Hi All,
I made my first sourdough "loaf" (HAH!) over the weekend. I used Carl's starter, grown up from a small amount of dry granules to 2 quart jars full that were bubbling away (overflowed once). I hate to say it, but I made this first loaf in my bread machine. I didn't know it beforehand, but the machine kneads quite a few times, and that caused the dense loaf. After the 4th or 5th kneading, the loaf didn't rise much... I used 1.25 cups starter and 2.25 cups unbleached white flour. Put it in the machine, let it knead for about 5 minutes, and put the machine pan in my 85 degree proofing box for 8 hours. It easily doubled in size. I then added water, salt, honey and olive oil. Put it back in the machine and let it run on the whole wheat setting, which takes 4 hours. The crumb was dense, heavy, fine-textured and chewy with a thick, brown, crispy crust (but not browned on top). BUT - it wasn't sour at all! It had a pretty good flavor but no sour. It's like a "rustic" white bread (if "rustic" means "brick"). Any ideas on what happened to the sour?
TIA,
Tim Walters