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My sourdough was flat for 6 months until a baker at a farmers market told me the truth
I kept getting flat loaves and thought it was my starter, but a lady selling bread at the Portland farmers market said "your fridge is too cold for bulk fermentation" and she was right. I started leaving the dough on my counter for an extra 4 hours and now I get that open crumb everyone wants. Has anyone else had a random stranger fix a problem you struggled with forever?
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clairen856d ago
A bagel guy at a random coffee shop fixed my starter for me. I was about to throw it out after like three months of dense bricks and he just said "feed it once a day with rye flour and stop keeping it in the fridge." That was it. I switched to rye and left it on the counter and I got bubbles within three days. It felt like magic but also made me mad that I wasted so much time following those online guides. Still think about that guy every time I bake.
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derek_perez6d ago
Dude this is exactly what I've been telling people. Read this thing from a baker in Portland who said 90% of starter problems are people overcomplicating it with fancy flours and complicated schedules. Rye is basically cheating cuz it has all the wild yeast and bacteria already hanging out on the grain. My buddy tried the whole "discard every day" routine for weeks with no luck then switched to rye and it took off in like 48 hours. The fridge thing is huge too - cold slows everything down so your starter is basically hibernating instead of actually building strength. Feels like every online guide wants to sell you a course or make it sound mysterious when really its just flour and water with basic consistent care.
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