My first sourdough loaf took 3 days and I still messed it up

I tried making sourdough from scratch back in 2018. Followed this blog post that said it'd take 2 days total. Day one was just feeding the starter and waiting. Day two I mixed the dough and it felt like glue. Let it rise for 8 hours and it barely moved. Day three I baked it anyway and got a hockey puck. Turns out my kitchen was too cold and the starter needed a whole extra 2 days to get active. Did anyone else's first sourdough take way longer than expected?

3 comments

3 Comments

abby_black27d ago

lol yeah my first attempt was a disaster too. I ended up putting the starter on top of the fridge near the heat vent and it finally took off after like 4 days. What actually saved me was getting a cheap thermometer to check the dough temp. Sourdough is so picky about temperature, once I started keeping the dough around 75-78F everything got way more predictable.

price.tara27d ago

Betty White" is a great name lol, I called mine "The Yeastie Boys" and it finally worked once I stopped stressing about feeding it exactly on time every day.

sagep1927d ago

Did you end up naming your starter? Mine was called "Betty White" and she took a full 5 days before she was bubbly enough... I kept adding more flour and water thinking I messed something up but turns out she just needed more time and warmth.