Adjusting the Sour Flavor in Sourdough Bread - Amy Bakes Bread (2024)

FAQs

Adjusting the Sour Flavor in Sourdough Bread - Amy Bakes Bread? ›

Keep the dough temperature higher: Bacteria love the higher temperatures of 89-91 degrees F, so keep the dough in that range will produce more bacteria resulting in a sour loaf. 2. Use more whole grains: Whole grains (especially whole wheat) allow bacteria to function longer which make the sour flavor more pronounced.

Ferment Your Sourdough For A Shorter Time

One of the easiest ways to manipulate the sourness of your sourdough bread is simply to decrease the time that it ferments for. There a few ways that you can do this and often you will need to experiment to find what works best for you.

There are two main acids produced in a sourdough culture: lactic acid and acetic acid. Acetic acid, or vinegar, is the acid that gives sourdough much of its tang. Giving acetic acid-producing organisms optimal conditions to thrive and multiply will produce a more tangy finished product.

The sourdough starter is the real secret to getting a good fermentation going. Essentially your sourdough starter is old dough, which has already pre-fermented and contains Lactobacillus culture. Lactobacillus culture has a sour taste and is an active culture that lives off natural yeast spores from the air.

Baked sourdough bread gets more sour with time.

If a dish is too sour, add a little bit of sugar! Sweetness balances out sour flavors, so if something makes your mouth pucker, a dash of sugar may help soften the blow of the sour food.

My starter is very acidic. How can I de-acidify it? Try feeding your starter a high feeding ratio (e.g., 1:5:5) and discard and refeed right after the starter rises and peaks. This is known as the “peak-to-peak” method.

The secret to sourdough is simple: water. The more water you add to your dough will affect how open the crumb (bigger holes and softer texture) will be once it's baked.

stir your starter in between feedings - try stirring it twice in between feedings and really give it a chance to get oxygen into the mix. This will help to activate your starter without too much effort.

Is sourdough bread better for your stomach than regular bread? ›

According to some studies, sourdough bread acts as a prebiotic, which means that the fiber in the bread helps feed the “good” bacteria in your intestines. These bacteria are important for maintaining a stable, healthy digestive system. Sourdough is also lower in gluten than other forms of bread.

Another tip is to add some sugar or honey to the dough, as this will also help the yeast become more active. Keep the dough and starter in a warm environment, between 70° and 90° is ideal. To ensure it rises at its quickest rate. With these tips, you'll be sure to get your sourdough starter rising quickly!

YES! You most definitely can bulk ferment sourdough too long. If you leave the dough to ferment for too long, it will become "over fermented". Over fermented dough will lose its structure and become a soupy, sloppy mess that you will not be able to shape.

How Long Should Sourdough Bread Cool After Baking? It's best to let your sourdough bread cool for around 4 to 6 hours after baking. Many people like to tear open their hot bread straight out of the oven - and there's definitely no hard and fast rules around this.

Acidic or sour smells happen when too much acid is being carried over from one feeding to the next. The way to fix this is to feed a bigger ratio of flour and water to your starter. Acidic starters tend to be less active as well. If you notice this, try feeding a bigger ratio to your starter for a while.

The longer the sourdough starter discard sits at room temperature, the more acidic it becomes until the mixture becomes inhospitable for microbes to function. At warm room temperature, this happens quickly compared to the cooler temperatures inside the refrigerator.

Sourdough purists will scoff at this, but... for those of you who like a more sour sourdough loaf, adding 1/4 teaspoon or so of this “sour salt”—citric acid—to your dough will definitely up the pucker quotient.