revised overnight sourdough, and the trouble with no bubbles

If you don’t eat bread or are not a fan of cooking posts, you will want to find something else to read. Several of my readers are interested in this process, which is why I’m writing it; I’m not planning to become a food blog. Normal service will resume soon:)

Okay, so I know our winters are mild compared to the North American winters where I grew up. However, we do get very cold nights in the minus range (-6, 21F) and certainly in the low single digits regularly. Having no central heat, this means our house gets cold overnight. And the follow on from this means that my overnight proving of bread method (adapted from Celia’s original method here) needed to be altered.

Here is Celia’s latest adaptation of her overnight method, which incorporates some helpful videos and also adapts the recipe to a higher hydration and uses some spelt flour, but is mostly wheat. She does also have a 100% spelt recipe here, however it uses her normal wheat starter, I believe and mine uses a spelt starter.

Here is my latest adaptation of Celia’s latest overnight method which incorporates more hydration, more whole meal spelt, but is 100% spelt including the starter. I have also changed the timings to allow for the cooler winter temperatures.

Latest loaf from Revised Winter Sourdough recipe

and the crumb…

crumb from Revised Winter Sourdough recipe

Confused? Just use my latest method above for a higher hydration loaf that also incorporates more whole meal spelt, creating a more wholesome and flavourful loaf. If you get confused about technique, consult Celia’s blog, she is the expert and has great tutorials. I’m just learning, but my recipe does work, as you can see in the photos.

I also want to share with those who bake bread, my secret weapon for those cold nights, which produce quite varied results in the proving stage of the overnight dough. Yes, I have a secret weapon that does not destroy life, but helps it along, especially if you are a little ‘yeastie’ living in sourdough, or if you have cold feet, but that’s another post… I present to you the rice filled heat bag. Not novel, probably been used to help bread raise before too, but it was new to me for this purpose so I thought I would share it.
In the morning if I find the overnight low in the house has prevented the dough from proving to the expansion it does in warmer weather I put the heat bag in the microwave for a minute on high. I then place it under the covered bowl to gently boost the proving activity. Also, I have found that doing the same thing by sandwiching the heat bag between two baking trays with the shaped loaf on the top tray, gently speeds up the raising process that might otherwise be painfully slow if you are waiting to bake due to other pressing things. Just make sure you only heat the bag to the normal temperature you would place it on your skin so the heat is a gentle one. You don’t want the dough to over-prove.

My starter has never had bubbles until today. It was an odd thing and why I didn’t give up on it I don’t know. From my first loaf of bread, I moved through the various steps of bred making based on times because here was no evidence of activity, until after the overnight prove and then it looks like this…

I did some reading this week and an experienced baker in Leura NSW says the starter needs to be kept in a plastic container with the lid ajar so that it gets air. This was the first I had heard this, so two days ago I tried it. Today when I needed to feed the starter before going away for a week, there were bubbles!! If you have thoughts on this, please leave them below. As I said, I’m still learning!

Also, please have a read of my friend Francesca’s bread baking adventures here, and my friend Sandra’s extra handy post with a calculation table for various amounts of starter so you will waste less. This incredible community continues to grow and develop much like the starter Celia began it all with. We are all part of a valuable movement that cares about the quality of our food, and those with whom we share it.

Happy baking. xx

16 responses to “revised overnight sourdough, and the trouble with no bubbles”

ladyredspecs

Jun 9, 2016 at 4:15 am

Thanks for the shout out Ardys. I’m still following my old routine and proving overnight in the fridge. I’m getting much more oven bounce with the cooler room temperature rest before baking, which makes me think my summer routine will need a little modification. You bread looks stunning. I know from the old wheat bread baking days that high hydration loaves were exceptional, I must give it a whirl. I just activated Lulu so I can bake tomorrow am, no time like the present..

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1. ardysez
  
  Jun 9, 2016 at 7:40 am
  
  Is your starter very lively? Mine never has been until as I stated above, I left the lid ajar on it. We are in Adelaide for a week and I will be anxious to see how it looks when I get home. How do you store your starter? It’s quite unsettling to not see any bubbles until after the overnight prove! I’m going now to read your latest post…
  
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  1. ladyredspecs
    
    Jun 9, 2016 at 9:47 am
    
    I’m having issue with WP, fingers crossed this works, anyway, my active gets very bubbly but not until it’s second feed. I was feeding it 3 times at the beginning to be confident it was ready to go
    
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  2. ladyredspecs
    
    Jun 9, 2016 at 9:52 am
    
    Crashed again! i’m talking about the starter, i usually just cover the bowl with a plate, maybe that’s been enough to let the wild yeasts in. I store it in the fridge in a covered plastic container.
    
