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Sourdough: tips, advice and troubleshooting

Here’s how to fix some problems that might occur when you make your sourdough, as well as some advice for optimizing its use.

Inactive Sourdough

You bought your dehydrated sourdough a few days ago. Even after you carefully follow our method, it still doesn’t seem very active; it produces hardly any bubbles, or none at all…

Check the temperature of the room its sitting in. Too cool an environment can slow the process down. It also sometimes happens that the sourdough may need a little more time to fully wake up. In that case you can repeat stage 4 of our method by keeping 25 g of the mixture and feeding it with 100 g of flour and 100 g of water.

A coating of liquid on the sourdough

When sourdough is not suitably fed, a coating of brownish or black liquid may form on top of it. That doesn’t mean that your sourdough is finished. Just mix everything with a spoon or a fork. Once it’s well mixed, all you need to do is feed your sourdough once again for a recipe to be made 12 hours later.

My sourdough gives off a smell of alcohol or nail polish

It’s a sign that your sourdough’s hungry! Just put aside 25 g, add 100 g of flour and 100 g of water. That should have it back in top shape.

In general, freshly fed sourdough needs 12 hours to be ready for use in a recipe. At that point it will start to produce bubbles. In certain cases, it might be ready sooner (in warmer temperatures, for example).

Appearance of mold

It’s extremely rare for mold to form, since the yeasts and bacteria in sourdough that’s in good shape fight them off, but all the same it’s possible.

If the infected area is minimal and well defined, remove it, feed your sourdough, and observe it well. If the mold has disappeared and the sourdough seems normal, then you’ve saved it!

If the mold is too widespread, you’re better off throwing out the whole thing and starting over from the beginning with a new sourdough.

  1. Pizza dough recipe

    Posted By: boulangeriedesroAdmin on October 19, 10:45 AM

    Here’s a pizza dough easy to make at home with just 4 ingredients. A guaranteed success that will be enjoyed by your guests and your family. Ingredients Sourdough at room temperature, fed 12 hours earlier 124g Water at room temperature 300g White flour 495g Salt 11g Preparation In a bowl, mix the sourdough and water […]

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  2. Spelt bread recipe

    Posted By: boulangeriedesroAdmin on October 19, 10:35 AM

    Here’s a recipe based on white flour and spelt flour. This low-gluten cereal was one of the first domesticated by man. Ingredients Room-temperature sourdough, fed 12 hours earlier. 200g Water at room temperature 510g White flour 580g Spelt flour 240g Salt 20g Preparation In a bowl, mix the sourdough and water together by hand. Add […]

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  3. Making a success of your miches and baguettes

    Posted By: boulangeriedesroAdmin on October 19, 10:29 AM

    Here’s some advice that will help you succeed in making the dough and in cooking your homemade sourdough bread in the form of miches (a round bread) or baguettes. Working the dough In most recipes you’ll be asked to knead the dough. However, at Boulangerie Desrosiers, we prefer to have the dough “work by itself.” […]

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  4. Using and conserving your sourdough

    Posted By: boulangeriedesroAdmin on October 19, 10:20 AM

    Once your sourdough is activated, you can use it in a recipe. Obviously it can be used to bake bread, but also crepes, biscuits, pizza dough, and so on. Don’t forget to keep a portion for later use. Optimizing use of your sourdough Use a scale to weigh out your ingredients. You’ll get better results, […]

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  5. How to activate your sourdough

    Posted By: boulangeriedesroAdmin on October 18, 3:09 PM

    Here you are on the point of activating your sourdough. You’ll see that the process is very simple and will only take a few minutes a day. Once it’s ready, your sourdough will enable you to make extraordinary bread and a number of other recipes (pizza dough, crepes, biscuits…). Moreover, you’ll be able to keep […]

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  6. Starting out in the world of sourdough

    Posted By: boulangeriedesroAdmin on October 17, 4:42 PM

    Starting out in the world of sourdough Thinking you’d like to start producing your own homemade bread? Here’s some information to help you appreciate the interest in sourdough, and what differentiates slow-fermentation breads. Sourdough is a symbiotic mixture of wild yeast and good bacteria that transform flour, and in so doing produce more digestible breads. […]

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