Sourdough starter troubleshooting

Hi Mark, a number of factors can play into the type of spreading you describe, so it's difficult for me to say exactly what's going on with your bread, but inadequate tension in the loaf could certainly contribute to spreading. If this is the case, you may find this blog post on shaping a boule helpful.

Other factors that might be playing into the results you're seeing: a very wet (high-hydration) dough, inadequate dough development, over-fermentation/over-proofing of the dough, and possibly a starter that could use a little more reving up before adding it to your recipe. 

Although it sounds like your starter is quite peppy when you add it to your recipe, it can be helpful to give your starter a few feedings at room temperature prior to adding it to an entirely naturally leavened bread recipe. These "revival" feedings after refrigeration increase the populations of wild yeast and friendly bacteria that are available to do the work of rising and flavoring your bread. During the feedings leading up to baking your bread you can encourage vigorous yeast activity by timing your feedings to line up with when your starter is ripe and at its peak. Allowing the starter to fall significantly between feedings can lead to sluggish yeast behavior. Since your starter is rising so rapidly, this could involve several feedings per day, so you might want to slow down the ripening process by reducing the percentage of starter you're feeding. By offering your starter a relatively larger meal that it will take longer to consume and ferment, you can slow things down so that a twice a day feeding routine will be enough to keep your starter vigorous. For example, instead of feeding with a 1:1:1 ratio (starter:water:flour, by weight), you could try something like 1:4:4: 50g starter + 200g water + 200g flour. I'm not sure if the activity level of your starter is contributing to your difficulties, but it won't hurt to give this routine a try for a few days and see if this changes your results. 

Temperature is also contributing to how rapidly your starter is rising, so if your oven with the light on is warmer than 80 degrees, you might consider allowing your starter to dwell somewhere slightly cooler. I would aim for somewhere in the low to mid-seventies. I know it sounds counter-intuitive to try to slow down the progress of your starter's ripening, and ultimately it may not be necessary, but in the long run I do think your starter may benefit from a bit more room temperature fermenation time. 

High-hydration doughs are challenging in many ways:  they can be harder to develop strenght in, are harder to shape, and are more likely to over-ferment. If you're working with a recipe that has over 70% water (the weight of the water as compared to the weight of the flour), then you might want to try a recipe that is a bit stiffer as you develop your sourdough baking skills. When working with wet doughs it can abe helpful to allow the shaped rise to occur in a proofing basket or a bowl lined with a very well-floured cloth, and to bake the dough in an appropriately sized Dutch oven, that will encourage the dough to rise up during baking, rather than spreading out. 

It's important to develop adequate dough strength so that your dough can retain it's shape and rise properly. There are lots of ways to develop dough strength, depending on the type of dough you're working with, so it's hard to give you a one size fits all answer to how to do this, but if you feel your dough is very slack when you go to shape it, this might be something to work on. 

Dough that has been allowed to rise and ferment for too long or at too warm a temperture is more likely to over-ferment, and over-fermented dough not only won't rise well, but will also suffer from deteriorating dough structure. If your dough feels very wet and rips easily when you shape it, then you may be working with over-fermented dough. Wholegrain flours tend to ferment more quickly than white flour, so if you're working with a lot of wholegrains, shortening your overall fermentation time may be helpful. You may also find this blog post on Desired Dough Temperature helpful in terms of controlling the pace of fermentation. 

I hope I haven't overwhelmed you with all this information! If you'd like to troubleshoot a little more precisely I would encourage you to call our Baker's Hotline at 855-371-2253. We're here M-F from 9am-9pm EST, and Saturday and Sunday from 9am-5pm EST. 

Barb

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Hi Alexandra, it will likely take a few days of feeding your starter regularly to bring it back to full vitality. Check out our blog post about drying your starter, which includes detailed instructions for reviving as well. It can be tricky to revive a dried starter, so when traveling with my starter I prefer to convert it to a very stiff starter, and then convert it back to liquid when I arrive. This works well if you're flying, but you'll have to keep the starter in a cooler if you're traveling for several days by car. 

Barb

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Hi Monique, It might be helpful for you to increase the percentage of starter that you're feeding, since a 1:3:3 ratio (starter:water:flour, by weight) will tend to slow down fermentation, and may be delaying your starter's progress towards rising. I would suggest feeding only once a day with a 2:1:1 ratio in order to increase the acidity of your starter, which seems to help encourage the wild yeast to kick in.

