That’s happened to me a bunch! I read with glass pans you’ll need to butter then oil the pan to prevent sticking. I’ve used pan spray and then oil and it works too. Good luck!

Is balsamic vinegar just old wine?

🤔

You might be right – Two days is a while for it being out of the refrigerator. At the temperature of my house (about 20C), I usually refresh the sourdough the night before and it is bubbly and ready the next morning (8 hours or so) – unless the recipe calls for something different. That’s the timing I used for this one and it worked really well for this recipe, but this website has a lot of better and more detailed advice on how to keep a sourdough.

I’ve been baking sourdough regularly for the past 4 years and had just gotten to the point where I said to myself…”I’ve got this sourdough thing licked” because I was turning out good to very good loaves consistently. Of course, I then hit a slump. By this time I’ve got a pretty good understanding of the fermentation process (I thought), hydration levels (which need to be lower in Ireland due to the ambient humidity), and dough handling. So, what to fix?

My kitchen stays pretty much at 69F to 70F year round (you don’t come to Ireland for the long hot summers!). I’ve been leaving my starter on the counter and feeding it twice a day, as I found that ‘worked’ in terms of the starter life-cycle. But I know that Maurizio talks about storing his starter at 78F. So….I decided to go back to keeping the starter in my Brod and Taylor proofer, set at 75F. The result was spectacular oven spring and great crumb. So I thought….hmmm. Maybe sluggish starter was the cause of the focaccia fails. And indeed, using this recipe/timeline (with the final proofing extended to 4 1/2 hours) worked just fine with a truly healthy starter.

It’s convinced me on the importance of temperature in managing your starter…and my next birthday present is going to be the sourdough starter home!