I cultured my starter here in STL (Saint Louis, MO) all natural at
that.. I usually retrieve the starter on Friday evening and give it a
good feeding, about 8-14 hours depending on if I want to sleep in on
Sat. I start the sponge on sat in the AM, by adding 1c water to 1.5c of
bread flour, I leave that sit in my oven loosely covered with the light
on... it gets about 82F or so in there (no pilot). I leave it until
Sunday morning, so I guess about 16 hrs or so of time goes by...
starter usually looks good. I usually check it on sat before I go to
bed, if it does not look happy; I feed it before going to sleep. I then
spend Sunday morning hand mixing the dough, letting the first rise for
about 4-5 hr then the second for about 2...

Whew... after all the even if I give my loaves a mist or and egg wash
they seem to split and explode when they are in the oven... and when
cut they are really dense... if cut them thin and baked they make great
crackers for dips... but do not cut it for sandwiches...

I must be doing something wrong. Can anyone suggest a solution?
Thanks,
poedenon

"poedenon" wrote in message
oups.com...

I must be doing something wrong. Can anyone suggest a solution?
Thanks,
poedenon

Follow Mr Adams' method - it produces beautiful bread and it's foolproof.
http://home.att.net/~carlsfriends/dickpics/billowy.html


Graham

"poedenon" wrote=20
[ ... ]

(loaves) seem to split and explode when they are in the oven... and =
when
cut they are really dense...=20
=20
I must be doing something wrong. Can anyone suggest a solution?

Judging by your post=20
oups.com
you are refreshing your starter too warm/too long, and overdeveloping
you sponge in the same way. Also your second rise, compared to the
first may be too short. One may guess that your dough loaves did not
rise very much before you baked them.

Which instructions are you following? Either they are really bad, or =
you
are not paying attention.

--=20
Dick Adams
firstname dot lastname at bigfoot dot com
___________________
Sourdough FAQ guide at=20
http://www.nyx.net/~dgreenw/sourdoughfaqs.html