Sourdough won't rise
Hi, I wonder if anyone can help with khorasan sourdough that won't rise! I have been trying the retard, but it does not work. I make the sourdough starter. It is dead sour and bubbly. I make up the bread in the eve - leave it till the next morning at a temperature of about 16C. And it sits there flat having not risen or moved. I warm it up a bit, trying temps of 20-35C, it sort of rises somewhat but never enough to make proper bread. On occassions, it sort of transforms into a runny liquid that has no rise at all.
I've even tried adding fresh yeast to the sour dough starter.
It is almost as if the bacteria are given an opportunity to multiply to such a level that they inhibit the growth of the yeast. Yet the remains of the sourdough starter sits bubbling away.
Any ideas?
Matthew
Khorasan ferments quickly and the long bulk ferment might be the issue. But will need the recipe.
Depending on what you've added, I think the fresh yeast could have taken over your sourdough.. I'm not an expert on that idea, but I remember reading that you shouldn't add any other types of yeast to your sourdough. I'd feed the starter 1:2:2 and see how long it takes to double. You want to get to the point where it doubles within about four hours.. post some pictures of your starter along that process.. that might help us figure it out..
We would need to know your formula to make intelligent guesses at what happened.
Kamut/khorasan, like all ancient wheats, has less gluten than modern wheats. If you made a loaf with a higher percentage of kamut, and then retarded the already shaped bread, it's very likely that it overproofed and had exhausted its rising capacities by the time you took it out of the fridge.
Retarding the dough, instead of the loaf, should not be a problem, I do that all the time, even with ancient grains.
Karin
Thanks all, I don't have a specific recipe as such... I am probably quite ad hoc. I sort of still need a recipe that says bulk ferment at X temperature, retard at X and then warm up to X. Currently I am guessing. I get the yeast mix bubbling, use a water ratio of about 75%. However, having looked at the three useful comments it has got me thinking a different approach. I think I have been doing the 'bulk ferment' wrongly. I have not been giving the dough a chance to bulk ferment as I have jumped to the retard too quickly. This means when I warm up the bread after retarding, there is still a very low proportion of yeast - i.e. just the yeast from the original sour mix. So it isn't rising. Also, by waiting longer after retarding to get the yeast going, I am allowing the bacteria to destroy the protein in the khorasan - which is more vulnerable I understand, so by 16 hours I just have a sticky mess...?