Ask Loafy

Smell and taste it. A sharp vinegar or acetone smell and a strong sour taste mean the bacteria have taken over, and your dough gets sticky and less fluffy. Daily feedings at 1:5:5 or 1:10:10, or switching to a stiff starter, bring the balance back.

A stiff starter. It favors yeast over bacteria, so for the same rise you get noticeably less acidity. Feeding it daily at room temperature helps even more.

Either works. The wild yeast and bacteria live on the surface of the grain, so they come into the jar with the flour whichever you choose. Rye is a fine pick to get going, just don't expect a rye dough to rise as high as wheat: its pentosans stop a gluten network forming.

In the first days of a new starter, throw it away, since it can still contain unwanted microbes. Once your starter bakes a good loaf, keep the leftovers in one jar in the fridge and use them for pancakes, crackers or flatbreads.

If it reliably grows, bubbles and smells pleasantly sour 6 to 12 hours after feeding, it is ready. To convert, feed 1 part starter, 5 parts flour and 2.5 parts water once a day for about 3 days. The book is blunt about 1:1:1: that is far too much old starter. A 1:5:5 or 1:10:10 feed gives the microbes a cleaner environment to regrow in.

After a long bulk the bacteria and enzymes break down the gluten and the dough turns soupy. Go by size instead of time and stop at around 50% growth. If it happens again, move it into a properly greased loaf pan, let it proof there for at least 30 minutes, and bake it anyway.

Overnight at room temperature works well if you use less starter, around 5%, so the bulk takes 10 to 12 hours. If your kitchen is warm, go even lower. The fridge is easier after shaping, where the dough can wait 8 to 24 hours.

The book works in ranges, not single figures. At 20 °C use 10 to 20% starter, at 22 °C around 20% for a bulk of about 10 hours, at 25 °C 5 to 10%, and at 30 °C only 1 to 5%. Which end you pick depends on how ripe your starter is. The target is a bulk of 8 to 12 hours.

Not necessarily. A fermentolyse does the same work: flour, water and starter go in together right away, just with less starter, around 5 to 10%. The longer fermentation does the same enzyme work without mixing the dough twice.

You don't need very high hydration for great bread. The book recommends around 60% hydration for most flours, which is easier to handle and carries less over-fermentation risk. For a freestanding loaf look for at least 12% protein, and you can mix in around 5 g of vital wheat gluten per 100 g of flour.

Add them right at the start when you mix the dough. Whole kernels such as wheat or rye berries should be soaked in water overnight and rinsed first, so they are not crunchy in the finished loaf. If you forgot to soak them, cook them for 10 minutes in hot water and rinse them cold before they go in.

A sealed plastic bag in the fridge keeps it good for weeks, and toasting each slice brings the crispness back. For longer storage, slice it and freeze portions you can eat within a day.