I made a loaf of sourdough bread just before Christmas break. It was good-- crusty on the outside, airy and chewy on the inside-- but, it wasn't sour. A little bummed, I typed into google, "why isn't my sourdough sour?" and came up with a variety of reasons the bread didn't have that much-coveted sour taste and a myriad of solutions including everything from feeding your starter rye flower to catching wild yeast (I know, I wondered too...). I'm no sourdough expert, but after some troubleshooting, I've put together a list of recommendations that worked for me. My last loaf of bread was mouthwatering-- hard crust, chewy center, and sufficiently sour. I hope that if you're also struggling with your bread recipe, these ideas help! Here we go:
1. Feed your starter 12-24 hours before using it. If you see hooch (the liquid that develops on top of your starter) in your starter, that means the starter has nothing left to "eat" and if that hooch has been on your starter for awhile (like if you forgot to feed it for a bit) that might be contributing to the lack of sour taste in your bread. When you decide you want to make bread, feed your starter the day before you make the sponge for your dough.
2. Let your dough chill in the fridge overnight (or at least several hours). Fermenting your bread, what you do when you set the dough aside and let it rise, at a warm or room temperature just doesn't create the same flavor as when you put the dough in the fridge.
3. Add a spoonful of plain yogurt to your dough. I've read some bakers recommend adding the spoonful of yogurt to your starter, but I'm hesitant to add anything other than flour and water directly to my starter because.... well... if you ruin it, it's tricky to bring it back. Instead, I added a tablespoon of greek yogurt to my dough. The theory is the sour taste of the yogurt will add a tangy flavor to the dough as it rises-- I definitely noticed a difference in the flavor of my bread when I added it.
Good luck, and happy baking!
Madelyn
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