19
Question about my sourdough starter drying out mid-bake
Tbh I had a total mess happen last Saturday at my kitchen counter. I was baking two loaves of sourdough for a family get-together and my starter just went flat halfway through the final proof. I think the room temp dropped because I left the window open for like 20 minutes. I panicked and threw the dough in the fridge for an hour hoping to slow things down and save it. One loaf came out dense as a brick, the other had a decent crumb but no oven spring. Now I'm wondering if I should have just pitched it and started over. Has anyone else dealt with a starter going dormant from a quick temperature swing?
2 comments
Log in to join the discussion
Log In2 Comments
loganburns14d ago
Hold up, wait. You left a window open for twenty minutes and your starter just DIED on you mid proof? That's wild to me because I've had my starter on a cold counter for like an hour before and it was totally fine, just sluggish. Maybe your starter is a little more temperamental than mine or maybe it was already on its last legs before that happened. In my experience, starters can be drama queens sometimes, but a quick temp swing like that usually just slows them down, not kills them outright. Could be your dough was already overproofed and the cold just finished the job.
5