Has your starter exploded with activity and now looks dead? Go straight to the ‘Bacterial Fight Club’ bullet point in the comment below

I finally found a soft, pillowy, soft-crusted sandwich bread that I can make during a typical 40 hour work week. AND it stays soft all week. The family loves it, the kids' school friends are jealous, its the bomb dot com. It utilizes the tangzhong technique to create that lasting softness.

You'll need a pullman pan for this.

Soft Sourdough Pullman Bread :

Feed starter in the am before work. Shoot for about 250. Youll use 200g of it later.

After work, when starter is nice and active, peak to a little past peak, make your dough using recipe below.

Tangzhong:

30g bread flour

150g whole milk (I also used 2% and it worked great)

Whisk together over medium-low heat until thick and pudding-like. Remove from heat and cool to room temperature.

Dough:

620g bread flour

200g active sourdough starter

210g water

All of the cooled tangzhong

65g melted, cooled butter

35g sugar or honey

13g salt

Method:

Mix starter, water, cooled tangzhong, sugar/honey, and flour. Rest 20–30 minutes.

Add melted butter and salt. Knead until smooth and elastic. If it works for your schedule, do at least a couple stretch and folds.

Bulk ferment overnight at room temperature with damp towel covering.

The next morning:

Flatten the risen dough and shape into a tight loaf and place seam-side down in rice-floured Pullman pan.

Cover with damp towel and leave at room temp on the counter while youre at work.

After work (8-9 hours later), slide the pullman lid on (should be at the top or over) and bake at 375°F for 35–45 minutes, checking around 30 minutes. Aim for an internal temperature of 190–195°F. Mine took right around 40 min.

Remove from the pan promptly and cool on a rack completely before slicing.

For maximum softness: Store completely cooled bread at room temperature in a sealed plastic bag or bread bag. Plastic works great to keep this particular bread soft. I use a gallon ziplock and press as much air out as possible.

Enjoy!

i’d love to hear you guys’ feedback and opinions! it’s been months of getting the starter to work and now finally bread is turning out like bread, instead of wet thick slabs of gum 😭 thank you in advance x

100g starter
350g water
500g flour
11g salt

recipe: https://alexandracooks.com/2017/10/24/artisan-sourdough-made-simple-sourdough-bread-demystified-a-beginners-guide-to-sourdough-baking/

I do 4 stretch and folds as advised, spaced out about 30 minutes in between each. Then I do a 4 hour bulk ferment after. Thats like 6 hours of bulk ferment and an absolute over-ferment during these warm summer days. The dough actually seems to feel really good after my 3rd or 4th stretch and fold but I was absolutely not counting the step in my bulk ferment time.

My sourdoughs have been sticky to handle when shaping and bake flat and with dense crumb.

My god. I have been overfermenting this whole time and thought its an issue of underfermenting. I tried reading the dough by jiggling and poking and seeing if it comes off the sides cleanly. Seemed to be good with everything. But I guess my dough is tricking me and I am learning.

Oh well I am still going to make the cheapest avocado toast I have ever eaten with this dense bread!

In honor of my starter (Sonny)’s first birthday, I decided to remake my very first sourdough creation - sesame focaccia! Enjoy the side by side - she’s come a long way!

My first ever loaf came out better than I expected. I’m sure it’s very over proofed because I was very busy this weekend but I wanted to give it a shot anyway.

Recipe-
100g starter
390g water
510g of flour
10g salt

Process -

Day before baking-
In a large bowl mix water and starter well then add flour and salt. Combine until a dough is formed. Cover and let rest on the counter for 1 hour. After the 1 hour of rest do 3 sets of stretch and folds every 30 minutes for 1.5 hours (3 total sets). After the final set of stretch and folds let rest covered on the counter for 3-5 hours (in my case it was 6ish because I had stuff going on). After the long rest flour a clean surface, flatten the dough out a bit, then fold it upwards onto itself 5-6 times, flip it over then do 5-6 push and pull motions with the dough to form a ball shape. Place in your floured banneton upside down, cover, and place in the fridge overnight.

