Hi Maggie,
Thanks for writing back. Ok, here goes.
1. I do measure by weight, so I don't think that's the problem.
2. My starter was very active, so I don't think that was it.
3. I did use kosher salt. I usually use 1.5 t for every 1 t regular salt.
4. The only thing I did that was different from the recipe is that
when I got to the shaping/proofing stage, I didn't braid them at that
point, but rolled out the strands to let them proof. I did have some
rise before that during the fermentation phase, but they didn't rise
at all after that. In fact they lost all their structure and became
nearly impossible to handle. As an illustration, I had expected to
gently braid some nice long batard-shaped strands, but when I got to
braiding, the slightest pressure pulled them into super tiny
grissini! It seemed to me that they had begun to lose their internal
structure like the sourdough chef does.
What do you think? I am hopefully going to try them again next
Friday night as I'll have more time this week.
-Adam
-----Original Message-----
From: Maggie Glezer [mailto:glezer@mindspring.com]
Sent: Monday, February 06, 2006 12:46 PM
To: a10er@yahoo.com; bread-bakers@lists.bread-bakers.com
Subject: Sourdough challah help
Hi Adam,
I AM a member of the list! Let's see if I can help you. About adding
extra flour, are you weighing or measuring by volume? I would guess
measuring with a cup, in which case all bets are off--there is just too
much variation in how people measure a cup of flour. This is one of my
favorite things to demonstrate in my hands-on classes--cups of flour can
weigh anywhere from 120 g to almost 200 g depending on how they are
added to the cup--a huge variation. If the extra cup worked with the
way you measured, I wouldn't worry about it. But for the future, I
highly recommend buying a cheap digital scale. Your baking will be
faster, cleaner and much more accurate.
About not getting volume, there are many possible reasons. Usually this
is because the starter just isn't active enough. Does your firm starter
quadruple in volume in 8 hours or less? If not, it's just not ready,
even if you have been using it for years, and needs more refreshments to
become fully active. My recipes use very little starter, so they
require fully active starters. Also, since it's winter, you might not
be giving the dough enough warmth to properly rise, it needs at least 70
degrees F, and does better at even higher temperatures. So you might
need to find a warmer place for optimal performance. If you added too
much flour, and the dough was too stiff, the starter might also have
been slowed. The rule with starters is that the warmer and wetter the
dough, the faster the rise (and the more mild the flavor, but that's a
different topic). Another thought: what kind of salt did you use and how
did you measure it? If you substituted kosher or sea salt, you might
have added to much, which would have slowed the starter. Finally, if
you added too much sugar or honey, you would have the same problem.
It can be really hard to diagnose a problem, the symptoms are few and
causes many. Let me know what you think might be the cause!
All the best,
Maggie