I’m having some issues with getting my sourdough starter to double in size…
I started my started with unbleached all purpose flour (King Arthur brand) and spring water. The recipe that I found was 1/2 a cup of each (I don’t have a scale at the time). For the first 7 days I fed it every 24 hours and discarded half of it. I kept it in the oven and sometimes microwave with the light on checking temperature as often as I could. It stayed around 70-90F When I noticed that not much was happening and I was getting a hooch I switch to 12 hour feedings and the recipe told me to experiment and try 1/2 cup starter 1/3 cup flour and 1/4 cup water. This did absolutely nothing so I decided to just throw that one away.
The 2nd week I decided to buy a scale, started a 1:1:1 ratio with the original batch that I had been maintaining (50 g starter, 50 g flour, 50 g water), and switched it to my countertop because of how liquidy it was getting in the over. This thickened my starter up significantly and I started seeing a lot more activity and bubbles.
It’s been about 3 weeks now and it has risen but not doubled. I tried the float test, although it’s not reliable, and it did pass. I read another post saying to try 50:50 all purpose and rye bread. I did that for a couple days and the activity level went up quite a bit but did not double. I’ve backed off how much rye flour I am adding because the post said don’t do it for too long!
Moral of this long post, I’ve tried a lot and am stuck. Do I keep with the rye flour? Am I feeding it too much? The picture is after 12 hours feeding 1:1:1 50:50 AP and rye. The top is dome shaped, but not too bubbly on top. Just airy bubbles throughout with that honeycomb like structure.
Ok I can do that! And continue feeding 50:50 all purpose and rye flour? I didn’t really want it to be a rye starter because I read that they are on the sour side which worried me.
Ok! Here was my starter this evening and a picture of it in the bowl after following your directions to make a small dough. I was planning on covering it with plastic wrap and leaving it on the counter unless this is the wrong bowl size!
I just finished the dough when I took that picture. It has been about an hour sitting in the bowl covered in plastic wrap. I use spring water for my starter, but regular tap water for the dough which I think is filtered where I live.
Ok… stir your starter down. Keep warm and see how much more it grows. If by tonight it has bubbled uo nicely again then give it another feed.
As for the dough. Let it bulk ferment until doubled, about 8 hours give or take. Shape it into a bun, or you can roll it out into a strand and make it into a knot. Let it final proof for 2 hours on a baking tray and drape over the plastic wrap so it doesn’t dry out. Then bake it and see how it turns out.
If it doesn’t rise at all then abandon the experiment.
Well it’ll be a small bun so my guess is as good as yours. Perhaps pre-heat the oven to 410F, bake the bun for 15 minutes at 410F with steam if possible, then without steam at 374F till it has a nice golden crust.
But this is pure guesswork.
We’ll see how it turns out then focus on the starter. Till then keep treating your starter as you have been doing.
Alright here are my results from this experiment. It seemed to rise (maybe not double) but definitely rise. The first picture is last night and the second is this morning. I did try to bake it, but it was hard and almost rubbery! (Also pictured) I don’t know exactly what went wrong there.
Yes, wait till it’s nicely risen then refrigerate. Like how it appears in the above photo.
If you are reluctant to do this you can take a little off to make an off-shoot starter which you can carry on feeding while this one is in the fridge.
Giving one some TLC while the other matures slowly while refrigerated. For the off-shoot one you can do 1:1:1 feeds at 12 hourly interavls if it has bubbled up in that time.
But not really necessary if you fancy taking a few days break which will be good for you too.
