Sourdough is a beautiful, amazing, and healthy cooking method.
It brings me so. much. joy.
I love it.
Yet, I know it can be a struggle and a challenge.
If you’re experiencing challenges with it, the cause is usually something very simple you can tweak or change.
So instead of throwing in the towel on sourdough and giving up forever…
Instead of sourdough being a struggle and a drain…
Take a look at these 7 common sourdough mistakes. And if you’re making any of them, stop. Just stop. 🙂
Success with sourdough is just on the other side!
Which of these mistakes are you making? What common sourdough mistakes would you add to this list? Please share in the comments!
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7 Sourdough Mistakes You Might Be Making
These are common sourdough mistakes I see over and over (and I have made them, too). What would you add? Be sure to share in the comments!
1. Thinking it’s too complicated.
The sourdough starter’s needs are pretty simple… it needs food, water, warmth, and air.
Same with dough.
If you focus on these things, the rest often falls into place.
Here are free instructions for starting your own sourdough starter. And here is an explanation of the sourdough starter’s simple needs.
2. Not keeping your starter or dough warm enough.
If your starter isn’t showing much activity, if your dough isn’t rising… it’s usually a case of the starter/dough not being warm enough.
Perhaps it’s in a drafty location or a cool room. Move it, wrap it in towels, put it on the refrigerator or freezer, move it near the fireplace.
You’ll be amazed what warmth will do for it’s health and happiness… and your results!
3. Not keeping your starter thick enough.
We like to feed our sourdough starter so it’s a bit on the thick side. If it’s thick, it shows you better how active and strong it is. If it’s too thin, it might very well be active, but you can’t see it. So thicken up your starter (feed a bit more flour than water) and then you’ll really be able to tell how active it is!
4. Not feeding your starter often enough.
Look, if you want a strong starter (so it makes awesome bread), you’ve got to feed it often enough so the culture stays strong. Those organisms die back without food.
And often enough means — 2 times per a day. During warm weather, 3 times per day.
If you know you’re going to have a big bread baking session, then even with normal weather, feed it 3 times per day in the days leading up to the baking day so it’s extra strong. It will perform better for you!
5. Trying recipes that are too hard.
If you’re just beginning or you are busy and just need easy, dependable, delicious bread — why do hard recipes?
Sourdough English muffins make the best bread and they’re sooooo easy. Here’s the recipe.
Or, what about no-knead bread? (I make this a couple times a week and it takes 15 minutes total of easy hands-on time!) Here’s my easy free recipe.
In general, you want to cultivate a set of recipes — for those busy or low energy times — that don’t rise too much. In other words, almost anything but your typical sandwich bread.
6. Thinking you have to “wait”.
With traditional cooking, we’re mixing flour and starter and then waiting 7 to 8 hours or overnight for the starter to fully prepare the additional flour for digestion and nutrition.
Yet, you don’t always have to wait.
Not if the flour of the recipe comes in the form of sourdough starter (where it’s already soured).
Thus — what I call “no wait sourdough” and you can hear more about it on Know Your Food episode #106.
7. Thinking it’s all sour.
Sourdough doesn’t have to be! Here are 6 tips for “not sour” sourdough.
Links Mentioned
- How to make a sourdough starter (free instructions)
- Simple needs of a sourdough starter
- Sourdough English muffins recipe
- No-Knead Einkorn Sourdough (free recipe)
- “No Wait” Sourdough
- 6 Tips For “Not Sour” Sourdough
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You probably hear this all the time, Wardee… My starter is doing its thing! I’m so excited since this is my first time. First few days of my starter it didn’t look like it was working, but I kept feeding it and stirring it and on this day, third day, I have an active sourdough starter. So happy! Thank you for these podcasts on sourdough and the ebook, ‘Sourdough Recipes A to Z’. ????????????
Those are supposed to be hearts at the end of my comment, not a bunch of question marks, lol.
Yay! 🙂
Thanks Wardee!
I’m going to start implementing making a thicker starter & keeping the starter warm. I tried about a year ago to culture my own starter & it didn’t make it. Recently I purchased a live starter & it’s surviving, but your tips will definitely help my starter out.