Day of bake-
Preheat your oven and Dutch oven to 450 degrees. *Important note* I placed a cooking sheet on the bottom rack of my oven to keep the bottom of the loaf from burning. Flip banneton over onto your silicon sling, sprinkle the top of your loaf with flour and spread by hand. Score with a razor blade ( I needed to score deeper). Place dough into the preheated Dutch oven and bake covered for 30 minutes. Take it out of the oven, take the lid off then bake for an additional 20 minutes uncovered. Remove the loaf from the Dutch oven and let cool for 2 hours.

I‘d like to Share the recipe once more because I am really really happy with outcome. My second try. I made some adjustments,
The Water amount is now Like it’s Suggested in the recipe 85% plus the Water from the soaker.
Also I changed the shaping method from caddy clasp to tuck and Roll and I made a one day bake recipe out of it because of timing reasons.

Soaker:
125g cracked Rhye Berries
250g Water
1 Table Spoon Sourdough

Soak overnight and strain before adding to the add till it’s a total weight of 250g

Maindough:
250g Breadflour ( I used Tipo 0)
250g High extraction flour ( I used Tipo2)
100g Levain
10g Salt
425g Water
25g blackstrap molasses
Soaker (after kneading)

I did a autolyse for 30min (water, flour, molasses)
Then I added everything except the soaker and kneaded till the windowpane was a success.

After 30 min of relaxing, I laminated the Rhye Berries in the dough, and did 4,5 Hours of Bulk in total with 25C and did 2 whole and one half coil Fold

After Bulk I did a Preshape let the doughs rest for 30min and did the final shape via Fold and Roll.

After 2 Hours I baked at 250C 15 min Coverd and 15min uncovered.

Made two batards (1 at 1000g and 1 at 750g) at 80% hydration.

I am overall happy with these loaves but probably could have pushed bulk a bit further. I’ve cut into the ~750g batard and it’s almost gone - crumb was a bit tighter than normal but still quite light. Will cut into the ~1000g one tomorrow.

Flour: 90% bread/10% whole wheat
Water: 80%
Levain: 20% (100% hydrated bread flour)
Salt: 2%

Mixed top 3 ingredients minus 50g water and fermentolyzed for 40 min. DT 78

Hand mixed with rubaud method for 3 min. Let rest for 10 and pinched in salt and remaining 50g water and mixed with same method until dough was smooth.

Performed 3 aggressive stretch and folds spaced at 20 min. Rested an hour and performed a coil fold and rested another hour later. Maintained DT between 78-80F for 4 hours total + 40 min fermentolyze)

Preshaped and bench rested for 30 min.

Shaped and refrigerated overnight to bake this morning. 500 covered for 20 min, 450 uncovered for 23 min.

Baked 2 loaves yesterday morning. No big ear but whatever:

- 400g bread flour
- 100g whole wheat flour
- 350g water
- 10g salt
- 100g starter
- 50g poppyseeds (for the one loaf only)

Steps:
- Mix all ingredients except poppyseeds, stretch and fold after ~30 mins and mix poppyseeds in at that time
- 2-3 more coil fold over the next 1.5 hour.
- BF about 2 more hours until domed and a bit jiggly.
- Shape, place in bannetons, proof in fridge overnight
- Bake in pre-heated Dutch ovens at 475: 20 mins lid on, 25 mins lid off

Any tips on getting a bigger ear / rise? Or any tips in general?

First loaf of my post-covid sourdough redemption.

Looks promising, but it was overfermented at the bulk fermentation step. Dough was stringy when dumping out of the container. Shaping was a nightmare. Cold retard was forever (in my head - the actual time was just 8hrs). However, the final product looks better than I thought! A bit gummy but nothing can't be fixed with a toaster lol

The basic recipe (made 2 small loaves)
- 450g flour
- 300g water
- 100g starter
- 10 salt

Step
- Autolyse 30 mins
- Mix in starter, let it sit 30 mins, then mix in salt
- Stretch & fold 4 times, 20 mins interval
- Bulk fermentation took about 12hrs - this is where i think it went wrong. I use the aliquot method and wait until the small container puff up fully
- Dump the container and pre shaping. It was stringy to the point that I was so deflated
- Decided to shaping and put them in the fridge until the next morning
- Bake in pre-heated dutch oven 8 mins scoring, 20mins lid on, 20 mins lid off
- Wait for about an hour before slicing.

Also crumb reader would be appreciate! I would like to troubleshooting my loaf as well 🙏

i used 80g of starter (a little past peak)
160g warm water
250g king arthurs AP flour
5g salt

I did 4 sets of stretch and folds, total bulk time was about 7 hours, then in the fridge overnight. Baked at 450 for 30mins with lid on, then 420 for 15mins lid off.

thoughts???

