February 24, 2009 - 9:23pm
not riseing
I was wondering if anyone out there mite be able to help. I tried to make sourdough loaf and it did not rise. at least not very much I used an unbleached flower and water let it sit the time to get it nice and ripe but when i used the starter it did not rise much. and when baked it was very condensed inside. any thoughts
thanks for any help
Bob
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Bob, you mentioned that you mixed flour and water and let it sit. Did you develop a starter, which takes a week or two, or did you just try mixing flour and water and using it after a few days or hours? See my Sourdough Tutorial for tips on making a starter. It's (almost) guaranteed to work.
Phyl
I did let it sit for 3 days and stiring it a few times a day. and feeding it once a day half a cup of warm water and a half a cup of unbleached flower
it was nice and bubbley as well as sour smelling.
Bob
Bob, three days is not enough time to get a good wild yeast starter going. The activity you see in the first few days is from bacteria, not yeast. I wouldn't expect a three-day-old starter to work.
how much time is nessary?
That varies, basically what you want is starter that reproducibly rises after feedings, which indicates you have healthy yeast population. This may not be easy to see if your starter is very liquid, so it helps to make it stiffer, like a dough. Once it starts to triple (or so) after each feeding you are ready to go.
Mike
Mike,
I loved the pics in your tutorial showing how much your starter raised. I was amazed. Mine didn't raise like that, but it did double, which is what I gathered from your tutorial as okay. Could you add your above explanation to your tutorial? It might help some other soul who doesn't understand the whole it's-bacteria-the-first-days-not-yeast-until-it-triples thing.