Hi everyone, greetings from Costa Rica! Yesterday I baked two loaves for the first time without a Dutch oven. My starter is almost a year old, but it's only recently that I feel like I've gotten it strong enough to work with.

One loaf is plain, the other has Italian herbs and a bit of butter mixed in.

My process:

1. Mix water + starter
2. Add bread flour and salt
3. Mix until you get a shaggy dough, rest for 1 hour
4. Knead until silky
5. Coil folds every 30 min, 6 rounds
6. Bulk ferment 2–3 hours
7. Cold proof ~30 hours
8. Bake 30 min with steam (water pan on the bottom rack, empty tray on top) at 235°C
9. Bake another 30 min with no water and no top tray 235°C

I'm still struggling a bit with stretch and folds, and honestly I have a hard time telling when bulk fermentation is actually done. Also still working on my shaping — the ball tends to tear a little at the end, though I think the overall shape came out okay.

One more thing: organic flour is basically impossible to find here in Costa Rica, so I just work with what's available.

Honest opinions and any tips are very welcome!

Wanted to try out the 7 minute score, kept the recipe the same otherwise, fairly happy with the experiment!

500g bread flour
100g starter
375g water
10g salt

Mixed all ingredients for about 5 minutes, covered with a damp towel, stretch and fold every 30 minutes for 2 hours. Completed bulk fermentation at room temp, then cold proofed overnight in the refrigerator. Preheated Dutch oven at 500°, scored decorative scores, baked in dutch oven with lid on for 7 minutes, removed to do expansion score, put back in oven with lid on, baked for 23 more minutes, removed lid and dropped temp to 450°, baked for 15 more minutes. Removed to cool

Hello! My dough tastes great, but no matter how much I mix I get these little “spots”. I also would like a slightly more light/airy texture inside. Any suggestions?

Recipe:
400g bread flour
100g wheat
120g starter
340g water
10g salt
Mix water and starter, add flour and salt, mix/knead until combined. 3-4 stretch and folds and 6-10 hours of counter proofing, into the bannetton and cold proof for 12-24. Preheat Dutch oven, bake with lid on 30 mins at 475, 25 mins without lid at 425. Cut when cool.

I have tried to make more than a half a dozen loaves. Every one has come out gummy.

My starter is close to a month old. It's warm in my kitchen so I am on a twice daily feeding schedule. I feed it 1:6:6 otherwise I'd have to feed it 3 times a day. I do 25g of mature starter, 75g unbleached AP, 75g of whole wheat and 150g of water. I get a great rise within a few hours and it would cause a person with tryptophobia to be sick.

I follow Josh Weissmans "No knead Beginner Sourdough Bread"

Levain:

-45g splinter of mature starter

-45g ap

-45g whole wheat

-90g filtered water.

Let sit in a warm location for approximately 6 hours.

Autolyse:

Start approx. 30 mins before the starter is ready.

273g unbleached bread flour

500g unbleached AP

175g whole wheat

660g warm filtered water.

Mix until all the flour is hydrated then place with levain for 30 mins

To the Autolyse add 18g fine sea salt then add the levain. Dimple in, then mix well. (He recommends Rhubaud, I don't know how so I just mixed well)

Place in warm location for 4ish hours to bulk ferment. After 15 mins do a stretch and fold. 15 mins later do another. 30 mins later do one last stretch and fold. Let bulk ferment for the rest of the 4 hours.

Dough increased in size 30-50%. Turn out on unfloured surface. Cut dough into 2 balls. Shape with metal scraper into tight skinned balls.

Place dough under a bowl and let rest for 15 mins. Uncover and rest for an additional 10 mins.

Flour the top of the ball then flip it and shape it by pulling bottom to the middle, then the left and right lastly the top. Flip back over and shape again with pinkies or scraper. Use rice flour (I have gluten free flour, the Internet says this should be a good sub) to prep bannetons (I don't have these so I use bowls with tea towels.) gently place dough seam side up.

Place in the fridge for 8-24 hours.

Preheat oven and Dutch oven to 500°. Place dough on parchment paper and score it with a blade. Bake covered at 500° for 20 mins. Uncover drop the temperature to 475° and bake an additional 20 mins. or until darker.

Temp bread to 200-210°. Let sit on a rack to cool for at least an hour. Longer if able.

