We have all been there before: You allow your dough to bulk ferment on the counter for a few hours, when it is time to shape the dough, you find a blob of sticky and lax sourdough! Nothing is more disappointing when you’ve been looking forward to fresh homemade bread.
Unfortunately, a sticky and lax sourdough can happen all too easily. It does not happen often for me, but every once in a while my dough just doesn’t turn out! I experienced a very sad sticky sourdough just last week and it was quite disheartening. Fortunately, I was able to turn things around, it is important to have a few tricks up your sleeve for when your sourdough is not cooperating.
Why doesn’t sourdough hold shape sometimes?
This can happen for many reasons but one of the main symptoms is a lack of proper gluten development. Gluten development is essential to a light, springy sourdough. Here are a few reasons your gluten may not be developing properly:
Your starter is not active enough
If your starter is not bubbly and active, the dough will not rise. This is the most common reason for a lack of gluten development. How can you achieve an active starter? Read my blog about how to get an active, bubbly sourdough starter here.
Skipping the Autolyse
Skipping the autolyse can impact your dough. Autolysing your dough gives it time to rest before being stretched and allows the flour to hydrate.
Your stretch and folds are not working
Stretching and folding the dough is vital to gluten development! When the dough is stretched, it becomes more elastic and less sticky. With proper gluten development, you will see dough that holds shape and is almost bouncy to the touch. If you suspect that this technique is affecting the outcome of your dough, you might want to watch a few tutorials on stretch and fold techniques to brush up on your technique and or try doing coil folds.
A few of my favorite baking supplies and ingredients:
- Organic, unbleached bread flour
- An active sourdough starter
- Filtered water
- Natural Mineral salt
Bread Baker with Lid
~I love using my Le Cruset or my clay Baker from Breadtopia. Be sure to use an oven-safe, heavy bottom pot with a lid.
Bread Banneton
~for bulk fermenting your dough
A Kitchen Scale
I like to work with an inexpensive one from Amazon.
Bread Lame
~to score your dough. This is the one I use and love!
A fermentation crock or bowl with lid
For rising and fermenting your dough
Loaf Stone
I prefer to use stone to bake because I find the bread to bake more evenly.
Temperature may be affecting your dough
Temperature always affects my dough. I live in an old home with very funky temperature changes. In the summer, my dough can get very warm and easily become over proved. In the wintertime, I struggle to get a rise from my dough because the house can be too cool. If you think temperature may be affecting your dough, you can try a few things:
To achieve warmer dough:
Place dough in the oven with only the light on
Place dough near an air vent releasing warm air
Place dough near your fireplace or woodburning stove
Place dough where afternoon sun will find it. For my house, there are a few western-facing windows where winter afternoon sun pours in and will gently warm my dough.
To achieve cooler dough:
Place dough near an air vent releasing AC
Place dough in a cool corner of the house, this is usually not in the kitchen, but in a closet or bathroom
Place dough under a towel damp with cool water
What to do with a sticky sourdough?
Don’t panic
Do not panic or throw away your dough. I know you are feeling very annoyed right now, but it is important not to lose hope! You can still enjoy your bread, but it might be a little different than intended.
Do not add flour
Never add flour after the bulk fermentation, it will change the chemistry of your dough and will not solve the problem.
Do not continue to bake as usual
Technically, you can do this, but if you do, your bread will not be able to hold its shape and will be very flat and dense.
How to still enjoy your sticky sourdough:
Turn underdeveloped dough into sandwich bread
Once you discover your dough is not holding shape, gently transfer it to an oiled bread stone and allow it to rise for a few hours before baking as usual. The walls of the loaf stone will give structure to the dough, allowing it to rise in the oven.
Make impromptu sourdough muffins
Gently turn out your sticky dough and divide it into small pieces suitable to fit in a muffin mold. Now is a great time to add dried fruit, chocolate chips, nuts, or any other muffin flavorings you prefer. Place each piece in a muffin cup and allow to rise for a few hours or overnight before baking!
Thank you for the insight! How long and at what temp do you bake the sandwich bread at?
Hey Rachel! You can bake at 350 for about 25-30 minutes or until the top is golden brown. Be sure not to open the oven while the bread is in there or it can affect the rise!
xo,
Regina
Thank you so much!
Thank you so much!
Thank you so much!
Thanks for thr great article!
I just watched your starter/ levain video. It sort of makes sense but you son’t mention how long to leave your levain before you add the rest of the flour and water to start baking… ?
Hey there! I’m glad you liked the video, it’t not mine tho 🙂 When following this levain method you simply wait until it is bubbly and active before mixing it to bake.
xo,
Regina
Hi! I’ve tried a few sourdough bread recipes and it rises, but the dough isn’t elastic enough to score. I’m getting frustrated.
Hey Diana,
It sounds like you need to do some starter troubleshooting! I would recommend you check out some of my blogs on this topic for more information 🙂
xo,
Regina
Hi! I’m very new to sourdough! Anytime I’m reading over proofing what exactly does that mean? I’ve read some blogs say you can’t overproof and others say only let it rise double then shape immediately. I’ve tried letting it bulk ferment overnight and it always looks so lovely come morning but when I go to shape it doesn’t stay in a ball and starts to relax flat again on the surface. I’m always disappointed because I follow every time along the way as best as possible! Maybe I’m over fermenting and I need to not let it rise overnight.
Side note I don’t think it’s my starter but could be. It’s very active, bubbly, grows in almost triple height, and thicker more than liquidy. It always seems very happy when I go to use it
Hey Candice,
I am usually of the opinion that you cannot overproof if you have a strong active starter. That being said, over-proofing means that your dough rests at room temperature for too long and looses it’s shape. Your issues could be with your starter or you might need to refine your shaping technique (I’d head over to youtube for some tutorials). I always rise, shape, and then do a cold ferment over night before baking.
