The Complete Guide to Sourdough Troubleshooting

Your sourdough came out flat, dense or gummy, and you followed the recipe exactly. Recipes run on the clock; real dough runs on temperature, flour and the mood of your starter. This complete guide teaches you to read your starter and your dough instead, so you can work out what went wrong with any loaf and fix it next time.

Ten clear chapters cover what is actually normal for a starter; reading starter activity before you bake; how to judge bulk fermentation; what the poke, float and windowpane tests really tell you; diagnosing a flat or dense loaf; gummy crumb, underbaking and the cooling rule; shaping, scoring and oven spring problems; hydration, flour and kitchen conditions; and when to start over versus when to adjust. A full FAQ and glossary round it out.

It is a clickable guide you can keep on your phone, tablet or computer, with free updates for life. Three printables come with it: a Loaf Troubleshooting Flowchart, a Starter Health Card and a Bulk Fermentation Signal Checklist.

Digital download. You receive a zip file with the guide (opens in any web browser) and three printable PDFs. Guide text written with AI assistance from the author's outline and technical direction, edited and finalized by Niche & Nuance Studio.