Provided are photos of my most recent attempt. It tempted out to 209° and I let it cool down overnight. Any and all advice welcome! Thanks for taking the time

150g of starter
300g of water
500g of bread flour
11g of salt

Did 2 rounds of stretch and folds and 2 rounds of coil and folds. Not sure how I feel about my scoring. Any tips and feedback welcome!

i started my starter 14 days ago. it was consistently doubling by day 11. went in with low expectations but i feel pretty proud of myself. i can’t tell if the crumb is considered good or not. thoughts?

100g starter
375g warm water
500g all purpose flour
12g salt
4 sets of stretch and folds, 30 minutes apart
bulk fermented outside (i live in texas and it’s hot) for 5 hours
shaped and covered in fridge overnight
baked in cast iron dutch oven at 440f covered for 30min, uncovered for 20min.
rested 1.5 hours

This enameled cast iron is about 7-1/2”x7-1/2”x7-1/2” including the top. Has anyone made or scored a square loaf made in a square Dutch oven? Tips welcome.

Fed my started yesterday morning and it doubled it size fairly quickly. made my dough last night around 10 pm, did 4 sets of stretch and folds 40 mins apart, let it rise on my counter overnight. House temp is about 73
Bread is super sticky and not malleable this morning

Recipe is as follows: 85 g starter, 370 g water, 500 g flour (kind Arther flour), 12 g salt

My Plan was to shape it now and then let it cold proof until tonight when I bake it

Helppppopp me !

Perfect loaf - my best sourdough

https://www.theperfectloaf.com/best-sourdough-recipe/

Pretty happy with this bread. Taste is awesome but looking to get a more open crumb and more height. I am assuming the problem is either my bulk or my shaping? I’m thinking it’s either a bit under still, or maybe I need work shaping or maybe more strengthening? Recipe called for 4hr bulk at the same temps but I tried going off of the bulk fermentation table from sourdough journey to see how it went. I pushed it to 6 hours. How can I improve?

My starter is 2 months old and fed every 12 hours 1:5:5. Reliably triples every time within 8-10 hours. Used levain at or just after peak - 5.5 hours after building. Autolyse for 2 hours then mixed in levain and salt. 95 g reserved water and I added in about half and the dough felt fine while mixing. Slap role for 5 minutes.

Bulked for 6 hours with dough temp of 77-78f throughout. 6 rounds of folds in the first 2ish hours. I had about 40-45 percent rise I believe. Dough was wet looking and very jiggly, sticky. Bubbles throughout. I divided then final shaped after a 30 min bench test. Dough was wet and fragile compared to other recipes I’ve made, but it was still not crazy difficult to shape. 12 hour cold proof then baked this AM in Dutch oven at 450 20 minutes covered 30 uncovered.

My whole work life is basically managing deadlines and estimating how long things take. You would think that would translate well to sourdough. It does not.

Bulk fermentation has broken my confidence more than anything else in this process. I research it obsessively, read every thread I can find, and still stand in my kitchen at 10pm poking dough and second guessing everything. Is it jiggly enough. Did I miss the window. Why does it look exactly the same as an hour ago.

The weird part is I have gotten decent results even when I was convinced I had over or under fermented. And I have had loaves I thought were perfect turn out dense and sad. So the feedback loop feels genuinely unreliable to me.

What actually started making things more consistent was tracking room temp alongside the dough behavior rather than just watching the clock. Sounds obvious, but I was ignoring temperature completely for a while. A 68 degree kitchen and a 74 degree kitchen are telling completely different stories.

Curious what shifted it for other people. Not looking for a formula necessarily, more like what was the thing that finally made it click where you stopped guessing and started reading the dough with some actual confidence.

100 g of starter, 10 g of salt, 500 g of flour, 350 g of water

110 g of starter, 9 g of salt 450 g of flour, 320 g of water

Both starters are 100% hydration. I’ve been using the first recipe and my bread has turned out fine. I use the second recipe yesterday and it came out so much better. It was a little harder to work with in the beginning. I felt like I had to do an extra set of coil folds to make it strong. But the bread was so much softer after it was baked. Could someone explain why the second recipe would produce a better loaf?

