Even if your starter is full of bubbles, that doesn’t particularly mean the yeast colony is big enough yet. In a starter, the yeast is the slowest to grow and colonize starter. It is very important to establish if your starter is active enough to bake bread in the first place. The bacteria produce both lactic acid and acetic acid. The bacteria on the other hand create a sour taste and ferment the bread. The yeast is responsible for the rise in the bread and will help create a light and airy sourdough. However, even if you have an active starter already made, how it’s maintained is actually very important to the working and development of your bread dough.Ī starter is a collection of yeast and bacteria that feed on flour. It is going to assume you’ve already got one set up.

This troubleshooting guide isn’t going to show the recipe to create a sourdough starter. So, let’s start with the key part of any sourdough loaf: The starter. You can use this blog as a guide for a better understanding of the sourdough process and what is happening inside your loaf - but also as a way to delve into specific issues, you may be experiencing. Once you understand that you can tailor things to suit your individual spaces and loaves. I believe it’s best to understand what is actually happening while the sourdough is being made, and what is happening in your sourdough starter. It’s hard to write an exact recipe with timings and temperatures as every environment is so different and there are so many variables.

Sourdough bread flat