Thank you again!
Celena ~ Great! I hope those 2 things help out a lot! Let me know, ok?
Thank you so much for including text for those of us who learn better from reading than from watching videos, either because we can get the message faster by reading or–in my case–because hearing disabilities make podcasts difficult and stressful. Thanks, Wardee!
Warden, something smells in my kitchen.. Not a good smell… I m trying the starter over again… Ugh that what smells, it smells rotten not yeasty like the last time.. What ami doing wrong?
Maybe it is just my imagination ? But even when I keep it warm in the winter, it isn’t always happy . ..
I am wondering how big a place HUMIDITY plays a role. I’ve noticed when I add a bit of humidity to my room in the winter (very dry here in the winter. . .around 20% or 30% relative humidity naturally) it takes off.
In the summer the humidity can be around 90% . . .
Has anyone else noticed this ?
Hi Genet,
Interesting!
Hmmm, interesting point: San Francisco is on the water. Its relative humidity is high–it’s not typically noticed, but it’s always there, and of course, SF is famous for it’s sourdough. Me thinks you’re right.
You’ve convinced me to try making sourdough again. I gave it up a couple years ago, after about 6 months of fun (for me) experimenting and many more failures (in the opinion of my family – I thought it was all amazing) than successes – to go on GAPS, which bans grains entirely. But giving up bread completely was too miserable, so I have totally been cheating. It’s probably better for me to make the healthiest bread I can, and eat it on a regular basis, than to break down and order a 12-grain bagel from the Tim Horton’s drive-thru.
Hi Warder,
I see you recommend keeping starter warm when making bread but I’m just taking a break for a little while and just trying to slow down its growth for a little time, so how long can I store it in fridge without it going of. I know I must still feed it at least once a week….
Also is there any tips on helping gluten free sour dough to rise…
Thanks ????
Hi Anna,
You can keep a starter in the fridge for an extended length of time when taking out to feed weekly. To help with rise in GF starter: Use the boosted sourdough starter (where you add water kefir or kombucha). Also keeping it warm (after taking out of the fridge and feeding)& making sure it as at the active domed state when using will help.
I have a question, I’m on day 8 of my current sourdough starter and I’m wondering how to know when I can safely go from discarding and feeding half at each feeding to doing the smaller maintenance feedings of a couple tbsp of flour (and water). I had never heard of that before and I think it will help me stick with sourdough long term, but I don’t want to harm my starter by switching to smaller feeds too soon. How will I know when it’s mature enough to switch? It’s coming along very nicely, quite bubbly within a couple hours of feeding (made yummy pancakes with it this morning). I don’t like eating bread products every day so I’m hoping I can start the maintenance feedings soon so I don’t have to start eating bready stuff twice a day to keep from wasting flour lol.
Hi Amanda,
You’ll want to give your starter a few weeks of twice daily feedings. You can make these small feedings if you wish. After it’s a few weeks old, you can move to the fridge and take out to feed at least one time per week and/or use.
Millie
Traditional Cooking School
Oh so I can start the smaller feedings already? Great! Thank you 🙂
Hi Amanda,
You can. Keep an eye on your starter and make sure it is responding well to the smaller feedings. You may need to remove starter still and/or give a larger feeding if your starter seems to need it. Have fun!
I hope someone can help! So in the hurry of this morning I accidently mixed in ALL my starter w the eggs,suger,and BS and salt.I realized half way thru, and saved half a cup and mixed in even parts water and flour.
Have I killed my starter? Or will it mold now? I will be so sad if I ruined it! It took me so long to finally get a strong starter going. Any one else done this and salvaged their starter?