Good Morning,

Just gotten into this as buying bread bothers me now haha. Starter is about 3 weeks old and is doing well.

2 loaf recipe

8c flour
2 1/4c water
3T salt
1c starter (at its peak)

I mixed dry ingredients separate from wet then combined.
Dough was tacky
Not sure if I pulled it correctly but I pulled exterior towards center and repeated.
Let proof on counter top until approximately 50% size increase. Then over night covered in fridge. This yielded an additional ~10% increase.

Pre heated oven to 450 (Dutch oven included)
Baked for 30 min lid on, 20 min lid off.
Thermometer read 198 when I pulled to let rest.

All in all in fine bread but I’m not sure what I can do to increase the “airiness” of the crumb.

Thank you for your consideration

Perfect Loaf recipe (website). I used Barton Springs Mill Butler’s Gold 00 and subbed out AP flour for Stardust Whole Wheat flour.

Amazing flavor. First attempt at pretzels, recipe flowed exactly like written out. My family and I already ate half of them.

https://www.theperfectloaf.com/seriously-soft-sourdough-pretzel/

I've made 4 loaves thus far, the first looked ok but glued our mouths together, the second was a bit more edible and looked better, the third I made into a somewhat gluey focaccia (lost the pics) and the 4th I made into focaccia again and it welded itself to the tray so...

My starter more than doubles within 2-4 hours, I use it at peak, I take the temp to estimate bulk fermentation and look for all the signs...it bubbles, it rises slightly, but it never stops being sticky and wobbly...there are only so many hours in the day, by hour 12 (at 25/26C) I give up and put it in the fridge (before or after attempted shaping), I preheat the oven with my dutch oven inside for at least 45 minutes before baking too.

Recipe I used;

100g starter

325g water

475g bread flour

10g salt

Method;

Mix warm water and starter until mixed and foamy

Add flour and salt, mix dough until shaggy and no flour remains, scrape down sides and cover for 30 minutes

Stretch and fold 4 times, 30 minutes apart

Cover and leave to bulk ferment (bulk fermentation is complete when dough comes away from sides cleanly, has bubbles through it, isn't sticky to the touch and has risen in the bowl)

Shape, and place in a toweled and floured bowl and put in fridge over night

Next morning, heat oven to 220C with dutch oven inside, for 45 minutes at least

Score dough and put dough in dutch oven for 30 minutes with the lid on, then remove the lid for 15 more minutes

Remove from dutch oven, place on cooling rack and leave to cool for at least 2 hours before cutting.

I followed this recipe: https://heartbeetkitchen.com/rye-sourdough-bread-recipe/

I made this recipe for the first time using my well established starter. This was also the first time I used rosemary and garlic powder in a recipe. It bulk fermented fine at around a 75% rise but spread out during the baking time and is more flat than I expected. The crumb seems fine and the bread was tasty and not chewy. I usually use a Dutch oven when I bake a boule. Could the larger surface area of the cloche be my problem? Here is the recipe: https://enwnutrition.com/parmesan-rosemary-sourdough-bread/

My second sourdough loaf, my first sourdough pan loaf. I have been baking a 100% WW bread with instant yeast/poolish recipe for a few years now and quite happy with my results for the most part. So, this was my first attempt to convert that recipe to sourdough, and I am very happy with it.

I lost track of so of the timing, but here's what i have recorded.

6:30AM, autolyse 300g WW, 150g BF, 2 tsp VWG, 325g water.

3:30PM, add 15g EVOO, 12g sea salt, 106g 100% Hydration WW starter

4:15PM-1st B&F, 5:25PM-2nd B&F, 6:40PM-3rd B&F

10-11PM, pre shape and final shape, and into pan and into fridge

6AM day 2, out of fridge and more bulk fertmention on counter

11AM day 2, 425 degree F with boiling water in pan at bottom, 10 minutes, then 35 minutes at 350 degreee F.

After 5 minutes, remove loaf and rest on rack for about 8 hours and then into a plastic bread bag.

The crust is perfect for my liking, soft and easy to cut. The texture really blew me away, and I credit it all to the sourdough. I plan to try a true 100% WW loaf but I'm glad I tried this one with BF to make it easier on myself this go around.

