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Sourdough Bread Baking Tips

Recipe Link: http://joejaworski.com/breadfaq.htm

List of Ingredients




What am I doing wrong?


My bread rises, but it does so horizontally, resulting in a very flat loaf. Other than this, the bread is tasty.

You've got everything right except the water content of the dough. Simply add more flour. If you're using a KitchenAid stand mixer, after a while you should not have any dough sticking to the bowl, especially at the bottom center of the bowl. If you see a small glob of dough at the bottom, your dough is too wet. If this is not the problem, try kneading the dough longer. When you think you kneaded enough, knead it 5 minutes more.

As a last resort, add 1/8 tsp per 3 cups of flour of ascorbic acid (Vitamin C in its raw form). You can purchase this at any larger health food store. This ingredient is used by commercial bread bakeries and stabilizes the dough, preventing it from flattening.




My bread rises, but then it falls during baking.

You have left out the salt or have not added enough of it. Salt actually retards rising slightly, but also prevents a risen loaf from falling. I routinely use 3/4 to 1 tsp of salt for every 3 cups of flour.




My bread just doesn't seem to rise properly. It turns brown and gets a crust before its time. It just doesn't look like a store bought loaf.

Several things can cause this. Make sure you catch your sponge at it peak, which will help to rise the bread more. Set the oven to 325 degrees for the first 15 minutes, which will give the yeast a little more time to produce carbon dioxide (bubbles in the bread) before it dies. Get some ascorbic acid and add a hefty pinch (about 1/8 tsp) to the dough. This is very helpful, especially if the starter yeast is not that active.




My bread is not chewy enough.

Just like the amount of sourness, the chewy texture is a function of time. The longer the dough has before baking, the more chewy the bread. Try this. After the initial rise in the bowl, punch it down then refrigerate the dough overnight in a plastic baggie. The next day, remove the dough, form the loaves, and let it rise all afternoon before baking.




My bread is not crispy enough.

This is easy to fix. After the bread is done baking, turn the oven off and leave the bread in the oven for 30 to 60 minutes. However, If you see the crust start to crack, you should remove it sooner since this is a good indication of an extremely crispy crust.




I slash the top of the bread, but my knife tears and stretches the loaf.

Use a very sharp serrated knife. Run it under the tap (so the knife is wet) before each slash. Some people have good success using a wet razor blade (in France, this is mounted to a holder and called a Lame, pronounced lam). Also, try spraying the loaf with water. But be careful- too much water will flatten out the loaf.




Okay, I tried everything, but my bread just doesn't rise enough.

Try adding 1 teaspoon of diastatic malt to your recipe. Diastatic malt breaks down the starch in dough to yield sugars on which the yeast can feed more efficiently. Commercial sourdough bakers use this ingredient all the time. You can get this stuff on the web from the King Arthur Flour Company. As a last resort, you could substitute refined sugar (honey is better), though this will probably ruin the sour taste and chewy texture. Also, ascorbic acid (included as part of many commercial yeast recipes) does wonders for activating yeast. If you add vital wheat gluten (1-2 tsp per 3 cups of flour) your bread will rise a lot, again at the cost of flavor. Again, The best solution is a drier dough and a longer rise time, but you should also experiment with these added ingredients.




My bread is not sour enough.

The sour taste is usually function of time. The longer you let the bread rise, the more sour the taste. If the yeast culture is very active and you simply can't let it rise any longer, increase the amount of Rye flour in the sponge. Rye flour will dramatically increase the sour character of any dough. Dark rye flours work best. Another trick is to let the sponge go past its peak before using it. If the yeast is active enough, you should still be able to get a good rise. The sponge gets very, very sour after it peaks.




My bread doesn't brown properly or is not very crispy.

Not enough steam during baking. During the first 20 minutes of baking, keeping the bread in a humid environment is very critical. European french ovens have large steam tubes that humidify the oven during the initial stages of baking. You need to duplicate this using a spray bottle and a small bowl or plate of water set on the bottom of the oven.




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