Sour bread

[PaulStat]

I thought I'd try my hand at making my own bread, namely from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstalls bread book, in it he cultivates his own yeast starter, which I have also done.

So I decided to make one of his sour doughs, stupidly however when it said 23g of salt I thought that sounded like a hell of a lot so only put a few sprinkles in. omg how sour! Yuck. Also it's very dense and not a lot of air pockets in the sponge.

Has anyone done something like this before, any tips?

 

[-BA-]

Perhaps try following the recipe to the letter and see how it turns out? Not made sour dough myself though.

 

[hood1971]

Is that the one where you leave it to proof for days? Saw it on his program and seemed a lot of effort - would need to tasty to be worth it.

 

[randomshenans]

Clam chowder in a sour dough bowl is a delight. I'm actually going to make that....

 

[HeadlessChicken]

Sour dough is utterly immense when done right. 23g sounds odd. How big a loaf is that?

A normal loaf for me is 500g with 10g salt. I know sourdough is different because you make a sponge, but it still seems a lot.

How old is your starter? To get big air pockets the dough needs to be very wet and have risen for aaaaages

Don't give up, sourdough is an immense loaf, altho if you dislike sour bread it may not be your thing

 

[PaulStat]

23g was for two loaves (think it was 500g of flour for the sponge and 600g of flour added to that to make the dough). The starter was a week old when I used it, I actually kneaded it and shaped the loaf the night before and shoved it in the oven in the morning.

 

[Jonny69]

In any bread if the holes are too big all the way through it then you left it to rise for too long before baking it. You need to knock the dough back and let it rise again to the right size, then bake it.

If you're getting huge air pockets then they are getting in when you shape the loaf before you leave it for its final rise. If you've used flour to stop the dough sticking to your hands and the surface, when you roll the dough up you roll in a thin layer of dry flour. The dough doesn't then stick together where the flour is and it pops open into large voids inside when you bake it.