No More Dense Sourdough – A Sourdough Guide
Is your sourdough dense or not turning out the way you had hoped?
Maybe your sourdough isn’t holding its shape. Maybe you’re wondering ‘why is my sourdough not rising?’ or ‘why is my sourdough flat?’ Or perhaps ‘ why is my sourdough dense?’
If your dough isn’t doing what it should, this sourdough bread troubleshooting guide is for you. Read through this and it will help you decipher what went wrong.
Sourdough starter posts
I already have much of this information written in various areas of the blog, but I think a dedicated post on sourdough bread troubleshooting is best.
I want to talk through the process of bread making and all the important parts that I have found to play the biggest part in a good loaf of sourdough. I’ve only included the crucial steps, so it shouldn’t be too overwhelming.
So, here’s to no more dense sourdough!
Understanding sourdough
It’s hard to write an exact recipe with timings and temperatures as every environment is so different and there are so many variables. I believe it’s best to understand what is actually happening while the sourdough is being made, and what is happening in your sourdough starter.
Once you understand that you can tailor things to suit your individual spaces and loaves.
You can use this blog as a guide for a better understanding of the sourdough process and what is happening inside your loaf – but also as a way to delve into specific issues, you may be experiencing.
So, let’s start with the key part of any sourdough loaf: The starter.
The starter
This troubleshooting guide isn’t going to show the recipe to create a sourdough starter. It is going to assume you’ve already got one set up.
However, even if you have an active starter already made, how it’s maintained is actually very important to the working and development of your bread dough.
A starter is a collection of yeast and bacteria that feed on flour. The yeast is responsible for the rise in the bread and will help create a light and airy sourdough. The bacteria on the other hand create a sour taste and ferment the bread. The bacteria produce both lactic acid and acetic acid.
It is very important to establish if your starter is active enough to bake bread in the first place. In a starter, the yeast is the slowest to grow and colonize starter. Even if your starter is full of bubbles, that doesn’t particularly mean the yeast colony is big enough yet.
The bubbles can be made by both the yeast and the bacteria that let off-gases.
Feeding the starter
When I first start a starter from scratch I will feed it 1:1:1 daily, equal parts starter, flour, and water in weight. This is introducing a small amount of fresh flour and water each day that the yeast and bacteria can consume while they establish themselves.
It’s important you measure this in weight and not volume. Water is much heavier than flour, so if you measure equal spoons or cups instead of grams, your water balance will be way off.
As the starter begins doubling quickly (within 5-6 hours) I will begin feeding 1:1:1 twice daily. These constant feedings are what help to establish the yeast colony.
Starter activeness test
To check if the starter is ready to bake with, I like to perform a little test. To do this I will feed the starter 1:2:2. This means 1 part starter and 2 parts flour and 2 parts water. I want to see if the yeast can colonize this extra fresh flour and water fast enough before the bacteria create too much acid. (An overly acidic starter can be problematic and I’ll address this further below).
In general, at a room temperature of around 21°C, if the starter is properly ready, I would expect it to easily double, even triple, within 6 hours. If it takes longer than this, your yeast colony may not be established enough yet. They are not going to have the strength to raise your bread and you’ll end up with an under proofed and dense sourdough
Continue with the twice-daily feedings until it is established.
The acid in the starter
There is always acid in a sourdough starter, as it is the byproduct of the bacteria. However, too much acid in your starter can be very troublesome when it comes to working the dough.
Using an overly acidic starter can break down the proteins in the gluten so much that they don’t hold together. The dough can become harder to work with.
The longer the time between the feeding of your starter, the more acid that accumulates in your starter. A starter that was fed 6 hours ago at 1:2:2 will have less acid than one fed 10 hours ago at the same ratio.
Seed starter
Also, the higher the ratio of seed starter used in the feeding, the more acid there is.
Feeding your starter at a ratio of 1:1:1 brings a large amount of seed starter into the new mix. This means that this new mixed starter will rise quickly because the yeast and bacteria don’t have a large amount of flour to inoculate.
This is fine if the starter is refreshed multiple times daily, and used before the starter passes the peak and collapses, however, I rarely use this ratio.
