The Yeast I Can Do

The Yeast I Can Do Sydney mum who caught the sourdough bug during COVID. After discovering I couldn’t tolerate commercial yeast, I learned to bake my own bread.

Sharing simple recipes, experiments, honest wins, baking fails and everything I’ve learned along the way.

21/08/2026

I think all is forgiven 🥰

Poor Cin-dough-rella has been a little neglected lately. Between being sick, work and life generally getting in the way, she’s spent far more time in the fridge than she’s accustomed to.

So last night I pulled her out and gave her a very generous feed. Basically the sourdough equivalent of an apology banquet 😂

And this morning… THIS.

Stretchy, bubbly, fluffy and very much alive.

Apparently Cin-dough-rella doesn’t hold a grudge. Just feed her enough flour and all is forgiven. 😂

And now that she’s back in action, I think it’s only fair I bake something a little special with her. 🥰

Either a Dragonfruit, Olive and Rosemary or a new Scroll recipe? 🤔

21/08/2026

THIS is what an overproofed loaf looks like!

I’d love to say I deliberately overproofed this loaf just so I could demonstrate it for you… but sadly, no. 😂

I got…distracted.

One of the dangers of using a proofer in winter is that it’s very easy to think, “It still needs a bit longer…” and wander off. At warmer dough temperatures, fermentation is moving much faster than it would on a cold winter bench.

This loaf went from looking slightly underproofed to very obviously overproofed in about 30 minutes. 😭

This was a 20% rye, 5% wholemeal loaf, so I wasn’t expecting a huge, wildly open crumb to begin with. But by the time I shaped it, the dough was extremely soft and relaxed and had lost the strength it needed to give me the height I was after.

And this is the crumb reveal.

Still plenty of bubbles. Still beautifully soft. And the flavour? Fire. 🔥

Unlike an underproofed loaf, which can be dense and gummy, an overproofed loaf can still be absolutely delicious. Mine just didn’t have enough structure left for that lovely tall shape and oven spring.

So if you’re using a proofer to speed things up through winter, keep a VERY close eye on your dough towards the end of bulk.

Because apparently “I’ll check it again in half an hour” can be famous last words. 😂

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21/08/2026

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20/08/2026

Why do I add ice to my bake?

Steam.

When sourdough first hits the oven, I want the surface of the dough to stay moist and flexible for those first crucial minutes. Adding a little ice to my preheated cast iron baker creates extra steam, helping delay the crust setting so the loaf has more time to expand. It can also help give you that lovely thin, crisp, blistered crust.

But here comes the warning… ⚠️

Please don’t throw ice into a PREHEATED enamelled Dutch oven.

The key word here is preheated.

Dropping ice into enamel that has been heated to baking temperatures creates a sudden temperature change — thermal shock — which can crack, craze or damage the enamel.

Sourdough forums are full of victims who’ve lost their beautiful, expensive Dutch ovens to this dreaded beginner mistake.

I know… because I was one of them. 😂

Bare cast iron doesn’t have that enamel coating, which is why I’m comfortable adding a couple of ice cubes to my preheated cast iron bread baker.

And if you bake using a cold-start method, that’s a different situation — you’re not dropping ice onto screaming-hot enamel and creating that same sudden temperature change.

If you are preheating an enamelled Dutch oven, you really don’t need the ice anyway. The dough releases moisture as it bakes and, with the lid on, that steam is trapped inside.

So learn from my expensive mistake:

Ice + preheated bare cast iron = 👍
Ice + preheated enamel = 🚫

Anyone else sacrificed a Dutch oven to the sourdough gods? 😭

19/08/2026

🌡️ Stop guessing your bulk fermentation time — check your dough instead.

If your dough is ready much earlier or later than the recipe says, temperature could be the reason.

We put a lot of focus on time with sourdough, but dough doesn’t follow a clock. A dough sitting at 26–27°C is going to ferment much faster than the same dough at 20–21°C.

As a rough guide:
20–21°C: slow fermentation
22–24°C: steady fermentation
25–27°C: faster fermentation
28°C+: things can move very quickly

This is why “bulk ferment for 5 hours” can only ever be a guide.

I like to temp my dough after mixing and during bulk fermentation, but I don’t use temperature to decide when it’s done. I’m still watching the dough — the rise, bubbles, domed surface, dough pulling away from the bowl and, of course, that marshmallow jiggle.

And remember, dough temperature isn’t necessarily the same as room temperature. Water and flour temperature, mixing and even your bowl can all affect it.

The thermometer won’t tell you when bulk fermentation is finished. It just gives you a much better idea of how quickly you’re likely to get there.

Do you temp your dough?

19/08/2026

I’ve been experimenting again… because I’m too curious for my own good 😂💜

This time I fed Cin-dough-rella ube as well as flour, and the results were so interesting!

She doubled in the same time as usual, but the texture changed completely. Instead of big bubbles, she was like chocolate mousse — light, airy, and full of tiny bubbles.

I also noticed she rose normally but fell much faster after peaking.

My guess is the ube didn’t change fermentation speed, but it did affect the structure and how she held gas.

So now I need to bake with her 😂💜

I’m thinking ube sourdough brioche rolls…

What would you make? 💜

19/08/2026

How is your sourdough journey going so far?

What are you struggling with at the moment? Is it your starter? Bulk fermentation? Shaping? Getting that elusive oven spring? Or maybe you’re just feeling like nothing is working no matter what you try? Maybe you want to share a breakthrough you’ve just had and finally feel your in the “groove”.

Tell me in the comments. I’d genuinely love to know what stage you’re at right now. ❤️

It always breaks my heart when I hear someone say they’re ready to give up. Mostly because I was right there too — on the brink of throwing in the muslin cheesecloth 😂

And thank God I didn’t, because so many glorious loaves would never have been baked.

Sourdough has a way of making you feel like you’ve finally cracked it… and then promptly reminding you that you absolutely have not. 😂 But every weird loaf, pancake, gummy crumb and questionable experiment teaches you something.

So, where are you at right now?

What’s the ONE thing about sourdough you wish you could finally figure out? 👇

Maybe we can figure it out together. ❤️

Sharing my recent fails in the comments and what went wrong. 😭

18/08/2026

100% vs 70% vs 50% hydration starter

Same starter. Same flour. Three different hydrations — and you can really see the difference.

A 100% hydration starter is made with equal weights of flour and water. It’s the loosest of the three, easy to mix and tends to ferment and reach its peak more quickly.

At 70% hydration, we start moving into stiff starter territory. There’s less water available, so the starter is thicker, more structured and generally ferments a little more slowly.

And at 50% hydration, the difference is really obvious. This is a very stiff starter — much more dough-like in texture, slower moving and generally able to hold its peak for longer.

But changing hydration isn’t just about how your starter looks.

A stiffer starter can also help with managing acidity. Lower hydration changes the fermentation environment, generally favouring yeast activity relative to the more acid-producing pathways we associate with a wetter starter.

That’s one of the reasons I like keeping a stiffer starter between bakes. It gives me a little more flexibility with feeding and refrigeration, and if I need a 100% hydration starter for a recipe, I can simply build a 100% hydration levain from it.

You don’t need three different starters.

Same starter. Different hydration. Different behaviour.

Which hydration do you keep yours at?

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