Why Your Sourdough Isn't Rising (And How to Fix It)

⏱ 4 min read

Spring feels like the right time to start baking sourdough, or to get back into it after a slow winter. The kitchen is warmer, you've got more energy, maybe you picked up a new starter. And then... the dough just sits there. Dense, flat, stubborn.

A loaf that won't rise is probably the most common frustration in sourdough baking, and it almost always has a fixable cause. This post is for anyone who has pulled something disappointing out of the oven and genuinely has no idea what went wrong. Let's sort it out.

The Most Likely Culprit: Your Starter

Before anything else, look at your starter. A weak or underactive starter is responsible for the majority of flat loaves, especially for newer bakers. If your starter isn't actually ready when you mix your dough, no amount of technique is going to save it.

A starter that's ready to bake with will be visibly bubbly, smell pleasantly sour and yeasty (not like nail varnish remover), and should double in size within four to eight hours of a feed at room temperature. The float test, where you drop a small spoonful into water to see if it floats, is a rough guide but not foolproof. Consistent doubling is a more reliable signal.

If you're just getting started and want something dependable to work with, the Classic Sourdough Starter from DoughRise is already active and well-established, which takes a lot of the guesswork out of the early stages.

Temperature Is Doing More Than You Think

Now that we're heading into spring, kitchens are generally warming up, which is genuinely helpful for fermentation. But temperature is still one of the most misunderstood variables in sourdough. Too cold and the yeast barely moves. Too warm and the bacteria race ahead, throwing off the balance.

For bulk fermentation, you want your dough sitting somewhere between 24°C and 28°C. Below that and you need to extend your timing significantly. A dough that might bulk in four hours at 26°C could take seven or eight hours at 19°C. Most failed loaves aren't under-proofed because of bad technique, they're under-proofed because the baker followed a timing guide written for a warmer kitchen than theirs.

Get a basic kitchen thermometer if you haven't already. It changes everything when you start understanding what your dough is actually experiencing, not just what the clock says.

Are You Reading the Dough, Not the Clock?

Recipe timings are a starting point, not a rule. Your dough is ready to shape when it has grown noticeably (usually 50 to 75 percent), feels airy and slightly domed on top, and wobbles gently like set jelly when you move the bowl. Those signs matter more than whether it has been four hours or six.

The same logic applies to the final proof. Pressing your finger lightly into the dough should leave an indent that springs back slowly. If it springs back immediately, it needs more time. If it doesn't spring back at all, you've gone too far.

Other Things Worth Checking

A few other causes that come up more often than they should:

• Flour quality: Low-protein plain flour won't give you the gluten structure to trap gas. Use a strong bread flour with at least 12 percent protein.
• Salt added too early: If salt makes direct contact with your starter before it's incorporated into the dough, it can slow fermentation noticeably.
• Not enough folds: Stretch and folds during bulk fermentation build the structure your dough needs to hold its shape and rise properly in the oven.

Give It One More Go

Sourdough has a way of making you feel like you've done everything right and still ended up with a doorstop. But there's almost always a specific reason, and once you find it, it tends not to happen again. Start with your starter, check your temperatures, and trust the dough over the clock.

Spring is honestly a lovely time to get this dialled in. The ambient warmth helps, the longer days make you feel less rushed, and there's something satisfying about pulling off a decent loaf when the kitchen finally feels alive again.

If you want to keep improving, there's plenty more on doughrise.store to help you get there.

Happy baking! Find everything you need at doughrise.store

Photo by Stephen Han on Unsplash