I much prefer a 1:2:2 or 1:3:3 ratio. This brings a small amount of seed starter into the fresh mix and there is plenty of food for the yeast and bacteria.
This gives a slower rise, so you have more time to use it before it passes its peak. This means there is more time before the food runs out and too much acid accumulates. However, as mentioned above, if your starter takes longer than 6 hours to double at 1:2:2, it may not be quite ready.
When to use the starter
If you regularly refresh your starter and keep the seed starter amount small, then you’ve got quite a window of opportunity to use it for bread.
It has to at least double, or even triple.
However, you should use it before it passes its peak. The peak is when the starter has done all the rising it can. There is no food left, so it starts to collapse. A peaked, collapsed starter is too exhausted to bake with, and too much acid has accumulated.
Acidic starters like this are great in discard recipes such as pancakes. That’s because these recipes rely on the acid the bacteria produces. It reacts with baking soda to give the rise.
How quickly the starter rises will depend on the maturity of your starter, how much seed starter was initially used, and the temperature of your room.
My Top Tips for the best starter health and success:
- Weigh out your quantities when feeding your starter and use ratios depending on how soon you are wanting to make bread with your starter.
- Take note of how long it takes for your starter to double and then reach its peak – this will give you an idea of the window you have to use your starter.
- Don’t be afraid to keep your starter in the fridge in between uses – just make sure you feed it beforehand.
The dough and autolyze
When it comes to a sourdough bread recipe, I think the actual amounts of water and flour are the least important. In fact, I make bread by eye a lot and just tip in flour and water and mix it until it feels right.
This means some days it is really wet, other days not so much. The point is, don’t get too hung up on the amount of water and flour in the actual recipe. Sourdough recipes can range in hydration, usually between 65-80%. It can handle the wet dough if you’ve got a good starter with a low acid load.
The flour type
The type of flour makes a difference though. I think when just starting out the sourdough journey, using a strong white flour with a protein level of at least 11% is the easiest. It can help you get used to gauging the dough. Once I had a few loaves like that under my belt, I let the experimenting with different flours begin.
When introducing different flours such as spelt flour, rye, wholemeal, etc, it helps to start with small amounts and work your way up. 10-15% of the total flour amount is a good place to start.
An autolyze helps too. This is the mixing of the main bread flour and the water to create a shaggy dough. This hydrates the gluten and makes a real extensible dough. I like to start my autolyze at least 30 minutes before mixing in the starter.
Folding and bulk fermenting
The bulk ferment is the term for the fermenting and proofing of the dough will do at room temperature. Usually, there is some folding, or kneading of the dough that happens at this stage at the same time.
In my recipe, I coil fold the dough for 3 hours and then leave it to ferment further until it has reached the ideal proofed stage. I always use wet hands when I am folding my dough as it stops it from sticking to my hands. My dough is always sticky and wet, even if the videos I have of my folding don’t show that fully. However, I build up the structure and elasticity in the dough so it holds together.
It is normal for the bread dough to spread back out a bit after folding, especially with doughs that have higher hydration. However, you should feel a difference in texture as it develops.
Folding
Folding and building the structure in the bread is important for an open crumb. You need to develop the glutens. A coil fold isn’t the only way to do this, there are many kneading or folding methods. I find a coil fold the easiest and I appreciate the smooth top it gives the dough once folded. I can easily see the bubbles form in it as the dough proofs.
However, if your starter isn’t ready or it’s passed its peak and is too acidic, your folding won’t build the structure you need. If you find your dough is really liquid after the first few sets of folds and doesn’t strengthen, I would reassess the starter.
The dough needs to proof for long enough if you want a light and open crumb. You need to give the yeast time to work through the sugars in the dough. As they do, they release carbon dioxide. The gluten structure that was built up during the autolyze and the folding will hold this gas in little pockets. This gives rise to the dough.
Sourdough rising is so much slower than commercial yeast so it might look like there is nothing happening during the bulk ferment, but there definitely is.
It’s hard to know exactly how long it needs or when it has proofed enough (or too much!) but this is something that can be learned with practice.
What to look for in a bulk ferment
In my usual sourdough loaf, I look for my dough to bulk out by about 50%. That doesn’t mean it doubles, it’s just fuller by half the amount. I take a photo of my dough at the beginning and then compare it at the end.