Hi Stacy,
It should be fine. Keep that amount reserved and feed it regularly and it should be fine. 🙂
Millie
Traditional Cooking School
Hello I’m new to sourdough bread I’ve eaten it while eating in restaurants and love it so have been trying to make it at home now I have got a lovey stater one rye 2 one spelt and 3 strong white the rye starter I think is the strongest as you can see the most bubbles feed twice a day . The trouble I’m having is trying to get to window pain stage no matter how long or short I need the dough am I making to thicker dough please help if any idea would be much appreciated kind regards Chris
Hi Chris,
What kind of flour are you using for the bread – same as the starter? It will be harder to get a window pane with spelt or rye. We’re not sure we’d rely too much on that test with ancient grains — we’d more look at the outcome. 🙂
Millie
Traditional Cooking School Support
Thanks for the tip using baking soda to sweeten and neutralize the dough somewhat. I tried to make sourdough several times and did but because of an ongoing problem with really bad heartburn for twenty years, I could not eat the sourdough bread. Same with kombucha and other ferments I have tried. I will start a starter again in the hope I can use it.
I’m on day 16 of my first starter. The first few days I had decent rise and bubbles, and I have a nice sour smell, but now, though I get some bubbles, I’m getting little to no rise. So I have bacteria, but no yeasts? I’m diligently feeding 2X daily, using whole wheat flour. Anything else I should do? Thanks!
Hi Sara,
How’s your temperature? New starters tend to do better being slightly warm. Some suggestions; the oven with the light on (be careful not to preheat while the starter is in the oven), near a warm appliance such as a crockpot, near a heater/furnace/woodstove, by your satellite or cable box.
~Millie, TCS Customer Success Team
Millie, I’ve been keeping it on my counter next to the refrigerator where it gets a nice blast of warm air from the rear of it. Good news is that I now have yeast! 2 days in a row now it’s risen double it’s size. I think I had it too thin, perhaps and wasn’t stirring the water in vigorously, but it’s now good! Which does lead to my next question. I have basically 1 cup of starter now. If a recipe calls for 2 cups or 3 cups of starter, what is the proper way to double / triple it? I presume don’t dump before feeding and feed additional water/flour, but is that correct, and how long to let the starter get to “ready to go”? Thanks so much for the help. I’m so excited to make my first sourdough treats!
Hi Sara,
Wonderful! I’m glad you are seeing so much action.
You can feed up your starter to use for recipes. You can feed as much as triple the amount of starter. So if you have 1 cup starter you could feed 3 cups flour and a little less water (to keep it nice and thick). Sometimes for large batch baking you’ll need to build your starter over the course of a couple of days.
Enjoy all of the wonderful sourdough treats you’ll be making. 🙂
~Millie, TCS Customer Success Team
I need some help troubleshooting! My starter was doing well, about 2 weeks in. It had a slow start so I haven’t used it in a recipe yet. But it began showing signs of good activity after I moved it into the oven with the light on (really bubbly and doubling in size within a few hours). So I stopped discarding half and just began adding the 1/4 cup water and 3/8 cup flour. But when I started running out of room in my jar, I moved it to a bigger Mason jar and upped the dosage of water to 1/2 cup and just about 2/3 cup of flour. I had about 2 cups of starter when I upped the amount of water/flour. And after that, it stopped doubling in size, even though it’s still in the oven with the light on! It does still bubble, although not as much as before (mainly on top instead of throughout) and it does rise, a little, but definitely far from doubling in size. The only thing I can think of is that when it was in a smaller Mason jar, it was closer to the light in the oven, and now that it’s in a bigger jar, I had to move my rack down to fit the jar, so it’s probably not as warm, even though it still is pretty warm in there. The jar definitely still feels warm, but slightly cooler than when I had the smaller jar in there. Any thoughts/suggestions?
Hi, Kate: Less warmth could be one factor. Also, there’s more flour and water for the sourdough culture to work through, so it might take longer. And moving it to a different jar might had affected it, too — especially if the new jar wasn’t sterile and the culture is competing with any other organisms. I would keep feeding it regularly, stirring it vigorously, and keep an eye on it. Check the smell, too, to make sure it’s not off. Hope it’s soon bubbly and doubling again! —Sonya, TCS Customer Success Team
Thank you for your thoughts! That’s really encouraging. What is a good amount of water/flour to feed it now? Should I start discarding half again while I’m trying to get it active again?
Yes, I would continue to disguard half. This is an important step if you’re trying to get your starter active again. I’d continue with 1/4 cup water and 3/8 cup flour.
~Danielle, TCS Customer Success Team