food S.I.P./Quarantine Cooking

keybrdkid said:
ok Sourdough gurus, I need some advice. I am stumped.
 
I have tried three times, and each time it appears I was unsuccessful in getting my dough to rise. And I'm not sure why. I have tried three different recipes as well. In the last attempt, I made a concerted effort to compensate for the addition of the starter by adjusting the water and flour volumes down proportionally. Not sure it helped though.
 
Now here's where it gets more interesting. I know my starter is rising, because I mark it with tape each time I feed it. I'm at about 11-12 days now on feedings, and I'm up to a ratio of 1:5:5. I got the best rise out of 1:5:5, but that's still only about double of the original volume. So my starter was never very enthusiastic. But at least it was getting better rising over time. I'm going to continue to increase feeding volume to see if that helps get to 3X. 
 
Now the problem is... once the starter goes into the dough, and I knead it until it stretches reasonably well, I then set it out to proof in a bowl covered with saran wrap. I also have tried open air. In both cases, the dough refuses to rise after that point in any length of time from 3-12 hours. 
 
I have been careful about keeping the water temp between 105-115 degrees. I even tried faucet tap water at one point.
 
Not sure what I am doing wrong. Now, that being say, I mixed a match of yeast water mix to see if I could detect yeast activity like I would when I use a packet of ADY. I could not detect any activity in 5 minutes. And yet my starter was still rising. So I'm not sure if my yeast is in fact dead, and some other bacteria has taken over or if something about the consistency or ingredients of my dough is killing the yeast. The most salt I've used is about 2 teaspoons, and I usually whisk it into the flour.
 
I could submit a picture of one of my trial pizzas just to show I tried. But the dough was clearly not cooked enough. Thats the other problem. Because of the type of pizza I'm making, the crust needs to be pre-cooked. I'm not sure how long to pre-cook it for. Most recipes suggest 5 minutes. But this dough recipe was either a sourdough bread type recipe or a brioche style recipe.  Most of the sourdough recipe attempts did not cook in 5 or even 10 minutes. And the consistency of the dough was gray and doughy and not airy. I've had less trouble with previous pizzas where airiness has not been an issue. 
 
 Any ideas? 
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I don't claim any sourdough expertise but from a pizza dough perspective you could try doing an autolyse just water and flour mixed and left to form gluten , before adding your starter to make a levein, preferment.

Don't add salt until after you get some action , first rise.
 
SL,
 
I came up with this new toothpick trick. When you make a pan of enchiladas with cheese on top it's really hard to serve them, you have to guess and stab, and you end up breaking them. So figure out your portions, 2 or 3 per person, so if it's 2, every 2 enchiladas you put 2 toothpicks in the seam. When it comes out of the oven they are a guide for the spatula. You stab it where the toothpicks are, pick them out, and scoop under them.
 
The Hot Pepper said:
SL,
 
I came up with this new toothpick trick. When you make a pan of enchiladas with cheese on top it's really hard to serve them, you have to guess and stab, and you end up breaking them. So figure out your portions, 2 or 3 per person, so if it's 2, every 2 enchiladas you put 2 toothpicks in the seam. When it comes out of the oven they are a guide for the spatula. You stab it where the toothpicks are, pick them out, and scoop under them.
Click to expand...
 
I emailed that post.
 
To all the Tex-Mex joints in Texas.
 
I just got the first response back.
 
"What in the cousin f@#king shit is that"
 
well since my plan A pizza was a complete failure for reasons unknown, I decided to go to plan B. I still had a cup of sourdough starter left over, so I decided to make sourdough pancakes.
 
And while the pancakes were still a little flaccid, I actually saw a huge improvement in the amount of visible air bubbles in the batter. So something about the pancake recipe vs. the bread dough recipe must have
 
encouraged the starter to be more active.
 
DSCF1051.jpg

 
DSCF1050.jpg

 
 
 
Ashen said:
I don't claim any sourdough expertise but from a pizza dough perspective you could try doing an autolyse just water and flour mixed and left to form gluten , before adding your starter to make a levein, preferment.

Don't add salt until after you get some action , first rise.
Click to expand...
 
might try that the next time around. I've tried everything else. worth a shot.
 
that toothpick marking trick is a really good idea.  Good way to mark out the individual burrito logs in the enchilada pan. 
 
Ashen said:
Pitted olives > holes


I am not sure we want to extend this line of thought to the ranch. :rofl:
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pitted cherries, pitted olives, pitted almonds, pitted strawberries, pitted bulls, pitted cheese, pitted rust, pitted faces, pitted outhouses, pitted contests, pitted .........
 
 
 
OK, I gotta re-wine to get back on track.......
 
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