After folding and the dough has sat a few hours proofing, give it a prod with a wet finger. It should leave an indent that fills back out slowly but only about halfway. If it bounces completely, leave it to ferment longer.
In my kitchen, the temperature can fluctuate depending on the time of year. In the peak of summer, my bulk ferment is much quicker than in spring, autumn, or winter. The yeast will rise much faster when it is warm.
Under fermented sourdough
Under-proofing the dough is a very common issue. You can tell if your loaf was under-proofed after it has been baked. A thick and chewy crust (that is hard to cut), a gummy and undercooked texture, a dense crumb, a few large sporadic holes…these are all signs of an under-proofed loaf.
Under fermented loaves can sometimes have quite a good oven spring and give a great rise once baked. However, often that’s a few uneven large bubbles at the top of the dough that has done that.
A too-short bulk ferment or an immature starter that wasn’t quite ready to bake with can be the cause of an under-fermented dough.
Here are a few under-fermented doughs. They all look different, but what they have in common is their lack of proper fermentation.
Over-fermented dough
Now on the other end of the spectrum, you can also over-ferment your dough.
This can happen if the weather is really warm, or the dough has just sat for too long.
An over-proofed dough is when the yeast has created so much gas that the gluten structure cannot hold it anymore. The dough becomes extremely fragile and can collapse. It can make the dough too sticky, unworkable, and nearly impossible to shape.
An over-proofed loaf will not have much oven spring and will bake flat.
Learning to gauge your dough to see when it is ready is something that you will learn over time, and I encourage you to keep practicing and perfecting it. Watch the dough and not the clock.
Well-fermented dough
A well-fermented dough has a much more even crumb once baked. It’s open, lacy, and light, without dense patches.
Below are a few well-fermented doughs.
How wild the crumb is of a well-fermented dough depends on the hydration of the dough as well as the flour type. Wetter doughs will give a wilder and more open crumb, while a dough with lower hydration will have a tighter crumb. Bread made with a lower protein flour, such as all-purpose flour will have slightly less strength and a less open crumb too.
Shaping
The shaping of the dough happens before it goes into the fridge for the cold-proof. It is the shaping that creates a little parcel of dough, with some surface tension, so it holds its shape when it’s baked later on.
How you shape can differ. Ultimately, as long as you create a semi-tight shape (without degassing it too much) and some surface tension by sliding/rolling the dough on a clean bench. A well-shaped loaf is much easier to score.
A dough with a lower hydration level will be much easier to shape than with a higher level.
Unlike folding, you should lightly flour your hands and workspace when shaping the dough so it doesn’t stick and tear. Once the initial shaping is complete, the surface tension rolling should be done on a non-floured part of the bench though or it will just slide around and you won’t create that tightness.
Cold-proof
Once the loaf is shaped, place it in a towel-lined banneton basket (or bowl) that is liberally floured. A well-shaped loaf will be easier to place in the banneton basket and also to remove from the banneton basket in the morning. A well-proofed loaf shouldn’t stick on the floured towel. An over-proofed loaf might, because it can become very wet.
Now the dough undergoes a cold-proof. The yeast action will slow right down during this stage, but the bacteria can now get to work. A cold-proof brings a sour flavour to the bread. It can also give the bread a better oven and spring, making scoring a bit easier as the dough will be firmer.
Baking
I bake my loaves in a hot preheated oven and a preheated cast-iron dutch oven pot. The cast iron holds the heat really well and the dutch oven aspect captures the steam to help get a good oven spring.
After an initially covered bake, the lid is removed and the rest of the loaf can brown up.
You can alternatively use any pot with a lid, or a preheated oven tray alongside a ramekin of water or ice to create steam.
Scoring
Before you bake, scoring your loaf will help direct where the steam bursts from.
Whatever you use for scoring, it needs to be as sharp as possible. I personally only like using fresh razor blades. I either place them in a lame or just hold them.
After a few weeks, they’ll become blunt and I’ll switch it for a new one. Razor blades allow smooth cuts that glide through the dough without pulling at it.
For decorative scoring, it doesn’t need to be deep, about 1/4 cm is good. There should be at least one deep slash in the bread somewhere for the steam to escape, especially in bread with lower hydration. One that is around ½ cm deep.
