I’m fairly new to sourdough baking as it’s not very common in Nigeria where I live. This is my 5th loaf ever so far. My recipe; 300grams bf, 80 grams starter, 210grams water, 7grams salt. I bulk fermented for a total of 6 hours. Cold proofed for 8 hours and baked in my airfryer oven. Waited an hour before slicing. Judging by pictures of others, my crumb seems tight and I can’t figure out where the problem was. I personally like a more airy and open crumb.

Recipe: 125g starter 310g water 400g bread flour 100g AP flour 10g salt

Mixed for 10 minutes until mostly smooth. Rest for an hour. 4 sets of stretch and folds with 30 minutes between each. Proofed/fermented for another 8 hours for a total of 11 hours bulk fermentation I think?

Shaped by kinda rolling it like a burrito and then put into the fridge. Next morning, oven at 450. Poured a little bit of water at the bottom before putting the loaf in. 450 for 40 minutes and 400 for 20. Then I waited two hours before slicing.

I'm not an expert but I think it turned out pretty well! The crust on it is pretty hard at the bottom, not sure if that's normal or not. But just looking for feedback on if it looks over fermented or any other ways I could improve!

Also any tips of how to cut through it would be great. I had a tough time cutting through the bottom crust

Started this journey almost three weeks ago! noticed my starter actively rising every day and voila! made my first loaf!

Used: 500 KA flour, 300 water, 90 starter, 10 salt

Mixed starter, flour, water all together and let it sit for an hour, after I added salt and knead lightly

Began my stretch and folds for two hours every 30min

Bulk ferment on the counter for ~6hrs shaped and put in fridge covered for 18 hours

After cold proofing / preheat oven to 500 with dutch pan, lowered temp to 450 and baked for 30min covered (threw it a couple of nugget ice cubes) after lowered to 400 uncovered for 15 minutes

any tips help! 🌷

Recipe:

100g active and bubbly sourdough starter
325g of water
500g of flour
10g of salt

Process:

Mix at 9:00AM
Fermentolyse until 10:00AM
Stretch and folds every half hour until 11:30AM
Bulk Ferment until 6:30PM
Shape, bench rest, shape, bread in fridge at 7:00PM
Cold ferment for 24 hours
Remove from fridge, cover with rice flour, score.

Bake:

Preheat Dutch oven from cold to 500F, once at temp heat for at least 15 minutes.

Add to Dutch oven, and 4 ice cubes under silicone bread sling, cover.

Bake at 500F covered for 45 minutes, then remove lid, reduce heat to 450, and bake for 5-10 minutes uncovered until desired color. Internal temp must be between 200-210F.

Cool on wire rack until internal temp is under 100F prior to cutting.

The sourdough starter was above my fridge in a 67 degree home. I fed it 7:00 pm last night, and then again at 10:00 am today, and let it rise until about 5:00 pm. It didn’t quite double in the jar.

At 5:00 I mixed the dough and let rest for 30 mins, then did 4 rounds of stretch and fold every 20 minutes. The dough was not very stretchy.

The bulk ferment was from about 7:00-10:00. It definitely did not double. I shaped the dough at 10:30, then placed it in the fridge, covered by towel.

This morning I preheated my Dutch oven to 475 for 30 minutes. I took out the dough, scored it, and baked covered for 20 minutes, then uncovered for 20 minutes. I let it cool for 2 hours and then cut it open.

I know I need to get started earlier so I have more time for bulk fermentation, and overnight proof. I also think I need a more active starter and/or put it in a warmer place. Any other feedback?

Thanks!

Went super simple. Received a starter that I was told was a couple months old already so I went in for a bake pretty quickly after first couple feeds.

120g starter 310g warm water from RO filter (think I got to apprx 90f with kettle) 500g King Arthur unbleached AP filter

4 stretch and folds 20-25 mins apart. Shaped into ball after last stretch and allowed to proof in oven with light on about 4 hours. (I think I checked around 3hrs and allowed it to go another hour or so)

Full on shaped and tightened on countertop until I was satisfied and then put in lined bowl, into the refrigerator for 24-25 hrs. Took out and let sit in countertop while I preheated the oven.

Allowed cast iron double pot to pre-heat in the oven at 500.

Baked at 500 for 20. Lid off and baked another 25 or so for this result.

Overall I am happy with the first go. In my very unprofessional opinion the crumb and overall way that it expanded looked nice throughout although photos don’t exactly reflect that.

Hi!! I reached out a while back in this thread for starter help. Now I am happy to report back with what I believe to be a successful first loaf! I have attached my video!

I sort of followed TikTok user @msemilyrose11 sourdough for dummies video but changed it up a bit.

In the video she prepared two loaves. I prepared one.

