I cheated making my sourdough bread

It took me a year before I finally started making sourdough bread, and I am still on the path to making it better.

There are too many online tutorials so that I spent days on the internet before I began to make my own starter, and creating a sourdough starter is only the beginning.

This is not another tutorial on making sourdough bread. I am not even nearly there yet to begin giving instructions. But I will tell you what I did wrong so you can avoid the same frustrations I had.

Mistake # 1: I killed my sourdough starter, twice, because I was too impatient.

The purpose of the starter is to produce a natural, vigorous leaven that will make your bread rise, and to develop the flavor in the bread. You should be patient and make sure it is active enough before using it. There are many instructional videos online on how to make a sourdough starter and this recipe is what I followed, it seemed straightforward enough.

My first starter died because I gave up on it on week 2. I fed it once a day, but some say you should feed it twice a day. I learned later that even when it is not actively bubbling up and down (like my starter), it does not mean it is dead. The key is to be consistent with the feedings.

RIP Mace Windough

 

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I was more consistent with my second starter. It made me so happy every time it doubled or tripled in size! But I was not ready to make bread, so I put it in the fridge as the instructions said, and just fed it once a week. And then I forgot about it. (So much for happiness.) The starter is a living organism, so without any feeding, it will die. (RIP Count Doughku, my second starter.)

At this point I had given up and thought I just had to be content with commercial yeast. Then came this blessing, a one-year-old mature starter from a friend! (New-found friend Tasha Ringor! Thank you!) I waited two weeks, consistently feeding it until I was ready to make bread.

And on to my next mistake!

Mistake # 2: My dough was too slack and wet because I did not follow the recipe.

I used this recipe by Chef Billy Parisi because it looked the easiest. By the first fold, I knew something was wrong because the dough was too slack. He said to adjust the water if I am using bread flour, so I did. Perhaps the bread flour was not strong enough to handle the extra amount of water. So, on my second try, I just used all-purpose flour as in his recipe and followed his instructions to the letter.

I didn’t want to throw away the slack dough, so I cheated—I threw it in the stand mixer and kneaded it until it formed enough gluten structure to hold its shape. Sometimes you just must wing it.

It looked nice enough if you didn’t know I cheated.

First sourdough bread, kneaded in the mixer because the dough was too slack.

Mistake # 3 I burned the bottom of the bread because the Dutch oven was too hot.

I thought my first sourdough bread would be a success until it started to smell like it was burning. I took it out of the oven, and it looked good, but when I turned it over to “knock” on it (it should sound hollow), the bottom was black. Surely this is not what they meant with “more color, better flavor.”

First attempt at sourdough bread, with burnt bottom

On my second try, I lined the Dutch oven with another baking sheet that redistributed some of the bottom heat. I put semolina flour on the bottom of the Dutch oven before dropping the bread on top of parchment paper. The trifecta to avoid a burnt bottom: baking sheet, extra flour (either corn flour, semolina flour, or even rice grains) and line with parchment paper.

Second attempt, burnt bottom no more

Mistake # 4: Not doing bulk fermentation long enough to develop that open crumb.

Bulk fermentation is the most important step of yeast bread making. It is a step when the dough is fermenting in a large, single mass. This is what creates that “open crumb” or those holes in the middle. I prefer a tighter crumb though, so it can hold the butter and it doesn’t go through the holes.

For my first dough, I just did the bulk ferment for 4 hours. By this time, I was already on my 8^th hour (including all the steps BEFORE bulk ferment), and I was so ready to bake that bread! As a result, it didn’t develop an open crumb. Again, patience makes a difference with this bread. It is meant to be eaten the next day.

For my third bake, instead of counting the hours, I watched the bread every hour. Sometimes you just have to use your baker’s instinct to see if it’s risen and fermented enough. I looked for a bubbly and jiggly texture, with a tacky but not sticky dough. With practice, you will see what I mean.

Tight crumb on the left vs open crumb on the right

Tight crumb on the left vs open crumb on the right

Mistake # 5: My sourdough starter had too much acid

By my second bake, I did everything to the letter, but the finished product still has not risen enough. I did more research and found one that said I should feed my starter with a 1:5:5 ratio to lessen the acidity. Acidity can prevent a strong gluten formation. (At this point, I almost wanted to give up and just throw it in the stand mixer again.) On my third bake, I fed the starter with 1:2:2 ratio.

Deflated sourdough bread

Mistake # 6: The recipe I followed said I could use all-purpose flour. I learned that the quality of the flour makes a huge difference.

I have a collection of different types of flour in my pantry —rice flour, semolina flour, ‘00’ flour, cake flour, unbleached flour, self-rising flour, whole wheat flour, you name it. And of all the times I could be the least creative in my choice of flour, I chose my first SD bake. I attempted sourdough bread with a generic, bleached all-purpose flour that I bought repacked in a baking supply store, and it did not give me the results I wanted. So, I researched about what flour to use and read that Montana Spring is the best unbleached flour you can source locally. Even my starter loved it and tripled in size on the second feeding.  (Love local!)

Finally, I think I nailed it on my third try! I was aiming for that much coveted “ear”. That means the dough had good oven spring, a result of combining all the things I learned. At the end of the day, this is your bread and no one’s going to judge you for it. So, keep trying.

Sourdough bread with good oven spring

Will I make it again? Absolutely. Like Chef Billy said on the video, it’s less than 15 minutes of actual work, and 24 hours of resting time. I think that’s what some would call working smart.

PS – I don’t have a name for my adopted starter yet. Mace Windough and Count Doughku. See what I did there? Any ideas?