This designated deep slash will help stop the steam from bursting out of other places.
I usually do a deep slash down the middle of the bread, holding my razor at a slight angle. Then I do the decorative scoring on the other side.
Once it has baked, you should let it cool completely. Warm sourdough can seem slightly gummy, even if the bread was proofed well.
FAQs
This sounds like the bread is under-proofed. A too-short bulk ferment or an immature starter that wasn’t quite ready to bake with can be the cause of an under-proofed dough.
Increasing the hydration can help achieve a more open and wilder crumb, but ensure your starter is not too acidic so it can handle the wet dough. Ensure the dough is properly proofed too.
Taking a picture of the dough at the beginning of the proofing time to compare it at the end can help. Prod the dough with a wet finger. It should leave an indent that fills back out slowly but only about halfway. If it bounces completely, leave it to ferment longer.
Definitely. You can use any pot with a lid that will help create the steam. Alternatively, just use a preheated oven tray and add a ramekin of water or ice cubes to create the steam.
This sounds like the bread is under-proofed. A too-short bulk ferment or an immature starter that wasn’t quite ready to bake with can cause an under-proofed dough. A thick and chewy crust is a tell-tale sign of this.
This issue can be due to over-fermenting. If your dough is proofed for too long, it can lose its structure. In a very warm environment, bulk-fermenting will happen very quickly so it pays to watch your dough and adjust as needed.
I followed your instructions for starter and loaves (learning to watch the dough, not the clock) and have had awesome success. Thank you so much!
That’s awesome! I’m so happy to read this 😀
Amazing! I think I’ve figured out my culprit – acidic starter!
Thank you so much for sharing all this precious information. The recipes are great and sourdough has definitely neen the highlight of my lockdown thsnks to you. Quick question for you: is the dough supposed to rise after cold proofing? I’ve made my starter from scratch and my stsrter seem to be very inactive in the cold.
I’m glad you’re enjoying it! It’s not meant to rise much much once it’s in the fridge. The yeast will be slowed down a lot
I’m a Brazilian mother and I’ve learned a lot with your acknowledge in this quarantine. Thanks for sharing it with us.
I’m so pleased you’ve enjoyed my blog 💚
Hello, Elien! How many hours should the dough stay in the fridge? There is a risk of over-proofed in the fridge? After that, the dough can be placed directly in the oven or it must be left at room temperature for a while?
Hey with my recipe you can keep it in the fridge up to 20 hours and yes placed directly in the oven from the fridge
My bread isn’t “sour “ enough. Doesn’t really taste like sour dough. What can I. Do?
Heya, if you extend the fridge proof time longer, that can help bring out the sour flavour 😊
Hi Elien, your sourdough advice has been a lifesaver for this novice sourdough baker! My loaves aren’t quite there yet, but I don’t think I’m far off. When I feed my starter, do I just take out a bit and then feed it 1:1:1, or do I weigh the whole starter and go from there? Thank you 🙂
Hey that’s great to hear! :). I usually take out a portion and feed that, which keeps the amount manageable. I take out enough to use in my bread + have a little left over to re-feed for the next time.
Hi Elien,
Can you please advise the right feeding ratio or what you would recommend when putting the starter into the fridge until the next bake as I am only baking once a week and worried I am not feeding it correctly. Cheers.
hey 😊 1:2:2 is fine
Hi, would you address “hooch”? What do I do with my starter once it has formed this? It’s been the refrig for about 1 1/2 weeks. The hooch is about 1/2 thick.
Hey I would tip off that hooch and feed the starter. Even though it’s been refrigerated, feed it weekly at least to stop it running out of food and forming the hooch. Or feeding it a higher ratio, such as 1:3:3 could work too, if you want to to keep it in there for longer without feeds.
Does Humidity affect Flour amount and The general feel of the dough??
Why does my sourdough not have a good crust?
Thanks so much, this was very informative!
Awesome post, congrats! I think the flavour of my bread is getting too sour, would it get less sour if I skip the cold proof? I feed it once or twice a week when I’m not using it (keeping it at the fridge), or twice a day before I use it, in a 100% ratio. Or maybe should I use a smaller amount of the starter at the recipe? If you have any suggestions, I’d appreciate that. Thank you for your post!
