My first successful sourdough loaf after 9 tries

I finally got a decent oven spring on a sourdough loaf after 9 total attempts. The kitchen was a mess for months with sticky dough everywhere and a starter that kept dying. I visited a bakery in Portland last month and watched them shape loaves for about 20 minutes. That visual helped me figure out I was overworking my dough and deflating all the bubbles. The crumb on this one has actual holes in it instead of being a dense brick. Has anyone else had a specific bakery visit fix a problem you were stuck on for weeks?

3 comments

3 Comments

taylorshah1mo ago

Honestly watching pros be gentle taught me most life skills are just about not rushing things.

kimr741mo ago

Oh man, "a dense brick" hit me right in the feels. That's basically all my first 12 loaves looked like. I went to a little bakery in Austin last year and just stood there watching the baker shape for maybe 10 minutes. It was like a lightbulb went off when I saw how gentle they were with the dough, barely touching it. Before that I was punching down my dough like it owed me money. Your story about the Portland bakery is basically the same thing I went through. Did you change anything else besides the shaping, or was that the main fix for you?

piperbailey1mo ago

@kimr74 that gentle touch was honestly the biggest thing for me too. I used to manhandle my dough like I was wrestling it and then wonder why it turned out like a rock. Once I started being super light with it during shaping, the crumb opened up like crazy. I also stopped overmixing and started using a wetter dough, but the shaping change was probably 80% of the fix.