The Best Sourdough Chocolate Cake Recipe - Home Grown Happiness (2024)

FAQs

How do I make my sourdough starter stronger? ›

If you do not have whole wheat flour, just use all purpose flour instead. The starter will be fine. I switch to all purpose flour for the feedings because it's reliable, inexpensive and practical for everyday baking (remember, a portion of your starter is removed, discarded, or used for something else).

Longer fermentation

When it comes time to proof your dough, the longer you proof, the more sour the dough will be. As your dough proofs, the good bacteria eats up sugars and starches in the flour. This decreases the sweet undertone and creates a more sour undertone.

Use a proofing bowl or dough-rising container with a lid that is slightly breathable. This will keep your sourdough warm while allowing some of the moisture to escape, which helps promote activity in your starter. It should also help create an environment that allows the starter to rise more.

The best flour blend for creating a new sourdough starter is 50% whole-meal flour (whole wheat or whole rye) and 50% bread flour or all-purpose flour. I recommend a 50/50 mix of whole wheat flour and bread flour.

KEY TIP: Protein gives the sourdough starter and dough enough strength to rise a loaf of artisan bread without adding yeast. Without this level of protein, you may get a bubbly starter but your loaf will be too relaxed, like a weak muscle, unable to rise your bread.

Preheat your oven with a baking surface or combo cooker/Dutch oven inside to 450°F (230°C). Remove your dough from the fridge, score it, and transfer it to the preheated baking surface or combo cooker. Bake for 20 minutes with steam.

But all purpose, bread flour, whole wheat flour or rye flour are all suitable for feeding a regular sourdough starter successfully. Many people like to feed their sourdough starter a cheaper flour, particularly when in the establishment phase and going through quite a bit of it.

Bleached flour does not have as much natural yeast as unbleached flour does. I've had the most success with Meijer store brand unbleached flour.

The key taste compounds include salt, which is directly added to the dough, as well as acetic and lactic acid, produced during fermentation. After these experiments, they applied a technique called “unified flavor quantitation,” which was previously developed by Hofmann's team, to the sourdough bread.

Why doesn't my homemade sourdough bread taste sour? ›

Using flours with more ash, or mineral, content, will yield more sour taste. If you can't get enough ash, adding a bit of whole wheat flour to your recipe, which is what is done with the 20% Bran Flour, will boost the sour of a bread. Conversely, using a lower ash flour will tend to produce a milder bread.

You can always use this discard by directly mixing it into a dough for baking. Your discard, as long as it's in good shape, will leaven any bread dough just as well. The discard is just like a levain you would make for a recipe. The only difference is it's the same makeup as your starter.

The loaf is also inclined to over spring resulting in a crumb with big, random, holes or channels running through the loaf. If you over-ferment the dough you run the risk of the gluten structure degrading and the loaf turning into a puddle of goo before your eyes, never to be retrieved and destined for the bin.

If you don't want to put the dough in the fridge for a cold ferment, you can leave it to proof on the counter for a little while. You do need to be careful not to let it over ferment. Ideally, you want the temperature to be on the cooler side (no more than 21C / 69.8F). Let the dough relax into the banneton.

Keeping the lid on for the first part of baking allows steam to expand between the gluten fibers to rise the bread and create a fluffy loaf. Step 4: Remove the lid and bake for an additional 12-14 minutes or until the crust is crispy and golden brown. Once you take the lid off, the bread likely won't rise anymore.

You can develop dough strength by kneading the dough or trough stretch and fold during bulk fermentation. Laminating the dough is another method. You can also use flour with higher protein content.

To revive the dried sourdough starter, mix equal parts, by weight, of the dried starter and warm water. Allow it to completely re-hydrate the starter and then feed it with equal parts of starter, flour, and water.

If your starter is too runny, it maybe that you need to increase the ratio. A ratio of 1:2:2 can work - so you'd double the flour and water. Alternatively, if your starter is very runny, a 1:2:1 ratio could be used. This would mean that for 50g of starter, you'd feed it 100g of flour and 50g of water.