While underworked dough can simply be fixed by a little more kneading, severely overworked dough cannot be fixed. Instead, the overworked dough will result in a hard loaf that will likely not be eaten. It's important not to overwork your dough and continually check for overworking throughout the kneading process.
Overkneaded dough will be tough and make tough, chewy bread. If you've kneaded by hand, you don't need to be too worried about overworked dough—you'll start to notice it getting difficult to manage. It takes a lot of elbow grease to knead bread dough; you'll likely tire yourself out before you can over-knead.
You most definitely can bulk ferment sourdough too long. If you leave the dough to ferment for too long, it will become "over fermented". Over fermented dough will lose its structure and become a soupy, sloppy mess that you will not be able to shape.
When you cut into an over kneaded dough, you will notice that the interior is very dry and crumbly. The slices will likely fall apart rather than holding their shape. While the general taste of the bread may be the same, it will not have a nice mouth feel but, again, be dry, dense and crumbly- no thank you!
Ideally, sourdough should be the consistency of warm peanut butter. When it's just been fed, it should be quite thick. It's actually ok if it seems a little dry. As the starter ferments, it will absorb the flour and thin out just a little.
A weak starter will not rise rapidly at cool or warm temperatures. The type of flour used in your starter and the hydration percentage can also impact how much of a rise your starter will display. Low protein flours, like all-purpose flour, will not rise as much as higher protein flours.
Runny liquid floating on the surface of your sourdough starter is perfectly normal, and actually shows that your starter is feeding well! The liquid is called 'hooch'. If your sourdough starter starts to run out of food (sugars and starches in your flour), then it will start to produce hooch.
Overproofed is when the dough has rested too long and the yeast has continued making carbon dioxide while the strength of the dough (gluten bonds) have begun to wear out. The dough will look very puffy, but when you touch it or move it you may notice it deflate or sag.
If the bread dough is over-kneaded, it will not rise in the oven because the stiff gluten prevents the gasses from inflating it.
If the dough is under proofed, the indentation springs back really fast and does not stay. If the dough is over proofed, the indentation stays, the surface is sticky, and the structure may collapse.
A mature sourdough starter can last for several weeks to months if kept in a refrigerator without being fed.
After kneading, shape your loaf, cover it, and let it proof for 4-24 hours, depending on your specific sourdough starter and ambient temperature. You can manipulate the sourness of the bread with a longer rise time. A 24-hour rise time will produce much more sour bread than a 4-hour rise time.
Dough that is over-fermented will start to spread once scored and look bubbly/weak. You'll notice it falling in a bit or a lot. Notice how the whole loaf is collapsing. If you notice your dough is over-fermented be sure to score very shallow and use a minimum of scoring slashes.
If your sourdough starter is obviously moldy, then unfortunately the starter has gone bad and should no longer be used. Mold on sourdough starter will look raised and fuzzy, and can range in color from white, yellow, green, blue or pink spots.
Too little folding can result in weak dough. But too much folding can produce excessive tension and compressive forces. An over-folded dough might have a tighter crumb as the layers of alveoli push against each other and coalesce. In the worst case, excessive folding might cause a dough to tear under too much tension.
If the dough doesn't spring back at all, you've likely over-proofed the dough. When the dough rises too much before it gets baked, it will collapse, rather than rise, in the oven's heat, and the crumb will be uneven and ragged.
After the first rise, it's important to punch down the dough to prevent it from over-proofing. Overproofed bread is dense and unable to retain the gas bubbles necessary for the structure of the bread loaf. Let the dough rise to double its original size before punching it down.
Most recipes call for the bread to double in size – this can take one to three hours, depending on the temperature, moisture in the dough, the development of the gluten, and the ingredients used.
Typically, bulk fermentation will take between 6 to 8 hours, but could be longer or shorter by manipulating starter amount and temperature. Ideally, you don't want to allow sourdough bread to cold ferment for longer than 72 hours.
Proofing sourdough overnight in the fridge is a great option if you like to bake first thing in the morning. What is this? You could plan out your sourdough baking timeline so that your bulk fermentation finishes in the evening. You would then shape your dough and place it into the fridge to proof overnight.
You absolutely can leave your sourdough starter out overnight after feeding it, particularly if you are going to bake with it the next day. I highly recommend feeding it a higher ratio to prolong it's peak and ensure that it's ready for the you in the morning. What happens if you let sourdough sit too long?
stir your starter in between feedings - try stirring it twice in between feedings and really give it a chance to get oxygen into the mix. This will help to activate your starter without too much effort.
If at one point your starter was all bubbly and happy, and now it's not rising anymore, it's possible that it needs a few extra feedings to boost the yeast development. Assuming you understand how temperature and ingredients can effect the rise of your starter, try feeding it 2x per day and see what happens.
The discard is just the sourdough starter you're not currently feeding or baking with. It's called discard because it often gets "discarded" during feeding. If you don't "discard" some starter during feeding your starter will just grow and grow and grow until you're staring in a remake of The Blob.