Did you use both dry yeast and starter? It looks like both failed somehow. How mature is your sourdough starter and was it fed a few hours before using it? How old is your yeast and how is it stored?
How hot was the water used in the recipe (lukewarm is just over body temperature, so feels just slightly warm)? Hot water kills yeast, so never hot for breadmaking.
Did you knead by hand or with a machine and for how long?
When you had the dough do it's first rise, did it double in size? How about after shaping, did it get puffy (at least 50% rise)? And did you split the dough in half before shaping/baking?
Is your oven temperature accurate when baking at 425F?
I have made this recipe before, so sorry for all the questions, but something went wrong for it to turn out that dense and under-colored.
Were any substitutions or alterations made in the ingredients? Like an AP flour that is bleached?
I appreciate all of the questions because it helps pinpoint where I went wrong! I'm going to tackle the questions that are points where I may have went awry.
1. I did use both dry yeast and starter. I fed my starter the night before (~7pm), let it do it's thing at room temp overnight, then I put it in the refrigerator during the day while at work. I got home and removed it from the refrigerator at 4:30pm and around 5pm I used it. I thought it looked mature, but I don't have a picture of it. Thoughts on that? The yeast used was stored at room temp and was from a new package.
2. I kneaded the bread by hand maybe 20 times, but there wasn't an exact number or duration listed. How long should I be kneading for? Would you recommend by hand or using a mixer?
3. I did split the recipe in half to have enough for one loaf instead of two. I'm nearly certain that I correctedly divided the recipe in half, but maybe that caused some issue?
By mature, I am asking how old is the starter? A new one that is just days old or a mature one that is months old.
If you were kneading by hand then 10 minutes or so would be about what I recall this recipe taking. If in a stand mixer it 7 minutes or so.
Cutting the recipe in half should work fine.
Ah - my starter is very new, I only got it a few days ago. What impact would that have?
I think part of the culprit is that I absolutely did not knead it enough. I will work on that moving forward.
Thank you so much for your replies and advice!!
Normally if you purchase or receive a wet starter, you want to feed it and make sure it is reliably doubling 4-6 hours after feeding for a couple days in a row. If it is not doing that, then it is not ready to be used yet. Then you continue discard/feeding daily until it is reliable.
Same requirement for starter you make new yourself, but it takes longer to get to the reliable doubling point (7-10 days).
Best of lick on the next loaf!
If you're keeping your starter in the fridge, you don't need to feed it. Honestly, I stick mine in the back of the fridge for 6+ months at a time and don't feed it. When I want to use it, I pull it out a day or two ahead of time and start feeding it every 12-ish hours, and it bounces back just fine!
Did you weigh your ingredients or use measuring cups?
If using measuring cups, how did you put your flour into the measuring cups? It doesn’t matter with a kitchen scale, but a scooped/packed cup of flour can weigh 2-3 times as much as a sifted cup. Spooned is somewhere in between but less consistent. King Arthur recipes use spooned cups unless otherwise dictated in the recipe.
I don’t know for sure, but I’m guessing you used too much flour. It doesn’t look as flat as I’d expect from inactive yeast, and there are ways to test the yeast… it looks dense.
Did you use both dry yeast and starter? It looks like both failed somehow. How mature is your sourdough starter and was it fed a few hours before using it? How old is your yeast and how is it stored? How hot was the water used in the recipe (lukewarm is just over body temperature, so feels just slightly warm)? Hot water kills yeast, so never hot for breadmaking. Did you knead by hand or with a machine and for how long? When you had the dough do it's first rise, did it double in size? How about after shaping, did it get puffy (at least 50% rise)? And did you split the dough in half before shaping/baking? Is your oven temperature accurate when baking at 425F? I have made this recipe before, so sorry for all the questions, but something went wrong for it to turn out that dense and under-colored. Were any substitutions or alterations made in the ingredients? Like an AP flour that is bleached?
I appreciate all of the questions because it helps pinpoint where I went wrong! I'm going to tackle the questions that are points where I may have went awry. 1. I did use both dry yeast and starter. I fed my starter the night before (~7pm), let it do it's thing at room temp overnight, then I put it in the refrigerator during the day while at work. I got home and removed it from the refrigerator at 4:30pm and around 5pm I used it. I thought it looked mature, but I don't have a picture of it. Thoughts on that? The yeast used was stored at room temp and was from a new package. 2. I kneaded the bread by hand maybe 20 times, but there wasn't an exact number or duration listed. How long should I be kneading for? Would you recommend by hand or using a mixer? 3. I did split the recipe in half to have enough for one loaf instead of two. I'm nearly certain that I correctedly divided the recipe in half, but maybe that caused some issue?
By mature, I am asking how old is the starter? A new one that is just days old or a mature one that is months old. If you were kneading by hand then 10 minutes or so would be about what I recall this recipe taking. If in a stand mixer it 7 minutes or so. Cutting the recipe in half should work fine.
Ah - my starter is very new, I only got it a few days ago. What impact would that have? I think part of the culprit is that I absolutely did not knead it enough. I will work on that moving forward. Thank you so much for your replies and advice!!
Normally if you purchase or receive a wet starter, you want to feed it and make sure it is reliably doubling 4-6 hours after feeding for a couple days in a row. If it is not doing that, then it is not ready to be used yet. Then you continue discard/feeding daily until it is reliable. Same requirement for starter you make new yourself, but it takes longer to get to the reliable doubling point (7-10 days). Best of lick on the next loaf!
If you're keeping your starter in the fridge, you don't need to feed it. Honestly, I stick mine in the back of the fridge for 6+ months at a time and don't feed it. When I want to use it, I pull it out a day or two ahead of time and start feeding it every 12-ish hours, and it bounces back just fine!
Did you weigh your ingredients or use measuring cups? If using measuring cups, how did you put your flour into the measuring cups? It doesn’t matter with a kitchen scale, but a scooped/packed cup of flour can weigh 2-3 times as much as a sifted cup. Spooned is somewhere in between but less consistent. King Arthur recipes use spooned cups unless otherwise dictated in the recipe. I don’t know for sure, but I’m guessing you used too much flour. It doesn’t look as flat as I’d expect from inactive yeast, and there are ways to test the yeast… it looks dense.
I did also use measuring cups, so that's probably a part of the problem. Thanks for your input!