Once your starter begins to rise predictably (twice), it will be important to resume twice a day feedings (which will further promote yeast activity). At that point, you might also want to consider trying the 1:1:1 ratio we recommend in our sourdough starter recipe. The goal here is to to find a twice a day feeding routine that allows you to replenish (feed) your starter when it's ripe (at its highest point of rising, or just beginning to sink), which keeps the yeast vigorous. Reducing the starter percentage is always an option if you find that your starter is ripening too quickly, and slowing down the process will help your twice a day feedings land closer to the peak. This generally isn't necessary if your home is cool during the winter months, but a 1:3:3 ratio might be an excellent option when your house warms up in the summer. 

Once your starter is rising predictably with the twice a day feedings (I like to see a few days of predictable rising), then you can consider your starter mature and ready for bread baking. You also have the option to refrigerate your mature starter. For that step you'll want to give your starter one more feeding, let it sit out for a few hours or until it starts bubbling, and then stick it in the refrigerator. 

A mature starter can survive in the refrigerator for quite a long time, but it isn't thriving in there. When you're planning to bake recipes that call for "ripe" starter it's generally helpful to plan a day or two of revival feedings at room temperature in order to bring your starter back to its normal activity level before you bake bread. The longer you've stored your starter in the refrigerator, the more room temperature feedings will likely be necessary to revive it.  Look for your starter to double in size within 6-8 hours, and have a pleasant aroma, as good signs that it's ready to add to your bread recipe. 

I hope this helps! Let us know how it goes. 

Barb

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Hi Rosetta, it's generally fine to stir in the hooch, but if it looks really dark and funky I usually pour it off. The hooch is basically composed of sourdough waste products, so isn't vital for starter health, but it may contribute some flavor and acidity to the starter. It is definitely important to feed your starter before adding it to a bread recipe, particularly if you're making an entirely naturally leavened sourdough bread (no added yeast) and your starter has been stored in the refrigerator for a week or more. Keep in mind that the starter is mostly dormant in the refrigerator, and while it can survive quite well in there, it isn't thriving. It's room temperature feedings and fermentation that build the populations of wild yeast and friendly bacteria that are available to do the work of rising and flavoring your bread.

When I want to bake an entirely naturally leavened bread recipe I take my starter out of the refrigerator a day or two before I plan to bake and start feeding it twice a day at room temperature. I look for the starter to double in size about 8 hours after I feed it, and to have a pleasant aroma, as signs that my starter is ready to add to my bread recipe. When a recipe calls for "ripe" starter, this means starter that has been recently fed at room temperature and allowed to rise to its highest point, or is just beginning to fall. You'll want to add the starter to the recipe when it's close to this peak of rising. 

If you're maintaining your rye starter with equal parts by weight of starter:water:flour this normally results in a fairly thick pasty consistency right after feeding, but as the starter rises and ferments it does tend to get thinner in consistency. If you maintain your starter with more water than flour (by weight) this will lead to a starter that has a thinner consistency. If you don't routinely discard a portion of your starter when doing a feeding, this can also result in a starter that is much thinner in consistency because it will end up being composed primarily of sourdough waste products, and the relatively small amount of water/flour you are feeding it won't be able to provide sufficient nourishment. 

When you want to return your starter to the refrigerator be sure to give it one more feeding and then let it sit out for 2-4 hours, or until it starts bubbling, before sticking it in the refrigerator. This will ensure that the starter still has some fermentation happening before it becomes dormant. 

I know this sounds like a lot of rules, and we do have some bread recipes that call for sourdough discard, but even with these recipes you don't want to use discard that has been in your refrigerator for longer than a week. 

I hope this helps! Let us know how it goes. 

Barb

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Hi Mary, I apologize for the delay in responding to your question, and hope by now that your starter is rising like a champ! Patience almost always pays off when it comes to sourdough starters, so there's no need to feel like your efforts thus far have been wasted. If by chance you have been feeding your starter equal parts by cups rather than equal parts by weight (as our recipe recommends) this could account for your thinner consistency and could also be contributing to the lack of rising you're seeing. It's harder for a starter that is very thin in consistency to show the type of doubling behavior we describe. However, if you've been weighing your ingredients, then your thinner consistency may actually be a good sign that the starter is fermenting and changing, and this may mean that it will begin rising soon. Look for the starter to be thick and pasty right after you feed it, but become thinner in texture (more like a thick pancake batter) as it begins to rise and ferment. 

If you're concerned about the amount of flour you're going through, you could consider maintaining a smaller starter, at least until your starter begins to rise predictably. This smaller starter recipe fits nicely into an 8-ounce canning jar, and can easily be built back up to the normal starter quantity once it's rising consistently. 

I hope this helps! Let us know how it goes! 

Barb

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