more successful attempts. Previously I had been baking sandwiche sourdough with a loaf pan which I think is easier than doing a boule.

65g starter 315g water 10g honey 240g bread flour 175g whole grain spelt 25g medium rye 9g salt 450°F 25 min 425°F 20 min

Baked in a Le Creuset dutch oven. This starter was conceived 8/3/23 from our local back porch yeast.

Today's breads were made with a flour that is easy to handle and shape, because it is nice and strong.

However, in previous bakes I've found it slow to increase in volume during the final proof. The breads have just been denser and less open than I think the flour can do, and I think that I've been baking too soon and not giving it enough time to properly fill the bannetons.

Today is the first time I've got an open crumb with this flour. The trick, it seems was to take it out of the fridge and place in the proofer for 1.5 hours, then back in the fridge to chill before baking.

This bread is about 79% of this flour, 18% whole wheat and 3% vital wheat gluten. Final hydration is about 76% but I start at 70% and increase it with a bassinage step.

Saturday bake.

450 wheat flour, 50g whole wheat flour, 100g starter, 350 water (70% hydration) and 10g salt.

Now cooling down, will post picture of the crumb later today.

65% hydration: 700 grams bread flour, 200 grams starter, and 420 grams water. Baked in lodge combo cooker. They're cooling now, can't wait to cut into them!