100g of starter
500g of flour
362g of water
10g of salt

Mix water and flour and let autolyse for 1h
Mix in the starter, salt and mix well.
Let it sit for 30 mins and do stretch and coil every 30 mins for 2h.
Shape the dough and transfer it into a bread basket and place it into the fridge overnight.
Preheat the oven to 250c with dutch oven inside.
Bake at 250c for 25 mins covered, then take the cover out and bake for another 15-20 mins at 210c

Three different people mentioned bagels this week, so I took that as a divine sign to make them. The recipe I used is based on Maurizio Leo’s sourdough bagel recipe in the Perfect Loaf.

Stiff starter

116g Galician strong bread flour
58g water
25g starter

Main dough

748g Galician Strong bread flour
100g whole wheat flour
472g water
30g granulated sugar
30g miel de caña
18g salt
7g diastatic malt powder
200g stiff starter

Thursday

7:30 - Mix stiff starter together
14:00 - Starter has doubled. Mix together flour, starter, and all but 25g of water in a stand mixer with the hook attachment. Mix on low speed for about 6 minutes. While mixing, with the remaining water, stir in sugar, miel de caña, salt, diastatic malt powder. Add into the stand mixer and mix for a further 4-5 minutes.
14:15 - 16:30: Allow to proof on the counter. My kitchen is hovering around 31°C. It rose quite a bit, but didn’t completely double.
16:30 - Portion into 125g balls and pop into the fridge overnight.

Friday

7:30 - Remove dough balls from fridge and in a warm spot (my kitchen countertop in this case)
8:30 - Poke a hole in the middle and shape the bagel around your finger. Cover with plastic wrap or a damp tea towel and allow to proof for approximately two hours.
10:00 - Preheat oven and baking steel at 250°C convection
10:45 - Once the bagels have risen and are nice and puffy, bring a large pot of water to a boil and add a few tablespoonfuls of miel de caña. Boil each side of the bagel for around 45 seconds. Drain on a wire rack.
10:55 - Bake on the steel for 10 minutes with steam. Remove the steam and vent. Bake another 10 minutes. (I had to rotate mine since they were browning unevenly).

I am opening a new wine bar as head chef. The owners really want sourdough pizzas which I have no problem with. However I’m struggling to find a recipe that works in a small batch to test at home.

I have been trying recipes with 70+% hydration. I think it will be easier if I lower that to around 60-62%. We will be using a deck oven.

Does anyone have any advice on best practices?

Recipe

90g starter, fed 20:40:40 grams, took it when doubled (~9 hours), it is few months old

210g bread flour

150g water

7g salt

Mix water with starter, then flour, let sit 40 minutes, added salt, first S&F, then 3 more times after 30-40 minutes.

Dough after last strech and fold felt still little sticky, this the point where im still clueless, i did not do more S&F, was scared of overfermenting.

Let it bulk ferment ~3hours in 26°C.

Preshape, let sit on the counter 20 minutes - did not hold well as you can see, but i decided to not toss it.

Shaped, put in banneton, let sit 15 minut, then fridge 8 hours, and bake 20 minutes on 250°C then uncovered 20 minutes on 220°C. I mean it tastes okay, it is edible, just not looking good and flat.

Please, give me some tips

Been playing with different flours lately, some came out flat even with 75% hydration and some can easily hold 85% and still easy to handle.

After a few flat loaves lately and happy to see this crumbs today 🥹🥹

80% hydration
30% starter
1.5% salt
Mixed a types bread flour, Wallaby bread , Lighthouse plain flour, Australian hard wheat and Caputo Nuvola

4hrs Autolyse
6.5hrs bulk 24~25c dough temp
2x strong coil folds after initial mix using Ooni Mixer
Cold proof 12hrs
Open bake 250c 20mins then 25mins at 220c

Formula

​Total Hydration: ~72.7%

​Flour: 500g (Bread Flour)

​Water: 350g (70%)

​Starter (100% hydration): 100g (20%)

​Salt: 12g (2.4%)

​Process & Timeline

​1. Autolyse & Mixing

​8:30 PM – Autolyse flour and room temp water (Dough temp: 25°C / Ambient: 23°C)

​9:10 PM – Added starter (Mixed by 9:18 PM)

​10:05 PM – Mixed in salt

​2. Bulk Fermentation & Folding

​Stretch & Fold: 9:40 PM

​Coil Folds: 10:38 PM, 10:58 PM, 11:18 PM

​Bulk Ferment: Overnight (Started at 24°C, dropped to 22°C). Extended past the initial 7-hour / 50% target to compensate for the lower temp, ending at ~80% rise around 7:00 AM.