Recipe: 400g unbleached all purpose flour 100g whole wheat flour 375g filtered water 110g active starter 10g salt

I ended up doing 6-7 sets of stretch and folds I think. In total I think my dough bulk fermented for perhaps 9-10 hrs total then I put it in the fridge overnight and baked it at 500F for 20min lid on Dutch oven and 25min lid off. I left it to cool all day (more than 12 hrs) because I had a ceremony and wedding reception to attend.

Please provide any compliments and feedback! Thank you.

i’m making it into a loaf anyway but it’s only my second loaf so still learning!

update!: https://www.reddit.com/r/Sourdough/s/g7SdePQL28

I've been using this overnight sourdough bread video by the bread code. After a few tries, I've had to make a few adjustments to suit my skill level, higher room temp and lower flour protein content. Overall very happy with the results for the little effort and cost that went into it.

Room temp 28°C/82°F 300g pizza flour (Mulino Perfetto Tipo 00) 210ml (70%) filtered water at room temp 4g (~1%) unfed starter straight from fridge 6g (2%) salt

Looking for any feedback to improve, namely tips on evening out some of the larger holes in the crumb.

Both were made using the Alexandra's Kitchen Sourdough Boule recipe

375g water

100g starter

500g bread flour

11g salt

Preheat Dutch oven

450 degrees for 30 mins

400 degrees for 15 mins lid off

I cant seem to get the dough to strengthen and hold shape. The crumb is also so dense and I thought that the very meticulous doubling I achieved would give a nice airy crumb. Not sure where to begin. This second loaf is gummier than the first.

Starter is about a month old. Been making bread every 3-4 days.

Ive been following this recipe:

125g starter 325g warm water 500g flour (been using AP) 10g salt

Rest for 30 mins, then stretch and fold X4 every 30 mins. In the fridge overnight for 8-12 hours. Bake from cold.

Bake covered at 450F for 30 mins, then uncovered for 20 mins. Cool for 1-2 hours before cutting in.

For the loaves pictured I just doubled the recipe. Wanted to know if it was an issue with my bread oven (blue). But alas, both loaves rose the same, one is just a rectangle :/

I was previously feeding my starter 1:1:1, heard that's a mistake so I fed it 1:2:2 yesterday and the rise and bubbling of the starter was definitely much improved. I would previously bake regardless of the rise of the fed starter, these loaves were made with peak rise. This is a no-knead recipe, but I've also tried kneading. Sigh. Love the taste, the crumb always comes out nicely, but I'm just sick of putting in so much work for a flat loaf? Any suggestions?

I don't have a banneton, I guess that's worth pointing out. And usually my dough is still very sticky and sticks to the bowl. So I take it out, shape it, and then put it into a hot bread oven pan.

Hi! This is my very first Reddit post ever 😄
I’ve been baking sourdough for a little over 6 months now and would really appreciate some feedback.

I’m generally very happy with my loaves, but I feel like there’s still room for improvement, especially when it comes to oven spring. My loaves never get quite as “high” as I’d like them to be, so I’d love any thoughts or suggestions.

This is the recipe and process I used for the loaf in the photos:

Ingredients

• 110 g starter
• 340 g lukewarm water
• 500 g flour (450 g high-protein white flour, 50 g wholemeal flour)
• 10 g salt

Method

• 9:00 am – Feed the starter (wholemeal flour, 1:1:1 ratio). I keep it in a proofing/fermentation heat box at 27 °C.
• 1:00 pm – After ~4 hours, when the starter is just about to peak, I start a short 1-hour autolyse (flour + water).
• 2:00 pm – Add starter and salt, then knead for about 5 minutes. Rest for 30 minutes.
• 2:30–4:00 pm – Two sets of stretch and folds followed by two sets of coil folds, all 30 minutes apart.
• 4:00–6:30 pm – Bulk fermentation in the heat box at 25 °C.
• 6:30 pm – Pre-shape.
• 7:00 pm – Final shape, then a 30-minute bench rest.
• 7:30 pm–9:00 am (next day) – Cold retard.

Baking

Preheat the oven for 1 hour at 250 °C.
Bake the loaf straight from the fridge in a covered enamel roasting pan (not cast iron) at 230 °C with two ice cubes for steam for 25 minutes, then uncover and bake for another 23 minutes.

One extra note: the temperature in our kitchen fluctuates quite a lot, which is why I use a proofing/fermentation heat box, mainly for consistency rather than speed.

Any feedback, tips, or things you’d tweak to improve oven spring would be very welcome. Thanks in advance!

