Hi William, I'm so sorry for the delay in responding to your question! I doubt the issue you describe has anything to do with your starter or how clean your crock is (scraping down the sides after a feeding is generally just fine, with an occasional more thorough cleaning). However, if your starter maintenance routine doesn't call for at least a few "revival" feedings at room temperature after refrigeration and before baking, you may find that this improves the way your starter performs in your bread baking, particularly when it comes to the rise.
I suspect that the problems you've been having lately have more to do with the dough being a bit over fermented by the time you go to shape it; the sticky/wet dough that seems to suddenly lack structure could well be a sign of the type of dough deterioration that occurs with over fermentation. Warmer weather may be causing your doughs to ferment faster, and different types of flour ferment at different rates, with whole grain flours fermenting faster than white flour. In addition, if your flour combination includes a "weaker" flour that doesn't develop as much gluten structure, this can make for a wetter dough that lacks structure throughout the process. Paying close attention to dough temperature should be helpful here, and if your flour combinations include a significant percentage of lower protein flours, upping the protein level with our organic bread flour might make for a stronger dough that doesn't deteriorate quite so fast.
July 30, 2022 at 7:16am
In reply to I have been baking sourdough… by William Paul (not verified)
Hi William, I'm so sorry for the delay in responding to your question! I doubt the issue you describe has anything to do with your starter or how clean your crock is (scraping down the sides after a feeding is generally just fine, with an occasional more thorough cleaning). However, if your starter maintenance routine doesn't call for at least a few "revival" feedings at room temperature after refrigeration and before baking, you may find that this improves the way your starter performs in your bread baking, particularly when it comes to the rise.
I suspect that the problems you've been having lately have more to do with the dough being a bit over fermented by the time you go to shape it; the sticky/wet dough that seems to suddenly lack structure could well be a sign of the type of dough deterioration that occurs with over fermentation. Warmer weather may be causing your doughs to ferment faster, and different types of flour ferment at different rates, with whole grain flours fermenting faster than white flour. In addition, if your flour combination includes a "weaker" flour that doesn't develop as much gluten structure, this can make for a wetter dough that lacks structure throughout the process. Paying close attention to dough temperature should be helpful here, and if your flour combinations include a significant percentage of lower protein flours, upping the protein level with our organic bread flour might make for a stronger dough that doesn't deteriorate quite so fast.
I hope this helps! Let us know how it goes.