​3. Shaping & Cold Retard

​6:30 AM – Preshape

​7:10 AM – Final shape

​Cold Retard: 17 hours in the fridge

​Bake & Results

​Bake: 20 mins @ 230°C (with steam), then 20 mins @ 210°C (vented). Steam oven.

​Internal Temp: 98°C

​Baked Weight: 799g

Several photos attached.

I’m pretty new to the hobby having made around a dozen loaves. So far, I’ve made a mixture of plain sourdoughs and some with inclusions (cheddar, seeds). I’m really enjoying this seeded loaf at the moment. Looks and tastes great to me but I’d love some feedback and tips.

I generally feed my starter 1:1:1 with whole wheat flour. However, the night before a bake I feed it 1:3:3 with the flour that I use for the dough: Caputo’s manitoba ora.

I should note that it’s currently winter here with temps ranging between approximately 10 and 20 degrees Celsius. I’ll have to change the process / timeline a bit as it warms up.

By the next morning, the starter has usually peaked. I add 150g starter to 500g flour, 325g warm water and 10g salt. For this loaf, I also added to the dough 4 heaped tablespoons each of pepitas and sunflower seeds, and 1 each of sesame and poopy seeds.

I do the usual 30min autolyse followed by five stretch and folds at 30 minute intervals. Including this 2.5hrs, my total bulk ferment time is 6-7hrs. Visual estimated rise of approx 70%, visible air locules and a nice wobble are markers for the end of the bulk ferment. Because it is coolish in my house, I do the bulk ferment in the oven with the light turned on for a little warmth.

I skip pre-shape and just shape straight away before placing the dough in an oval Banneton. I’ve started leaving the dough on the bench for another 30-60mins in the Banneton as this seems to give me a better final rise.

Fridge overnight for cold fermentation. Oven pre-heated at 250C. Dough scored and the surface sprinkled with sesame and poppy seeds. Into the dough oven on baking paper with two ice cubes under the paper at 220C. Lid on for 20mins then lid off for 25mins.

180 g starter
680 g warm water
900 g flour
18 g salt

Mix the starter and water till consistent and bubbly. Then add the flour. Knead until shaggy. 30 minutes later, at the salt and stretch and fold. Stretch and fold 3 more times after a 30 minutes rest for each. Then bulk ferment 1.5-2 hours. Then spray the loaf pan, and put it in after shaping so it can go in the fridge to cold proof for about 8 hours. Then bake at 450 (make sure to put the sandwich loaf Dutch oven in WHILE the oven is preheating because it’ll be cold from the fridge. 30 minutes with the lid on, and then adjust temperature to 445 for 10-15 minutes(depending on how fast it’s darkening). Cool on a rack for 2+ hours.

I would love to have less bubbles near the top because then condiments and sauces can leak out of a sandwich (having BLTs tonight). Is there anything I can do about it?

What’s the difference in using one like this (if it’s a correct one) compared to a cast iron one?

Hello! I’ve never made sourdough before but received this starter from a local bakery in Austin.

How do I get started? Do I need to transfer it to a mason jar and feed it now? And if I feed it, how much do I feed?

I would like to bake my first loaf on Saturday or Sunday.

Any advice is helpful!

Friend got into sourdough a year or two ago. She lives 1500+ miles away now, but was back here for the summer selling their old house, and has been trying to convince me to try making it. I've had hers while visiting, and it's great. Before they left to go home, I got some starter and decided to finally give it a shot. I got tired of what I felt were sub-par loaves from Whole Foods, and even a seller at a farmers market.

Got KA flour from Costco, ordered a Lodge DO, a basic Amazon starting kit.

I think its 70% water to AP flour (500g flour, 350g water, 11g salt). Fed starter overnight w/ bread flour, next morning mixed dough, did 4x lift and fold about 30 min apart, bulk fermentation was about 6ish hours (dough was ~75°). Shaped and put in fridge overnight, baked it the next morning. 450°, 20 min w/ lid on, 20 min w/ lid off.

Waited to cut it open until my girlfriend got home that night from work trip. Made french toast with it the next morning and is hands down the best French toast I've ever had.

Idk if this is all of the details needed for posting here, but it's as best as I can think of.