I’ve been trying out my new island-grown sourdough starter by baking some Queen B sourdough bread. It tastes great: the new starter has a definite tang that I really like. Unfortunately, it doesn’t rise nearly as much as I’d like, resulting in a rather dense loaf.
I tried things:
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The first loaf I made, I did in a hurry. I did let the starter percolate overnight, but I only let the loaf rise for three hours. With Carl’s starter, I did much better when I let it rise overnight. We’re still using a propane oven with pilot lights, so I can set the starter on the stove to keep it warm, and let the dough rise in the warm oven.
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The next loaf, I didn’t let the starter sit out overnight, but I did let the dough rise overnight. It was slightly better, but not nearly good enough.
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This last loaf, I let the starter run overnight on top of the warm stove, then let the bread rise overnight in the warm oven. The resulting loaf had a marvelous flavor, but was still far too dense.
At this point, I have to face the fact that the active agents in this particular starter produce lots of interesting-tasting short-chain organic molecules, but not a lot of CO2. I will have to try again, but since it takes most of ten days to get a new batch going, I think I’ll hang on to this one for the taste but add some active yeast to the bread to get some rise until I grow a better batch of starter.
—2p