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I'm trying to make sourdough bread, but can't get the leaven right. Following a recipe that calls for 1 tbsp of active starter, 1/2 cup all purpose flour, and 1/3 cup of water for the leaven. My starter passed the float test last night, so I mixed everything together as instructed for the leaven and left it at room temperature for 12 hours. Had a nice odor and was uniformly bubbly this morning, but it didn't pass the float test. Let it sit for another 5 hours in a warmer area. Still no success. What am I doing wrong?
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>>7423981
The starter will also sink if fermentation has peaked & subsided. What's it look like? Is there any water separation happening in the mix?
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>>7424305
No water separation in the starter. Mix was uniformly bubbly with a really foamy head after 6 days. Would spending a few more days of feeding to mature the starter be worth trying?
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>>7425231
>Would spending a few more days of feeding to mature the starter be worth trying?
I doubt it. The started is literally only collecting and then propagating wild yeast. If it's bubbly throughout with a foamy head then you have a large population of active yeast.
Shit's not magic yo.
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>>7425256
Not understanding where the leaven went wrong then. I'll try again after I get the starter reactivated.
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I use 150g of active 100% hydration starter for a 500g bread recipe. I consider it active and healthy when it doubles in volume at room temp in about 4 hours. But I don't use it until it's been sitting for about 8. By this time it has nearly quadrupled in volume and begun to collapse. The starter seems to get sluggish and I get a slower rise if I don't let it get hungry before using it. After 8 hours at room temp I keep it in the fridge. If I don't use it in the next few days I always feed it and let it go for another 8 hours before using it. I do a standard 1:2:2 feeding.
I don't know how old yours is, (never mind I just saw it was 6 days) but I didn't start seeing the results I wanted until mine was about 2 weeks old. If it is still very young, many of the bubbles you are seeing are formed by bacteria. The yeast take much longer than bacteria to establish themselves.
There is a really excellent post on maintaining your starter on The Fresh Loaf and I used it as a guideline. The times I give are also completely dependent on the temperature of your house. The most important thing is to pay attention to it and learn what it needs.
I would just keep feeding it, if it's at room temp it probably needs food every 8-12 hours unless your house is quite cold.
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>>7425270
>There is a really excellent post on maintaining your starter on The Fresh Loaf
Will check it out. Thanks for the tip
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>>7425292
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/3064/maintaining-100-hydration-white-flour-starter
This was the one I was thinking of. They have a bunch of other ones. Good luck.
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