Alright, my sourdough starter problems are officially ridiculous. I had to throw away the original batch because it couldn’t raise the dough. I decided to try again, but this time with a fresh batch of rye flour. That was really the only thing I could think that might have caused problems.
No go. I even gave it an extra day. I went through the whole refresh process and it didn’t raise the dough after 4 hours. Something is definitely amiss. Another waste of flour and time.
One characteristic I have noticed about the two failed batches of starter is that they never congealed like the previous batches. In other words(for bread people)- no gluten formation. Now lack of gluten in the starter sort of indicates to me that there is too much acid in the starter. If the problem is too much acid, then I’m thinking perhaps shortening the refresh periods might inhibit the acid production. On the flip side, the starter didn’t taste too sour which would tend to indicate the acid levels were not the problem.
At this point, all I can do is experiment and see what works. Still, having made this exact sort of starter a number of times previous, this episode is very curious. Clearly, something has changed. I’m just at a loss as to what.
One reply on “Non-Starter”
‘Start’ with about 1/2 cup regular flour, add a pinch of potato flour and 1/4 rye flour AND add a tablespoon of sugar [Vital wheat gluetin might be good too]… that will start the process and you can adjust backwards from there … it won’t be your conventional starter, but will at least should get you back on track … IF it doesn’t work, you might have to check atmospheric conditions like humidity and/or the vessel you’re using might be causing the problems. IF you’re using tap water, you might want to try a filtered version; IF you’re using milk, you might want to switch to water … check your KA book for starter suggestions …