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!
Baking is really more of a feel. Super sticky is good for some bread, more stiff for others. I tend to use as much moisture as I can comfortably handle.
It tends to stiffen up as it rests, especially if you used any whole grain. The fluffy crumb comes from a lot of gluten development. I like the 30 minutes rest, then fold method to get windowpane. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, search up “windowpane sourdough.”
Bear in mind if you use high levels of whole grain, windowpane is tougher to reach, if not impossible.
I used all purpose white baking flour. It never did stiffen up, I tried folding it over a few times, but had to use a spatula to pry it from the sides.
It came out pretty good.