My sourdough journey just came to a pinocle learning point recently. I always have fairly great success with my sourdough breads, except for the last batch I made. (This proves that we are always learning). My sourdough starter was slowly growing recently, as I wanted it to, just taking it easy. Until I decided that I wanted some bread, so I fed it the day before and got started. As the title proves, and this long intro, it did not go as planned. Dense sourdough bread is our topic today, let’s dive into it.
As I created the dough it became harder and harder to mix and knead. As I let it rest throughout the day and kneaded it more the more sense it became. I let it sit in a warm environment for six hours and came back to the same dough. No rising occurred, no bubbles were present. It wasn’t over kneaded, I had no clue what went wrong. This made me reach out to a friend of a friend who is a sourdough expert and this is what she gave me. So if you are having the same issues keep reading.
Why is your sourdough bread dense?
There is many reasons it could be dense, but I am covering a specific reason that isn’t mentioned enough. Other causes are over kneading for example, this is a very common one.
BUT the one I am covering today: your actual sourdough starter may be the problem and many hints lie within my introduction paragraph.
The yeast in this particular bread type is the sourdough itself, so many problems can begin with your starter. I thought mine was healthy, growing lively with every passing day, smelt amazing, and had lots of little bubbles- but maybe not as many as it needed or as good as it could be.
That’s right. There was simply not enough life in my starter yet to make a successful product out of it. If you read back you may catch my descriptive words “growing” “little bubbles” “taking it slow”.
Just because it was healthy, just because it had lots of little bubbles, just because it was growing didn’t mean it was ready to be used. Starters are like many living things, there is a perfect time to use it and a waiting time before that.
Roses aren’t in bloom year round and don’t grow in one day. This is exactly the same as sourdough starters. It may have signs of life and growth but this doesn’t mean you can use it yet to create goods.
Let’s dive a little deeper- using pictures.
This is an example picture from my recent issue with my starter. Clearly it wasn’t ready to create a beautiful loaf. Now check out the picture below to see what it should have looked like.
So how do I know whether or not my sourdough starter is ready to use?
To keep it simple, it should be An extremely heightened version of the starter I used. Lots of bubbles, and large ones. Very potent sourdough smell. Lots of growth and fluctuation as temperatures change.
The picture on the left for example, would be way more likely to create a better log than the one on the right. Bubbles of different sizes all over the surface compared to the one on the right which looks extremely smaller and less fermented.
Even with time the one on the left would grow larger bubbles and more activity which would make it more likely to create a far better loaf. The picture on the right will grow to be the same but is not ready yet.
With these points in mind, if you are having this same issue be sure to feed your starter often and within a few days to a week it will be far beyond ready to use, which will create amazing breads and goodies!
Anymore questions or concerns let us know in the comments! Thanks you for reading!