Hey, I would try and shorten the fridge proof rather than cut it completely, perhaps try one that is only 4-6 hours and see if it’s better 🙂
Hey,I just cannot get my dough to hold its shape. I have tried various recipes and flours and still it’s just a floppy mess. The starter is also perfect,bubbly,boozy and achieving the floater test.
It looks ok up until the first proof ….I place it on the counter with no flour and I cannot get it to get into any semblance of a boule.
Would really appreciate some advice please?
Hey Anita, I’m not sure what recipes you’ve tried or how you feed your starter but I would take a look at the starter. It might be too acidic. It can still look bubbly and rise well but it can ruin the structure of the dough when too much acid is present. Feeding a starter with only a small amount of seed starter each time can help
Great advice here. And I too have had a dense crumb that I’m working through. But the bread tastes very nice.
When I make the starter used in the recipe, it comes from the original starter I have had from the beginning. I keep it in the fridge in a closed plastic container. When I remove 1/2 cup of starter for making the mixture of starter, flour and water for the recipe, I have a lot of starter left over. I have been just mixing that unused starter back into the original batch of starter. I don’t feed it or do anything until I get ready for another batch of bread making. Is this not a good practice to just add the “discard” back into the other already discarded starter and put back in the fridge? Otherwise, I’d be discarding all that original starter and then beginning a new starter again and again. Some say to make pancakes or whatever. I never do. I just keep it in there until I need it again for bread (usually once a week). And I don’t feed it inbetween.
Trying to understand why I need to discard the original starter every time.
Hey that large starter jar you are saving will be very acidic, which can be the reason for your dense crumb. I save only a little bit of seed starter each time to keep the acid content nice and low. As mentioned in the post above, too much acid can affect the structure of the bread.
This post is great! Thank you. I’ve been baking sourdough bread for years with a 100% Whole Rye Starter. In January this year, my starter developed too much white yeast on the top so I chucked it and started over. I haven’t been able to recreate a good starter and it has been like 5 attempts. While my starter seems active now, (it rises after 4-6 hours), but it doesn’t really fall back down it just stays. My bulk fermentation doesn’t rise like it used to. It would easily tripple over night before. Now it doesn’t change that much. My dough get very gummy and the air easily escapes during the shaping phase. It sounds like based on this post that my start might be too acidic. In the past, while my starter did smell a bit fruity, I had no issues baking with it. Do you have other recommendations? Could there be other factors at play or are these issues indicators that my starter is bad? Do I have to create a new starter? Could there be a bad bacteria that is not allowing the good bacteria to settle in? Thank you!
Hey Anne-Marie, I would be inclined to give the starter a few extra feeds in a day and watch how it closely to see if it’s rising steadily and collapsing. A 1:1:1 feed, in a clean jar with a rubber band tied around it to show where the starter rises from. Sometimes a starter doesn’t collapse heavily when it has peaked so it can be hard to see. It might just cave slightly in the middle, or you may see small marks around the edges of the jar from where it used to come up to.
A 1:1:1 feed is good for quick feeds to activate a starter but then when baking bread a feed with less seed starter such as 1:2:2 or 1:3:3 if it’s warm will give a slower steadier rise with less risk of collapse.
Hi!
New sourdough baker here and everything seems great except I’m having a problem with the crust. After baking it seems crunchy, but once I allow it to cool for 2 hours before slicing it loses all of its crunch. Any ideas on what I’m doing wrong?
Thank you so much!
Hey that’s actually very normal for a sourdough to do that as it cools, because of the moisture in there. To get the crust crispy again you can brush the cold loaf with a little water and pop it in a hot oven to recrisp for 5-10 minutes or so.
I can’t seem to find an answer to my question anywhere but after reading about the starter here, you may know the answer…
My starter is fed a 1:2:2 (using 20g starter) at night. In the mid afternoon I give him a good stir to get some oxygen in to him and it seems to boost him. He rises a lot afterwards! I have baked once with him after this rise (remembering he was fed the night before!) when he had peaked and it worked out really well. The bread was my best!
So, my question is why does just giving him a stir make him come back to life and rise again? Is this normal? I can’t find anywhere in the internet that helps me with this question.
