Starter doubles in about four hours at 24C, smells sharp and yeasty, passes the float test. But loaves take seven hours to rise 50% and bake dense with a tight crumb. 500g strong white, 350g water, 100g starter, 10g salt, four sets of stretch and folds. Third loaf like this. Is the starter lying to me or is it the dough?
Measure the dough temperature, not the room. 24C ambient with cold flour and cold water easily gives 20C dough, and every degree below about 24 stretches the timeline noticeably. Cheap probe thermometer, measure after mixing, adjust your water temperature to hit the target.
Check the flour too. Plenty of supermarket strong white sits around 11.5% protein, which is fine for a yeasted loaf and quite tight for a long sourdough ferment. Not the cause of seven hours, but it's the difference between an acceptable crumb and a good one.
Tin loaves hide underproofing less well than boules because the dough has nowhere to spring sideways. Quick diagnostic: bake one free-form and see whether it spreads, which is overproofed, or stays tall and dense, which is under.
Drop the float test entirely and use volume instead. A bit of starter in a straight-sided jar with a rubber band at the start line. You want peak height and the time it took, not a yes or no.
@keg_line_ken · 5mo ago · 3 replies
The float test is the least reliable thing in sourdough. A starter full of gas floats whether or not it has the population to raise 500g of flour.
Two things to check in order. First, when are you using it? A starter that doubles in four hours is at peak around four hours, and most people use it at six or seven when it's already collapsing and much less active. Set a timer and use it just as it crests.
Second, 100g of starter into 500g of flour at 24C should not take seven hours. That's the number telling me the starter is weaker than it looks. Feed 1:5:5 twice a day for three days at a steady 25-26C before you bake again. Most "my starter is fine but my bread isn't" cases are a starter that's been kept alive rather than kept strong.
Dense tight crumb after a long rise is nearly always underfermented dough despite the clock, not overproofed.
Reply
Report
@seasoning_layers · 5mo ago
Feeding 1:5:5 twice a day for three days changed everything. Rise time went from seven hours to about four and a half and the crumb finally opened up.
Reply
Report
@mulch_marta · 5mo ago
The ratio matters more than the frequency. A 1:1:1 feed is back at peak in a few hours and then spends the rest of the day starving. 1:5:5 gives it a proper growth phase.
Reply
Report