Using an overnight cold proof and allowing your dough to rise until it is till doubled will often result in overproofed bread. Let me explain a little further.

By the time you form your loaves and put them in the fridge, it takes some time for them to cool down to fridge temperature allowing the dough to continue to rise and often overproof. The warmer your dough is the more of an issue this can be.

To combat this, the best thing to do is account for the dough temperature. Using a straight sided cambro with markings on the side note your starting point. Then take the temperature of the dough and compare that temperature to The Sourdough Journey chart to see what percentage rise you should aim for. I will often use a wipeable marker and mark my aim, but you may have to check the temperature again if your dough warms up or cools off a lot. Completely ignore the time part of the chart though because every dough is different and yours may go faster or take longer. I only look at the percentage rise and watch for the dough to achieve that. You will also notice as it approaches that rise there will be more and more bubbles and the bubbles will be all over the sides through the entire dough.

For example, if your dough is at the 2L mark and the chart says you should aim for a 40% rise, you would start forming your loaves when your dough reaches the 2.8L mark. It sounds more complicated than it is, but it will save you so many headaches.

Your dough temperature will be relatively constant and may change from season to season, but once you use the chart a few times you’ll get a feel for when you need to form your loaves. If it is really cold in your house, you can get a seedling mat relatively inexpensively to put under your dough to keep it warm.

Save a copy of this chart to your phone or print it out to have in your kitchen. You’ll thank me when your loaves are consistently successful.

The post Bulk Fermentation Based on Temperature for Sourdough Breads appeared first on Our Rooted Mess.

I never thought that I would say it, but if you are a bread maker DO NOT buy a Kitchen Aid Mixer if you are only going to use one mixer in your house.

Now that it’s out in the open, let me explain. I have had a Kitchen Aid mixer for 30+ years. I always highly recommend them. I know they aren’t as good as they once were when Hobart was making them. I adored my 30 quart Hobart mixer at the bakery and it’s probably the one thing that I really wish I hadn’t sold. I even have bought family members Kitchen Aid mixers when they got married because it’s the one thing I always said I couldn’t live without in my kitchen. In fact, when my Kitchen Aid went out in the early 2011-2013 timeframe, I immediately went and bought a new one. That’s the one I still have to this day.

Well, now that I have been doing fresh-milled flour for a little while, I can tell you that for bread makers it’s just not the best option out there. I’m not really sure why it took me that long to come to that conclusion. The fact that they always get hot trying to do bread should have been my first clue.

My Kitchen Aid is old and I really need to do some work on it. I think the gear box needs to be replaced since it doesn’t always start on the first attempt. So, for a while I have been on the hunt for a new mixer. It wasn’t a high priority since I can usually get mine to go. But, I knew it was inevitable that I would need a new one or at very least need to do some rehab to this one. I had been looking at the Kitchen Aid Professional mixers, but those are running in the $900 range currently as a I write this.

I have made all the things in my Kitchen Aid over the years. Cookies, muffins, breads, pies, and it always did a great job…or so I thought. I thought I would get an Ooni spiral mixer since that is suppose to be great with bread. Bread was the one thing I knew my Kitchen Aid struggled with. It was always take forever to knead and I ready mentioned the fact that it would get hot. I thought that if I had something that was excellent for bread, I could continue to use my Kitchen Aid for the other things I love to make.

I did all the research. I read reviews and watched YouTube videos. I had the Ooni Halo Pro Spiral Mixer in my cart and almost hit submit when I paused and did one more YouTube search for reviews. I stumbled upon a reviewer who had so many issues with the breaker bar because of the material it was made of. I think the newness of the mixer and it being made in China was what my hesitation was all about. I ultimately decided to give the Ooni Halo Pro Spiral a little more time to see how it held up long term. I still think that I would like to get my hands on one eventually. I absolutely adore my Ooni outdoor pizza oven!

So, back to the research phase I went. I read reviews and watched more YouTube videos. I was between two mixers, the Bosch Universal Plus and the Ankarsrum. I did not think I would like the center column in the Bosch at all, but with the bottom drive bowl being an option I thought maybe. I honestly was leaning toward the Ankarsrum, but the learning curve and how different it is compared to my Kitchen Aid once again scared me. So, once again, I put the decision on pause.

One morning I saw a Bosch Universal Plus mixer for sale for an insanely low price. Someone had tried to pry the bowl off the base so it had marks on it, but was completely functional and really wasn’t noticeable with the mixing bowl attached. I saw this as my opportunity to give it a try without having to invest the price of a new one. So, I bit the bullet and bought it. I figured that if I hated it I could always sell it and buy the Ankarsrum or eventually buy the Ankarsrum as well.

The Bosch Universal Plus arrived and I put it to work on my bread doughs only. I continued to use my Kitchen Aid for other things. But, that first batch of bread in the Bosch made me realize how pour of a job my Kitchen Aid had really been doing in bread all these years! The Bosch took 7-8 minutes to knead bread where the Kitchen Aid would take 25+ minutes and not do nearly as good of a job. Biting into my first sandwich loaf slice using the Bosch and it not crumbling all over the place! That was a huge revelation since the only change was what mixer that I used to make the bread and it even took less time to knead! I was in shock.