He is 4 months old and is going strong.
Hey, here’s my opinion, (though I’m no scientist!), it’s just my thoughts :). I think when you’re stirring your starter you’re redistributing some of the food in the starter and deflating it will give the gluten in the starter more strength to expand again, the same way that you punch down a bread dough after the first rise, and then let it rise again. If your starter rises after stirring that’s awesome, there was obviously food left for the yeast!
duriing bulk ferment – what if I do the finger poke and the hole remains after 2 hours ferment and the dough is real tight?
just re read my question. Hope it makes sense? I mean after bulk fermenting for 2 hours, I have a really tight dough and when I poke the dough, the hole remains. I reduced the hydration a bit. . . . 8%? Could that possibly be the issue?
The finger test isn’t always accurate, and if you say the dough feels tight it sounds not ready yet. I would look for a rise in the dough instead
Do you discard every time you feed your starter?
Yup I do, you can read more about how I feed my starter here
Hi Eileen. Thank you for your informative article. I am a relatively new sourdough baker. My last attempt produced a gummy, dense loaf after having better luck previously. Little was changed. Here are my questions: First, I use a 1-2-2 ratio for my 4 week old starter with half the flour white and half rye. It doubles around 4 hours and peaks and triples around 6+ hours. When is the better time to use it, 4 or 6 hours, to reduce my risk of gumminess? Secondly, after 4 sets of folds at the start of the bulk ferment, the dough barely rose at all. 10 hours in and it had expanded around 20%. I even had a crust forming on the top. I was pretty sure that dense gumminess awaited and I was right. Thoughts? Thanks!
Wonderful, informative article. I’ve been baking sourdough since 2012. The bread has always been good, and so I have hesitated tinkering with it. During the pandemic, however, I started watching a lot of YouTube videos showing bread with a texture that was more open and consistent than mine. (Better opening and ears too!) I’m just now beginning to tinker with some changes, and your article has been the most helpful resource I’ve found, so … thanks so much for it.
I see your URL is from New Zealand. I’m from the U.S., but I lived in NZ for two years in the 1970s. (North Island: Auckland, Hamilton, Tauranga) Wonderful country; great people. I hope to return for a visit someday.
Hey Earl, so happy you found the article helpful! Very cool you lived in NZ for a bit too 🙂 it’s such a beautiful place
Hi Ellen! I’m making progress with my sourdough baking but when I first baked a loaf the crust was super flavorful. Haven’t had another one since. What influences the flavor of the crust? Thank you!!!
Hey Janet! Flavor of crust I think has a lot to do with the baking time and temp, and I personally love a very dark brown crust for ultimate flavor. But texture plays a big part too- A well-proofed dough will have a thin crust, that’s crispy and flaky when hot but when it the bread cools, it softens. It’s easy to cut through. An under-proofed dough will create a thicker crust. It still tastes good, however it’s very difficult to cut through and once the bread cools and the crisp goes, an underproofed bread crust will be thick and very chewy and harder to bite through.
Thank you for your very clear instructions. Made the most perfect bread thanks to you. I had been trying for a long time but never was I as successful as now, using your recipe. Question: if I make a levain with a 1:3:3 ratio, (as opposed to 1:2:2) do I still use a total of 150 grams as specified in your recipe?
Oh thats great to hear!! And yup you still want to keep the total amount the same 🙂
I can’t wait to try your recipe but I have a couple of questions:
How long do you let the flour and water sit on the bench?
After adding the starter and salt do you let it rest before starting the folds?
Thank you!
I’m new to baking and thought I was doing pretty good til I started putting inclusions into my bread, Parmesan cheese and Everything Bagel, not together, separate loaves.
My plain loaves were big and the crust nice 😊
I started putting Parmesan cheese in my dough and they are so small. Even with Everything Bagel. They still taste good. lol!
I’m perplexed.
I’m going to make a plain loaf tomorrow to see if it rises.
I appreciate any help and advice.
Thank you
Sometimes, the addition of inclusions could slow the fermentation process, so I would double-check that it’s proofed enough. At what stage are you adding your inclusions?
Hi
I’m new to sour dough!
Mine is too dense with no holes… tastes nice but too heavy. Please help, thank you!