I finally stopped fighting my sourdough starter after a stranger's tip

I used to dump starters that didn't double in 4 hours, thought they were trash. Then this older lady at the farmer's market in Boise watched me toss one and said, 'Honey, that dough is just shy, not dead.' She had me feed it at 7pm, leave it on the counter overnight, and bake at 9am the next day. Now I keep a lazy 12-hour rise schedule and my loaves actually have that open crumb everyone wants. Anyone else got a weird timing trick from a random stranger that just works?

2 comments

2 Comments

thomasgonzalez1d ago

Half the stuff in life works better slow, people just won't wait.

paul_ramirez11h ago

Friend of mine had the same thing happen but with pizza dough. Some old guy at a garage sale told him to shove the dough in the fridge for three days and only pull it out an hour before stretching it. Guy swore the dough got smarter the longer it sat. My buddy tried it once out of spite, figured he'd prove the old man wrong. Ended up with the best damn crust he ever made, now he's got a permanent three-day pizza schedule and tells everyone about the garage sale prophet.