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  3. ardysez
    
    Jun 9, 2016 at 12:33 pm
    
    Thank you. I feed twice but still no bubbles until now. Look forward to seeing bubbles one day 🙂
    
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Joanna

Jun 9, 2016 at 10:57 am

This may sound silly but is your house colder than your fridge overnight? My fridge is at about 4 C usually and at that temperature sourdough remains active. Every starter contains different organisms in the mix, some favour yeasts some favour lactobacteria and there are other things in there too usually. All flours have yeasts etc on them, so the whole grain ones will usually have more, because the yeasts are on the outside of the grain. It is a bit of a myth that wild yeasts arrive from the air, they may do, but the majority of the organisms are derived from your flour, or at least that is the general consensus amongst the more science based people I have read in the past. As to the mystery of your bubbles, it could be that your starter, was it based on one that someone sent you? has now adapted and incorporated new organisms from the flours you feed it and that a different one is now dominant from what you started with that is producing more gas, all hypothesis on my part. Temperature plays a huge, huge part in all this. My sourdoughs are galloping away in the warmer weather. I think you are very sensible to provide extra warmth for yours. And most importantly I think your bread is looking amazing!!!!

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1. ardysez
  
  Jun 9, 2016 at 12:31 pm
  
  Thank you. Yes, the flour should be the major source of the yeasts and certainly my flour is derived from a different source than was the original, tho both are spelt. My kitchen is around 16 or 17c on a cold night, so warmer than the fridge, but my results of letting the dough prove in the fridge were not nearly as good as letting it prove at room temp. And I think I will have trouble in the middle of summer with the possibility of over proofed dough. I didn’t start making the bread until the height of summer was over. Thank you for the compliment. 💕
  
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Joanna

Jun 9, 2016 at 10:59 am

PS, I keep my maintenance starter in the fridge usually in a glass pot with a pop off plastic lid which is not so air tight that it can’t pop off if the gas builds up. I feed it more flour than water, as I find it runs out of food within about five days and then a layer of hooch builds up and there are no bubbles in the base layer at all. If you are keeping a water heavy starter going then that might be why it has less bubbles too.

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1. ardysez
  
  Jun 9, 2016 at 12:23 pm
  
  Ok, that all makes sense, thank you Joanna. I hope my starter lasts these seven days while we are away. xx
  
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  1. Joanna
    
    Jun 9, 2016 at 2:24 pm
    
    if you make it very stiff or maybe do two pots to compare when you return I’ve feed one with as much flour as you can but not quite a dough mix, then it has basically more food to chomp on while waiting for you to return. use a minimal amount of old/mature starter as well, a tsp is enough xx
    
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  2. ardysez
    
    Jun 9, 2016 at 10:54 pm
    
    Thank you. On a whim I did create a second starter just before leaving so I will have an extra one to play with. Is there a fantastic book I should read about sourdough creation and behavior? So far all my reading is online and there is much info out there. xx
    
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Francesca

Jun 10, 2016 at 1:31 am

You and Sandra seem to be on a winner with your spelt loaves. They are very different, with regard to amount of starter and level of hydration to the original wheat based loaves, but it must be that the spelt flour needs these adjustments.

I am so thrilled about your tip regarding the wheat pack- brilliant. I do overnight rising in the fridge in summer and only since things have turned cool, I now do overnight rising at room temperature. But a little heat pack will get things moving along very nicely.
And your bread looks delicious. Spelt, especially white for me, offers no major benefits, but I am pleased that you can now eat bread and it works for you.

Thanks Ardys.

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1. ardysez
  
  Jun 11, 2016 at 12:48 am
  
  I’m not 100% convinced that the spelt itself is as important as the sourdough starter and overnight proving, but at the moment I’m staying with the success of things. So glad the little tip of using the heat bag seems useful. Thank you for reading and commenting Francesca.
  
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  1. Francesca
    
    Jun 11, 2016 at 4:58 am
    
    Yes, I think it’s about the long prove. Success is in the eating.
    
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Holistic Wayfarer

Jun 13, 2016 at 6:25 pm

Quite the labor of love. Looks quite good, A. Bravo. =) And I love the spelt version.

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1. ardysez
  
  Jun 13, 2016 at 10:10 pm
  
  Thank you Diana. Once I have learned the basics the actual process is pretty simple. There is not even traditional kneading involved with this sort of high hydration bread, tho my arms could do with the exercise 🙂
  
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