After a couple of years of feeling proud that every single loaf of sourdough I make turns out beautifully and tastes delicious, recently my boules are flat and dense and their flavor is lackluster. My starter is behaving normally and is big and bubbly at the time I mix it into my loaf, so I'm perplexed. I did mess up the proportions while feeding my starter a while back, absentmindedly, but I assumed I fixed it by adding more/less flour or more/less water until it looked right again. From everything I've read about how hard it is to kill a starter, and from what I know about how a healthy, ready-to-use starter looks and acts, it really seems my starter is okay. What can I do to get a better rise and tangier flavor again? Thanks in advance!
June 2, 2022 at 6:52am
After a couple of years of feeling proud that every single loaf of sourdough I make turns out beautifully and tastes delicious, recently my boules are flat and dense and their flavor is lackluster. My starter is behaving normally and is big and bubbly at the time I mix it into my loaf, so I'm perplexed. I did mess up the proportions while feeding my starter a while back, absentmindedly, but I assumed I fixed it by adding more/less flour or more/less water until it looked right again. From everything I've read about how hard it is to kill a starter, and from what I know about how a healthy, ready-to-use starter looks and acts, it really seems my starter is okay. What can I do to get a better rise and tangier flavor again? Thanks in advance!