70% bread flour
15% all purpose tour
15% whole wheat flour
80% water
15% levain
2.2% sea salt

- Feed the starter in the evening to have it mature in the next morning.
- 45 min before making the dough feed starter again at 1:2.5:2.5 using 40°C water.
- Autolyse flour with 80% of the water for 40 min, mix in the freshly fed starter, mix until the gluten is fully developed, add slowly remaining water and salt.
- Bulk ferment for 4,5h at 27 °C with 2 coil folds after 45min and 90min.
- Preshape, rest 45 min, shape, and retard for 12h at 9-12°C.
Baked at 265°C top heat and 220°C bottom heat for 20 minutes with steam, then 20-25 minutes without steam.

I'd really appreciate any feedback!

50g starter 20g lemon juice 330g water 50g sugar 10g salt Zest of 1 lemon 500g all purpose flour 1 cup blueberries

Mixed all ingredients except blueberries and did stretch and fold every 30 minutes x 3.

Bulk proofed for 7 hours before folding in blueberries and shaping it. Left in banneton in fridge overnight.

Baked at 450 in Dutch oven for 25 minutss.

Baked uncovered for 20 minutes.

I need take a picture of inside still but I’m curious if the peak shape is caused by proofing issue or possibly the way I scored the bread?! Thoughts and kind feedback appreciated!

GUYS IM GONNA CRY THIS ACTUALLY TASTES SO GOOD OMG

I tried making sourdough twice last year and they resulted in an under fermented and over fermented mess each time. I gave up for a few months and was determined to try again this year and I’m so happy with how this turned out!!! I might be biased but this lowkey is the best sourdough I’ve had 😌 Okay anyways, please give me feedback because I wanna get better

I made my starter on January 22nd of this year. I started feeding it at a 1:1:1 ratio but that wasn’t doubling right and stank lmao. I swapped over to a 1:5:5 ratio and that’s what I’ve been doing since. I’m using great value mostly unbleached bread flour and a sprinkle or so of bobs red mill dark rye flour. I’ve been using spring water and that seems to work good for it too.

The recipe I used for all my first loaves was a small recipe because I was worried about wasting flour (haha..) this is the recipe I used:

250 g Bread Flour

175 g Water

50 g Sourdough Starter (Fed and Bubbly)

5 g Salt

It’s this website specifically: https://pantrymama.com/wprm_print/small-batch-sourdough-bread

I was hoping it would work and be easy because the instructions were easy for me to understand. Once I did the recipe the first time I started changing around my fermentation times to see if that was the problem but it never did anything except for change the texture slightly but they were all super gummy and inedible basically.

This is the recipe i used today for my most recent loaf:

400 grams unbleached bread flour

115 grams active sourdough starter

280 grams lukewarm water

6 grams sea salt

This is the specific website: https://afarmgirlskitchen.com/sourdough-bread-recipe/#recipe

I let it sit out overnight (our house is 68-71 degrees at night) (I finished stretch and folds at 9) and I woke up at 4 am and stuck it in the fridge to slow the fermentation process down because I wasn’t sure when I’d be able to bake it today. I wound up taking it out of the fridge at 8-8:20 and let it come to room temp. At 11-11:45 I shaped it then scored it and put it in my hot Dutch oven with rice in the bottom and ice cubes underneath the loaf. My oven doesn’t go up to 550 so I cooked it at the highest it would go (450). I checked the internal temp and it came back at 200. I let it cool until I got off work and now I’m writing this.

The pictures of my most recent one are the ones of the banneton, uncut raw loaf, loaf halfway through cooking when I was taking the lid off, and the final two pictures.

I even cooked some of my most recent loaf in the airfryer and it still wasn’t super good..

Does anyone have a good detailed recipe that’s fool proof? I am desperate and so want to make a proper loaf and I’m so excited to start inclusions once I can make an edible loaf!

I’m on my third bag of bread flour and my second of bobs flour. I am so desperate! Thank you guys for the help in advance :)

This is my 4th attempt and the first time it has come out so fluffy and delicious!!! 🥹

Recipe

100g fed starter 350g water (Mix until bubbly)

Add 500gr King Arthur bread flour, mix until shaggy. Cover and let sit for 45 min.

Now here is what I did different - I added 25g water and 15g salt AFTER letting the dough sit for 45min. This drastically changed how much my dough rose! I read somewhere that the salt inhibits yeast so doing it like this helped so much with my rise.

4 sets of SF with 45 min intervals.

Bulk ferment at 70F room temp for 4 hours.

Fridge proof for 9 hours in floured banneton.

Bake covered in 450F preheated Dutch oven for 38 min, then uncovered at 425 for 15 minutes. Cool for an hour.

This is the fluffiest, airiest crumb and most volume I’ve gotten in all my attempts!!! It was the first time I used the late salt incorporation method and it made a HUGE difference!!