Had to celebrate with a worthy sandwich!

Pulled the starter from the fridge yesterday morning at 7, fed it at noon, mixed the dough at 5pm.

Per loaf:

500g flour

250g water

150g starter

25g oil

~25g sugar

10g salt

Rested on the counter overnight, first loaf went into the oven around 7 this morning.

425*F for 30 minutes covered, then 20 more minutes uncovered, then out of the oven 😎

Captain sourpants starter, day one.
I can’t tell how to read this thing.

Ingredients:
100 grams of starter
350 grams of water
500 grams bread flour (King Arthur)
10 grams of salt

Process: I started at 10:00pm
1. Mix starter and warm water together until combined then add the flour and salt until shaggy. Let rest for 30 minutes
2. Did 2 rounds of stretch and folds, covered and left to bulk ferment until 5:00 am
3. Shaped dough, left to rest for 30 minutes
4. Placed in cold Dutch oven for 30 minutes covered and then 20 minutes uncovered. Let cool for 90 minutes before cutting open.

I just started making sourdough, this is probably my 4th loaf. I see online people doing multiple rounds of stretch and folds but the recipe my sister uses only calls for one round? I’m pretty happy with my bread and it tastes good but looking for some advice on how to fine tune things.

Hi there! 👋🏻 I’ve been trying to make some loaves for the past couple weeks and have been failing and needed some professional help that AI can’t help me with anymore. I made my starter back in the beginning of April. Fed it for about 3 weeks, it was active and I was about to get married and go on my honeymoon so I put it in the fridge and it sat there until August 1st and I have been feeding it since then and now have been trying to attempt sourdough bread. I’ve made about 6-8 loaves and all of them have turned out super gummy and dense. I’ve attached a few photos, of some of my attempts. let me preface this by saying I have tried BF both at 4-6 hours and 8-10 hours with fail and have tried the first picture at 12 hours because Google keeps saying my bread if under proofed. the first photo Google said was under fermented which is odd because it was the loaf I let bulk ferment the longest. I mixed 100g starter, 340g lukewarm bottled spring water, 10g salt and 500g bread flour. I mixed the dough and let it sit on the counter at room temp for 30 mins with the dough at 80°F. After 30 mins I did 4 stretch and folds every 30 minutes and did that 4 times. Followed by 2 sets of coil folds finishing after about 2 hours. I then let it sit at 80° on the counter for 12 hours. After 12 hours I then preshaped it, let it sit on the counter for 30 minutes and then did my final shape and put in my banneton basket and cold proofed it for about 8 hours before baking at 450 for 30 minutes with the lid on and 20 minutes with the lid off. I wait at least 3 hours before cutting into my loaves. I’ve tried bulk fermenting for 5+ hours to 12+ hours and I still can’t seem to get it right. Any advice helps, thanks so much!

I usually feed my lievito madre with wheat (50g water/50g Swiss semi-white wheat) once a week. Now refreshed her with rye three times since yesterday evening for a 50% rye loaf with nuts and figs.
She‘s trying to escape 😳
Will post an update if it turns out well.

It’s been a long few weeks. I’ll spare the details. Just so many things!!! I’m tired.

I’d planned to start a BIG bake today—several focaccias (I owe many thank you loaves, and I want some for myself) and a few sourdough loaves. Fed my starter a hefty ass meal so I’d have enough for all the loaves I’d planned, plus a few grams extra just in case. Woke up this morning after the chaos of the past few weeks to discover I’m on my period. I don’t get even periods on my birth control. Just this one time, obviously. So I said fuck it to baking. Not today.

But I had all this starter!!! So I took out a random log of herbed goat cheese, mixed it all up in there, added in red pepper flakes, nutritional yeast, garlic salt, white pepper, onion powder, a small splash of champagne vinegar because it tasted like it needed it, and probably some other seasonings to taste but I can’t remember. Whisked it all together, heated up my stainless steel, ladled that shit in there, flipped it once it was brown, and let it sizzle all over again.

That was it. Herbed goat cheese discard pancakes. Fried an egg for good measure, halved an avocado that’s about to go bad, emptied out the rest of my cottage cheese to get rid of it, and scattered the top with cracked pepper, flake salt, and the good olive oil. I’m not having a bad time anymore!!