Finally nailed my sourdough starter after 3 months of flat loaves

I have been trying to get a good sourdough starter going since last fall and every loaf came out like a frisbee. Then I went to a small baking demo at the local library in Eugene last month. The woman running it said most home bakers keep their starter too cold and feed it too much flour. She showed us how to keep it at a steady 78 degrees using a simple heating pad under the jar. I tried her method and within a week my starter was doubling in size. Last weekend I baked my first loaf with a real oven spring and an open crumb. It felt like a real victory after so many failures. Has anyone else found that temperature makes a bigger difference than feeding schedule?

2 comments

2 Comments

leo60313d ago

A heating pad under the jar just sounds like overkill to me... my starter lives on the counter at whatever room temp is and it's fine. 78 degrees seems like you're babying it way too much. I've had flat loaves before but usually it was because my starter was too young or my flour was old, not the temperature. Three months of flat bread means something else was off, not just the temp.

nancyd8512d ago

78 degrees and still flat, ouch, that's a special kind of failure.