I hope these tips help,
xo,
Regina
Hi Regina,
I’m losing hope, I’ve been attempting to bake sourdough for nearly half a year without any success. My starter is very active, I feed it vigorously for 3 days before making levain from it. I use 100g levain, 400g white flour, 100g whole grain rye flour and 340-370g water. I autolyse for 30 minutes, mix in the levain, add the salt 30 more minutes later and then complete 4 stretch and folds every half hour. I do not see any rise (maybe just a tiny bit) in between the stretch and folds or in the hours after them. I’ve tried both – overnight proofing in the fridge and same day baking.
My dough does not hold shape and, as a consequence, almost always runs into the fabric of my rising basket 🙁
Any ideas about what I could improve, change? I don’t want to give up yet, but this is more discouraging than I expected 😀
From my experience, it’s all about the starter. If you have a bubbly and active starter, your bread will do great. If your starter is struggling, so will your loaf. That being said, I don’t think your bread recipe is the problem. If I were you I would watch this video which is really helpful for troubleshooting starter issues: https://youtu.be/4FlQnNi-csg?si=r8ZD24vYga4lRz2o
xo,
Regina
It is very comforting to see that others are suffering from the same problem as you, wow!
Hi! I’ve used a recipe that came with a starter and the finished bread is great! The stretch folds work and I get a good dough the only problem is when I take it out to shape it and get it ready, the dough relaxes out quite a bit with a slight sheen to it when I score it. What might I be doing wrong?
Hey Megan! How does the dough look after it is shaped before cold ferment? Does it hold in a tight ball when properly shaped? It should relax some before you shape it but it shouldn’t completely melt into the countertop….
Are you cold fermenting your dough before scoring and baking? This really helps with shape and oven spring too.
I hope these ideas help you troubleshoot!
xo,
Regina
To me it sounds like the over proofing I struggled with for a long time. Know the interval on your starter as a guide for your entire bread session. I aim to get my loaf in the fridge before 60-75% of that timeline. Possible problems are: too much starter, too high of ambient temperature, don’t use warm water when mixing either, don’t use tap (chemicals can zap your starter), and too much starter can eat thru you flour quickly.
How much starter are you using? More or less than 20%? I stick to 18-20%. Try lower hydration and less starter. If you are using 25-30% starter you will need to have low hydro and work very fast. Are you using an all purpose flour? Or high protein bread flour? I use a flour with high protein 4-6g of protein per the 30g servings in the nutrition facts, rather than 3g. But my guess is too high of hydration or something is causing fast fermentation. Email me…let’s figure it out!!! [email protected]
My sourdough starter is extremely active and looks amazing but when i try to make a loaf the dough doesn’t rise (ever) and stay really sticky, won’t hold shape at all! Do you know what the problem could be?
What do you mean when you say “extremely active”? Is it very bubbly and rising really well? If so, what recipe are you using for your dough? It could be getting over proofed…definitely need more details in order to diagnose this problem so let me know and I will try to help 🙂
xo,
Regina
Hi Regina, I have exactly the same problem. I used 500g rye flour, 250g strong white flour and 250g Emmer flour. Is the problem with sticky dough lie in low gluten flour I used? How can save it still? My dough is very sticky before bulk fermentation. Thank you!
Hey Mona,
Sticky dough isn’t necessarily a bad thing if it is elastic and holds it’s shape when shaped…Before you do the cold ferment and are shaping your dough, it should hold in a tight ball if shaped and developed properly. Definitely check out some of the resources I gave in my comment to Dani!
xo,
Regina
Hello, how long and at what temperature would you bake the muffins?
I like to bake them at 375 F for about 25 minutes 🙂
I need help. I follow the recipe word for word and my starter is very bubbly and bulks before I use it. My initial bulk fermentation looks great, it’s rising by double, I can see air bubbles throughout the dough and there are big bubbles on the top, it wobbles and seems very active.
The problem is, as soon as I take my dough out of the bowl after the bulk ferment it collapses onto the counter into a wet shapeless, flattened blob. It’s very difficult to keep a boule shape because it’s so loose. The second issue is once I do get it into the banner on and overnight proof, it doesn’t rise. I’ve waited up to 18 hours and the dough is still very sticky and the exact same size as when I started.
I bake it as usual and the taste is decent, but I think this could be better.
Where do you think I’m going wrong? Thanks!
Hey! I would be curious as to what recipe you are using…
Your problem might be with gluten development. Are you doing stretch and folds to really develop your dough? If you have an active starter and are following a good recipe exactly, it might be the gluten development. Good luck and let me know how things go!
I’m having this problem too.
I’m using 50g starter, roughly 375-390g water, 500g flour. Then 10g of salt after it sits for a bit.
I’ve gotten 3 sticky lifeless blobs.
My starter is rockin and rolling though. It overflowed my mason jar in just a few hours.
Hey Dani, I would definitely use more starter in those ratios you mentioned! A couple ideas of why this is happening…
1. Your starter is not as ready as you think it is. Check out this video which really helps troubleshoot some starter issues: https://youtu.be/4FlQnNi-csg?si=r8ZD24vYga4lRz2o
2. Maybe your dough is lacking gluten development…have you been performing proper stretch and folds or coil folds? Are you seeing the dough progress as you do these? Also be sure you are properly shaping the dough before you cold ferment…
Hopefully these ideas help you to troubleshoot!
xo, Regina
Thank you for the tips! I tried a different recipe than my usual and it was gloppy- thinking my starter was not active enough AND I used too much water. I’m so sad!! ♀️
I have totally been there! Almost always, discarding most of the starter and giving it a really big feed helps me to achieve an active starter. Don’t give up, you got this!