Get the Perfect Rise on Your Sourdough With This Ballerina Farm Recipe - Blend of Bites (2024)

FAQs

How to get a good rise on sourdough bread? ›

Use Warm Water to Control The Temperature. If the weather is cold and your dough won't budge, please use warm water during the initial mixing phase. It will help to jumpstart the rising process. I actually use warm water 90% of the time when making dough (I tend to use cooler water in the summer).

If your sourdough starter not rising, there are a few things that could be causing the issue. First, make sure you have the right ingredients. While most starters are made with white flour, adding some whole-wheat or rye flour can help your starter rise. Also, make sure you're using active yeast and fresh ingredients.

If your starter gets completely covered on top with bubbles but does not rise, it is healthy but may just be a wet mix. Try reducing the water in your next feeding and see if you have different results. Also, the type of flour you are using can impede the rise of your starter.

Why didn't my sourdough bread rise? Don't worry– it happens to the best of us. When sourdough bread dough doesn't rise, it's usually because the starter you used wasn't active enough. To remedy this problem, make sure you're using recently fed, active starter with lots of bubbles.

Create a score that's wide enough and deep enough to allow your bread to rise - your essential cut should be at least ¼ to ½-inch deep and should be large enough to allow your bread to rise fully. If you fail to score your dough enough, your bread may burst.

A warm spot in your kitchen is the best place for bread dough to rise. Try to find a place that's between 75°F and 78°F (24°C and 25°C) to encourage strong sourdough fermentation.

Higher hydration is important to ensure a more open crumb in your sourdough bread. However, there is a misconception that you need to have a super high hydration in order to achieve it. Hydration above 70% should get you a more open crumb. Anything under 70% will be harder to achieve this.

It is important that you stir the sourdough starter every day in the morning and in the evening. Feed the starter. Add 60 g flour and 60 g lukewarm water, stir well to combine, and let sit out for 24 hours.

A sourdough starter may take up to 12 hours or longer to rise your bread dough. This can be really overwhelming for a new sourdough baker, but you don't actually need to be around while your wild yeast are doing their thing. Once you are more experienced, you'll be able to set and forget.

As long as your starter is doubling (or even tripling) in a timely manner after being fed, the size of the bubbles don't really matter too much. What you're looking for is activity and fermentation. Bubbles of any kind are an indication that this is happening inside your jar.

How do I know if I killed my sourdough starter? ›

Keep feeding your starter, and you'll see normal activity (bubbles) return in a few days. If your starter has a bit of dark liquid on top, it's not dead! It simply means it's hungry and that it's time to feed it. Unless your starter has a pink or orange hue or is beginning to mold, you probably haven't killed it yet.

If your starter has never predictably grown to double its original size after feeding it, then it's not an active starter. But if you follow a proven sourdough starter plan/recipe, it should only take you about a week or more to achieve an active starter.

Check how much starter you're using

So if you'd like to increase the speed at which your dough rises, try using a little more bubbly starter to make up your dough. This is one of the key things I taught in my recent membership club online class about baking sourdough bread.

But almost as good as a proofing box is taking a Mason jar filled halfway up with water, microwaving it for two minutes, then putting your bowl of dough into the microwave with the jar to rise. The other thing you can do is place your lidded container or bowl of dough into a second, larger bowl of warm water.

If you don't want to put the dough in the fridge for a cold ferment, you can leave it to proof on the counter for a little while. You do need to be careful not to let it over ferment. Ideally, you want the temperature to be on the cooler side (no more than 21C / 69.8F). Let the dough relax into the banneton.

Keeping the lid on for the first part of baking allows steam to expand between the gluten fibers to rise the bread and create a fluffy loaf. Step 4: Remove the lid and bake for an additional 12-14 minutes or until the crust is crispy and golden brown. Once you take the lid off, the bread likely won't rise anymore.

Cover the bowl with wrap or a very damp kitchen cloth. Let rest in a warm spot to rise. The dough is ready when it no longer looks dense and has doubled in size. This can take anywhere from 3-12 hours depending on the temperature of your ingredients, the potency of your starter and surrounding environment.

Note: As loaves begin to overproof they lose their height and shape. The crumb becomes more dense. The holes become more ragged and irregular in shape. The crust begins to thin and separate from the crumb.