So, if you are an avid bread maker I would highly recommend the Bosch Universal Plus and steer you away from the Kitchen Aid. The Bosch Universal Plus is a beast. I have since made cookies in it and it does struggle with the initial mixing when you only have a couple ingredients in the mixer. For example, it took me longer to cream my butter and sugar in the Bosch simply because it was less than I think it could handle. I need to attempt a double batch in it to see how it handles it especially since I freeze cookie dough balls to make fresh anyway. It didn’t have any issues with a single loaf of bread though so it must be a minimum amount it can handle. Maybe the NurtriMill Artiste Mixer would do a better job on small jobs. I know a lot of people are raving about the Zacme 8.4 qt mixer as well.

I still would like to try the Ooni Halo Pro Spiral and the Ankarsrum. I mean, if either company would like to send me those I would be happy to put them to the test. 😜. But those are my thoughts on the two I currently own for now. If I add the others, I’ll make sure to post and tell you all about it.

The post A note from a die hard Kitchen Aid fan appeared first on Our Rooted Mess.

Honestly, when I heard that people were doing a second score or waiting to score altogether after 7 minutes of baking I thought it sounded absolutely unnecessary. That is until I tried it! I had never done back.

What did it do for my loaves? The partial bake allows the crust of the sourdough to begin setting and the ultimate result is enhanced expansion, better oven spring, and that beautiful pronounced ear that is so desired in sourdough baking. Not to mention that it is slightly easier to score once the crust has set. I think it’s a little more forgiving especially with higher hydration loaves.

Haven’t tried it? Give it a try and come back and comment how it went for you! We would love to hear about your results.

The post Why a 7 minute score? appeared first on Our Rooted Mess.

You have two options:

1. Get a sourdough starter from a friend or someone local. A lot of times if you post in a local Facebook group that you are wanting to start sourdough, you will have several people volunteer to give you a start. This is by far the easiest way to get going. Remember that as soon as you feed the starter in your home it will be a completely different starter based on your environment, water, flour, etc.
2. If you have a friend that does sourdough that lives across the country, they can send you some starter dehydrated. You will just have to re-hydrate it and give it a few feedings to get it back on track.
3. Start your own starter. This is what I did. It can take a lot of patience to get established. I would highly recommend that if you are wanting to start a sourdough starter, go print out the How to Create A New Starter by Tom Cucuzza The Sourdough Journey guide. This is full of valuable information and walks you through each part of the process step-by-step with photos.

What are you waiting for? Get a starter going now so you can get to baking!

The post Getting a Sourdough Starter appeared first on Our Rooted Mess.

Have you recently started Sourdough or you have been failing miserably at it? Most of the times a couple of small tweaks can lead you on the road to success. One of the most common mistakes is feeding your starter incorrectly. Here are a few tips that may help you.

• Not discarding from your sourdough starter before you feed – I know it seems like you are throwing away your hard work, but in the first 7-10 days you won’t be able to use that discard because of the bad bacteria in the starter. Once the good bacteria wins, then you will be able to use that discard in Sourdough Discard Recipes. For now, chuck in the trash and go on with it. If you don’t discard, you would have to feed your starter so much more flour and water that it just wouldn’t be cost effective. Even after your starter is established, you would be surprised how little discard you need to keep in order to bake all of the goodies you want.
• Going along with the not feeding your starter enough – Get a kitchen scale so you can accurately weigh your ingredients. Flour and water don’t weigh the same so it’s not as easy as feeding 1 cup of flour and 1 cup of water. That wouldn’t lead to an equal feeding. I have a couple of great kitchen scales in my Amazon Storefront if you want to check them out.
• Feeding your sourdough starter too soon – I hear a lot of sourdough bakers say they bake with or feed when their starter doubles. That’s not necessarily correct. In fact, feeding your starter too soon can actually weaken it. You will want to wait until your sourdough starter has stopped rising and is at it’s peak. How do you tell if it’s still rising? The starter will be rounded off at the top when it is still rising plus there will not be bubbles on the surface or not many bubbles. Once the starter has reached it’s peak, you will see the entire surface covered in bubbles and craters from where the bubbles have collapsed. Plus, the top will be flattened out rather than being rounded of puffy looking.
• Feeding your sourdough starter the wrong things – Does your water have chlorine in it? Are you using unbleached flour? The chlorine/bleach in those things will kill off your good bacteria which is what will eventually rise your dough and make beautiful bread. So, you want to use only unbleached or fresh-milled flour plus chlorine free water. I use a bottled spring water for all of my breads and sourdough just to be safe.

This is my starter almost at peak, but still rising:

This is my sourdough starter at peak:

If you are unsure if your starter has peaked:

• Add a rubber band after you feed your starter as a start point
• Add a rubber band around the top line if you believe your starter has peaked and wait a little while. If your starter goes above the top rubber band, it is still rising. If it stays the same, you are probably at peak and its’ time to use it or discard and feed it. If it drops down below the rubber band, your starter is beginning to fall so now is definitely a good time to feed it or use it. You really don’t want to wait till it has completely collapsed to discard and feed, but feeding it too later is better than feeding it too early.

I hope these small tips were helpful and lead you to a successful sourdough journey! Comment if you have any questions and I would be happy to answer them!

Final note on starting a starter from scratch:

If you are in the process of doing some research and haven’t started your sourdough journey yet, I want to supply you with a tool that helped me when I started. I would highly recommend that if you are wanting to start a sourdough starter, or struggling in the beginning stages of a sourdough starter, go print out the How to Create A New Starter by Tom Cucuzza The Sourdough Journey guide. This is full of valuable information.

The post Sourdough Starter Feeding appeared first on Our Rooted Mess.