Post #2827236

@titania@retro.pizza Let me provide some background info: (a) I'm following the recipe(s) from the Bittman book; it is called no-knead, but it does involve several rounds of folding of the dough in the bowl. (b) My partner has diabetes, so we're really only interested in whole-grain breads. I know this makes our life more difficult. We've been generally following the book's recommendation to use mostly wheat and add in only 10% by weight of additives like rye flour. (c) I don't think there's any problem with the activity levels of our starter. It bubbles up very obviously, smells good, and it's pretty warm here during the day (I'm in the Himalayas in India). I also have a pH meter, and though it's a pain to use, we measured a 4.x pH (don't remember the exact value, but it was in line with what I found on various "is my starter too acidic" web sites). (d) The specific problem I have is that after the first few fold-and-let-rise cycles, the dough (which initially behaves promisingly) just slumps and becomes wetter. There's some gluten development, but not enough, or it slows down, or something. I've just restarted our two starters (they were in the fridge while we were away), so I'm going to try and bake a bread this weekend. I'll take some detailed notes and see how it turns out, and try to report more specifics. Meanwhile, I'll also have a look at the recipe you linked to, to prepare. Thank you so much for helping me with this. I really appreciate it. (I've been self-hosting all sorts of things on my own server since the 1990s, though I've never told anyone to "just self host, bro", so I don't think I can call myself an expert. I know you have people to ask for help already, but please feel free to ask me if you ever need an extra hand with something.)