My Sourdough Is Too Sour! (2024)

FAQs

What to do if sourdough is too sour? ›

Keep the dough temperature higher: Lactobacillus perform well at the higher temperatures of 85-95ºF. Keeping the dough in that range will produce more lactic acid bacteria quickly which can result in a more mildy sour loaf.

My starter is very acidic. How can I de-acidify it? Try feeding your starter a high feeding ratio (e.g., 1:5:5) and discard and refeed right after the starter rises and peaks. This is known as the “peak-to-peak” method.

The way your starter smells is a great way to diagnose the health of your starter. Acidic or sour smells happen when too much acid is being carried over from one feeding to the next. The way to fix this is to feed a bigger ratio of flour and water to your starter. Acidic starters tend to be less active as well.

Now, if you don't regularly add and remove discard from your jar—if it just sits there in the refrigerator without any additional food for many weeks—it will become extremely sour and difficult to work with.

Sourdough's Health Benefits

Sourdough's long fermentation and rising time leads to changes in the bread that don't occur in conventional yeast-leavened bread. These changes may have health benefits for some people, especially those with certain digestive issues.

If your sourdough starter won't rise anymore, reset it by putting 25 grams of starter in a jar and feed it 50 grams of flour and 50 grams of water. With this ratio, your starter should double in size in about 12-24 hours. If your starter has never risen before, follow a proven guide to create an active starter.

While underworked dough can simply be fixed by a little more kneading, severely overworked dough cannot be fixed. Instead, the overworked dough will result in a hard loaf that will likely not be eaten. It's important not to overwork your dough and continually check for overworking throughout the kneading process.

Acetic acid, or vinegar, is the acid that gives sourdough much of its tang. Giving acetic acid-producing organisms optimal conditions to thrive and multiply will produce a more tangy finished product.

What Does Bad Sourdough Starter Look Like? It's usually pretty obvious when your starter has gone bad. You will either see mold or discoloration (generally pink or orange). If you see either of these things, you will need to toss your starter.

What happens if you make sourdough with bad starter? ›

Many think having a very sour starter will result in sourdough bread with a very sour flavor, and while this does help, it doesn't have as large of an impact as a levain for a particular dough, or the dough's makeup and baking process.

Reviving a sourdough starter that has been stored in the fridge for a longer period of time is a good idea. This can be done by feeding it equal parts flour and water, allowing it to sit at room temperature for 12 hours, and then feeding it again.

For milder sourdough: Use less whole wheat and less rye, or consider sifting the bran out of whole wheat flour to create high-extraction flour. If using small amounts of whole grain, save it for the main dough, where it will have less time to contribute to acidity.

The longer you let your dough rise, the more sour it will be while letting it rise for less time, makes it milder in flavor. This goes hand-in-hand with the fermentation temperature. The cooler the temperatures, the longer it takes, and the more sour your bread will be.

I fixed my acidic starter this time by feeding it 1:5:5 for 3 days before making the dough. I keep the starter in the fridge and only bake every 2-3 weeks so it's probably pretty acidic. The result was better oven spring and a small ear. It's super light and soft with a thin, crispy exterior.

REVIVING A LOAF FOR FRESH EATING

Splash some water over the top of your bread, just enough to become slightly damp. Place the loaf in a 250°F oven for 5 to 10 minutes. Watch it closely and remove it when warm. Too long in the oven and you'll get dried-out toast.