The best mindset on the way to baking excellence 🙂
Most important is to keep focussen on the joy of baking. The hands on the dough, the smells, the cool oven spring, the bread that is maybe not perfect but delicious and full of goodness.

Enjoy!

Thanks so much for the reply and I love the comparison to children it’s so true!
I will say regardless I still came out with a decent bread and I will continue to troubleshoot till I get it just right! Great recipe.

Hello SB,
It is really hard for us to say it with confidence what went wrong, but we agree with you that the most logical explanation after this much time would be the inactivity of the sourdough culture. Make sure to refresh your culture the day before you are going to use it. Maybe your starter culture is still young and it needs a few more rounds to mature.
Also make sure the dough and surroundings have the right temperature. If it is (too) cold it might take much, much longer for the yeast in the culture to get going.
Read our tips for some more help:
www.weekendbakery.com/posts…ough-tips/

Plus, this is what we always add – Starters are like children!

You cannot neglect them or leave them alone for too long plus they are unpredictable. They are all different with their own characteristics and quirky traits.
This is why, despite all the tips given, it can still be that your own culture is a mild and gentle type, never capable of producing a super sour loaf, or the other way around. If all else fails or you are not happy with your results, start a new or second culture and give it another go.

Best of luck with it!

Hello Tara,
We use European flour which in general absorbs a few % less water than your American type flour. When using American flour we recommend to add 5-15 ml water to the final dough.
For your first try we would start by adding 10 grams of extra water to ‘water part 2’ in the final dough.

We hope your result will be great. Enjoy the process of making this bread. Day 2 will be somewhat intense because the dough will need frequent attention all day, but we hope, like us, you will think it worthwhile when tasting the end result!

Thank you Peter for sharing your method. This will be useful for many other bakers.
Enjoy your sourdough!

You can hold it in the fridge over night, let it come to room temp. before baking.

My question is: I’d love to do 4 loaves in one day, but can only bake one at a time, so I need to slow down the process on the later ones. What is the best time to put part of the dough in the fridge? Is it best to do that after they’re fully proofed, so you can put them straight from the fridge in the oven? Or is it better to do it earlier, e.g. right after shaping them, or even before? And if so, how do you determine when to take them out of the fridge again, given the different temperature?

My bread dough was so much lighter and easier to work with than the tartine one, and my starter loved it almost too much. I caught it right before she overproved right out of my basket!

Quick question for you. The bread turned out beautifully, but it is very soft and delicate. Softer than sandwich bread. I’m thinking it’s maybe because I used 100% white bread flour and left the lid on my ceramic bread baker for 30 minutes, and only baked it off for 20. It’s quite hard to cut without crushing it though, because the inside is so soft and the crust has gone soft/leathery. Any advice on getting a bit more strength, or at least a sturdier crust? Thanks!

Prachtig 🙂

Dank je wel. We doen verder, zelfs met een surrealistische vorm smaakte het brood heerlijk!

Hallo Geert,
Tja, dat is lastig te zeggen. Hebt u een nieuwe of andere zak bloem / meel gebruikt die net wat minder absorptie had. Het weer kan een rol spelen, de temperatuur en vochtigheid, de rijstijd of wellicht een kleine weegfout. Of een combinatie van factoren.
Dat hoort ook bij het brood bakken en wij hebben ook onze momenten en dagen dat het net iets anders en vooral minder loopt of een brood wat minder wil. Vooral met desem is het consequent perfect bakken een uitdaging, omdat de samenstelling en het enthousiasme van het toegevoegde desem ook aan verandering onderhevig is.
Gewoon lekker doorbakken zeggen wij dan. En altijd goed kijken naar het deeg, de ‘look and feel’ om te beoordelen of de hydratatie in orde is of bijgesteld moet worden.

Enjoy your baking en nogmaals dank voor uw enthousiasme!

Ed & Marieke

We completely understand Thomas, this is how we would do it too!

Hello Doughmer,
You can read more about our method and the reason why with our handy sourdough tips:
www.weekendbakery.com/posts…ough-tips/
It is also explained above under: What’s different from the original?

Enjoy your sourdough baking and thank you!

yeah, Chad’s 75% hydration is crazy. I know some people that even go higher, I have no idea how they do it. I use 68% and although I get a bit smaller crumb, its incredibly consistent and I have customers that love it.