I have put together my 4th batch of sourdough today, and have had my dough tearing yet.
I had fantastic success last week with the same procedure I used today, though I did change the flour and ratios a bit.
I did two sets of stretch and folds after incorporating the starter and salt. Then I did some bench kneading into a nice dough ball. Though it did not look as smooth as it did last time. Then I did a couple more rounds of stretch and folds, bulk fermented for 5 1/2 hours at around 78 degrees.
The dough did not seem to be rising a whole lot, but was bubbly. I tried to do a coil fold to get it out of the bowl gently, but it was super sticky, liquidy, and it was actually breaking. Heartbreaking…
After my best attempt at preshaping, I came back and the dough was spreading and breaking just sitting there! Wondering now if it got way over fermented??? No idea…
The dough formula was a bit complicated, but so was the last one I used.
350 g Bolted Red Fife
300 g Select Bread Flour
250 g Whole Grain Red Fife
100 g Whole Rye
730 g Water
130 g Starter
25 g Salt
It was different water, I used well water (possibly treated?) this time instead of Berkey filtered water.
I was a little worried about the starter, I baked with it last Saturday, and didn’t think I should have put it in the fridge, so I just kept feeding it and left it out. It was not doubling very quickly, and it did smell pretty sour.
I was taking 10-15 g out and feeding with a
1:5:5 ratio. It was not behaving the way it did the last batch. I really think it really makes sense that it was eating the gluten. Thank you so much for the replies.
I put the starter in the fridge for now, is it bad? Shall I start a new one?
Agree with everything what @Fermentada has said and now I’ve seen your recipe plus method I’m convinced this is the case. Always use a small amount of starter with a longer ferment or a levain. Using a large amount of over fermented starter will cause all the problems you experienced.
As for starter maintenance I build up about 100g with a good feed. When active and doubled it gets stored in the fridge from which i take a little off each time to build a levain. When my starter runs low i take it out, feed it, allow it to activate and double then back in the fridge it goes.
Should I skip the levain stage and just use starter it’ll be a few grams in a big dough then fermented for an extended period of time until ready. Otherwise I do a pre-ferment building up a larger amount of fresh starter for a shorter bulk ferment of the final dough.
Rule of thumb… A freshly fed and mature starter is fine. After all it’s practically the same difference as a levain.
A starter that has been in the fridge for a while and it has been a while since it was fed and matured then only use a small amount in a dough otherwise feed it and then use or build a levain.
No need to start a new starter. Just bring it back to health with a good feed or two and carry on using the above guide.