Hot steaming sourdough

Overproofing is the most likely cause.

Hi Shelia, As mentioned in my notes, I was lucky enough to get my starter from Coombeshead Farm whilst attending a baking course. My best suggestion for you would be to find a Rustic Bakery near you and see if they will provide you with a small sample of their own - you’ll only need a teaspoon full which you can then maintain. To that end I tried to attach 2 documents which should be useful for this purpose but alas it won’t let me. The book is Tartine by Chad Robinson Hope this is helpful - good baking

You can make an emergency starter with Live Kefir – within 24 hours. I was short of time to do this, as a previously reliable starter had gone "off". I made a starter as follows: 1) equal volumes of kefir at room temperature and flour. This works out at about 200 % hydration – the idea is to get lots of bacteria working on the flour quickly. The bacteria in kefir are lactobacilli, which is the sort that you get in starters made in more traditional ways. 2) Leave for 2-3 hours or until it begins to bubble. This can be anything from 1 hour to 12 hours depending on temperature. 3) Add in the same volume of flour again and mix. You now have approximately equal weights of kefir & flour, or 100% hydration, leave for another hour or 2. 4) Mix in equal weights of flour and filtered water (at room temperature) to bulk up the starter to the amount you need (plus a bit more to keep) and wait till it is bubbling up ( I left it overnight. If you do not have a water filter use water that has been boiled and cooled – you want to get rid of any chlorine/fluoride in the water, as it is there to kill bacteria. It is important to use water at this stage, so as to counteract the natural acidity of the kefir) ). This gives a usable sourdough starter in 12-24 hours, with a wide range of yeasts (even wider if you use home ground flour). OK, it hasn't the depth of flavour of a starter which has matured over months or years, but it provides bread with a good structure, and is the quickest way I have found to get a good starter from scratch.