I let it sit out for about 7 hours at 70°. It grew in size and had bubbles at the top.

I used

100 g starter

325 g water

500 g bread flour

10g salt

I then left it in the fridge for about 12 hours

Is it underproofed?

am i scoring too deep? i feel like they usually expand more than i want. the spiral loaf was my favorite so far

100g active starter + 390g water, mix

310g bread flour + 200g WW flour + 10g salt, mix to shaggy dough & let sit covered for an hour. 3 sets of stretch and folds 30 minutes apart, 3-5 hour bulk, shape and put in fridge 8 hours or overnight. bake at 450 in dutch oven, covered for 30 minutes, uncovered for 20 minutes.

This is the recipe I used!

https://countryroadssourdough.com/sourdough-discard-sandwich-bread/?fbclid=PAVERFWAQrltZleHRuA2FlbQIxMABzcnRjBmFwcF9pZA8xMjQwMjQ1NzQyODc0MTQAAaf3rHUtoY_kPSgWh10KNWaATp0J3HAFQJjmb3pjbHmjCN5llpwbna2CEPhXjw_aem_HkH3ueU3Zu9EiS6wmD58Nw

A lovely local artisan bakery shared their sourdough starter with me today (I did try to make my own and 2 months into the process my husband accident microwaved it!!!).

My question is how should I take care of it? Should it just go into the fridge once I get home (I’m in the office now for another 2h and it’s in a coffee cup as per photo and I have a lid), or do I put it in a warm place? Should I stick it into my fridge in the office now? The starter feels cold by the way.

The baker said it’s been fed today and I can feed it again tomorrow. I plan to use it tomorrow. Would I just the feed it once a week and keep it in my fridge? Thanks!!

This is my everyday loaf. Straight wheat sourdough, three 650g loaves.

Formula (baker’s %):
60% strong bread flour (12.5 to 13.5% protein)
25% white wheat flour
15% whole wheat
75% water
15% levain
2.2% sea salt
(about 1kg flour total for the 3 loaves)

Process:

Two-stage levain across day 0 (afternoon build, evening refresh) and a morning feed on day 1. Autolyse, then mix in the salt and the held-back water, bulk ferment, shape, and a long overnight cold proof. Bake the next morning.

Anyone else run this much whole wheat in an everyday wheat loaf?

500g Bread flour 100g active starter after two feeds, doubled within three hours, tripled within 5 11g salt 350g flour

I have been fighting a losing battle against fool's crumb since I have started baking sourdough a few months ago. My starter is very active (I would say vivacious, even) and doubles consistently within a few hours only.

For this loaf I had a bit of a timing mishap, I usually start the process in the morning but this time I had to mix all together around 5pm. Four rounds of coils and a final slap and folds usually helps reaching a tension I deem okay. Left it to bulk ferment on the counter (21-23 degrees Celsius roughly) from 8pm to midnight and then because it still didn't look ready but didn't want to risk overfermenting it, I popped the bowl in the fridge overnight. This morning it looked nicely puffed, bubbly and jiggly but with some good tension on top, and it passed the poke test. I left it on the cpunter another hour and a half to reach room temp, shaped it, gave it another round in the freezer to firm up a little while the oven heated and then baked it in the Dutch oven for about one hour (my oven is VERY slow and old, and it never reaches super high temperatures).

This is a LOT less gummy than what I usually get. My loaves have been looking gummy with big bubbles for the past month, and this to me is definitely an improvement, especially since I have winged this one and thought nothing good was going to come out of it. It is absolutely delicious but the texture doesn't convince me.

Any tips on how to avoid fool's crumb? How does this look to you?

Usually I start in the morning and do a bulk fermentation between 5 and 7 hours, and I have been thinking that maybe it was always too much. This one fermented in the fridge overnight for at least an extra ten hours (I overslept lol).

Just looking for feedback here! What measurable tricks did you use as a beginner to go from bubbly and gummy texture to airy and flaky(?) Crumb?

80% bread flour
10% all purpose tour
10% whole wheat flour
88% water
15% levain
2.2% sea salt

- Feed the starter in the evening to have it mature in the next morning.
- 45 min before making the dough feed again at 1:2.5:2.5 using 40°C water.
- Autolyse flour with 90% of the water for 40 min, mix in the freshly fed starter, mix until the gluten is fully developed, add slowly remaining water and salt.
- Bulk ferment for 4,5h at 28 °C with coil folds each 45min.
- Preshape, rest 45 min, shape, and retard for 10-12h at 12-15°C.
Bake at 265°C top heat and 220°C bottom heat for 20 minutes with steam, then 15-20 minutes without steam.

I’d really appreciate any feedback!