My sourdough starter was fine all along, the flour was the liar

I spent 6 weeks fighting a starter that kept peaking then collapsing, blamed my water, my timing, even my kitchen temp. Then my neighbor who bakes professionally told me to check the protein content on my bag. The cheap all-purpose flour I was using had way less protein than I thought, so the structure just gave out every time. Switched to a bread flour with 12.7% protein last Tuesday and the difference was night and day. Has anyone else had a starter fail because of flour, not technique?

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lilycraig27d ago

Oh man, this is so real! My friend Sarah went through almost the exact same thing last winter. She kept complaining her starter was being dramatic and she was about to quit baking entirely. Turns out she was using some no-name brand flour from the discount grocery store and it only had like 9% protein. She switched to a local mill's bread flour and her loaves went from bricks to beautiful in two days. It's wild how much the flour can mess with everything.

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