Sourdough Pizza from "American Pie"

[BadRabbit]

I've had great luck with most of the other doughs in Reinhart's American Pie but the sourdough has consistently let me down. I've started it from scratch twice now and ended up with the same unworkable result.

The seed culture went as it was supposed to (though it took several days more than the book said).

The starter fermented and bubbled.

The final dough came together quickly and became very elastic. However, after setting out to rise the dough was a taffy like mess that fell apart. I even tried to work it back into a dough and it never would even regain elasticity.

At first, I assumed I was just doing something wrong but after setting to it a second time (and being extremely fastidious and precise) I'm wondering if it's just the recipe or one of my ingredients.

I'm not a novice baker so I don't think I made any of the classic sourdough mistakes (e.g. mistaking bacterial bubbling for yeast activity).

Any similar experiences or suggestions on trouble shooting?

[Jackie Tran]

BR, you should consider posting the recipe along with as much detail about the methods & techniques you used so that members can try to pinpoint the problem.

I'm curious to know how much SD starter you use?  What % of the water, flour, or final dough in starter?   And did you recalculate your new hydration ratio after you added the starter?  That may be your problem there, but I'm not sure yet.

Chau

[BadRabbit]

Sorry, I didn't get back to reply in this topic but I figured out how to fix my issue. I ended up folding the dough every 15 minutes during the final fermentation. This seemed to help maintain the gluten structure and gave me a good crust.