San Francisco Sourdough DiMuzio Formula

I do not yet own the book, so this bread is based on xaipete(pamela)'s blog with comments from Mr DiMuzio.

The thing that got me thinking was the attention Mr DiMuzio puts on preparing his levain. My starter had gone about 10 days or so without a feeding. I keep a white liquid starter at 100% hydration. 

Preparing for a Friday bake, I fed my starter Monday night, Tuesday night, and Wednesday morning, still keeping it 100%. It was gobbling up the flour at a fast pace. On Wednesday night, I made it into a 60% firm starter and put it in my wine fridge at 62 degrees. I was hoping, as Mr DiMuzio commented, that this lower temperature fermentation would enhance the tang of the sourdough. The firm levain was refreshed twice more at 12 hour intervals, tripling the amount of firm starter at each refreshing.(taking 480 grams of firm starter, discarding 320 grams, and adding 200 grams of flour and 120 gr of water). The starter was doubling in size and peaking at almost exactly 12 hours. 

The formula for 2 loaves:

700 gr KA all purpose flour

500 gr water

21 gr sea salt

480 gr firm levain 60% hydration(the levain was made and refreshed with KA bread flour)

I mixed the all the ingredients in a bowl with a wooden spoon until well mixed and let it all rest for 30 minutes. I then did about 2 minutes of french folds(Bertinet style), and about ten more french folds 20 minute later. And finally 2 more stretch and folds at 20 minute intervals. I bulk fermented for another 1 1/2 hours, then divided and shaped into boules, proofed for another 1hour and 15 minutes and baked in a 480 degree oven, dropping the temp to 430 degrees for 33 minutes with steam applied for the first 10 minutes.

There was substantial oven spring and they smelled great!

I was really expecting a more open crumb than I got. I'm not really sure where I went wrong. I shaped them very carefully trying to keep all the gas in there while getting a good surface tension. Maybe I'll try a bit more water next time.

The flavor was spot on with the perfect subtle tang I was looking for. The crumb was soft and moist,but had a real good tug and chew. Overall I liked it, but think I can improve it. (Like every other bread I have made. lol)

Thanks for reading about my San Francisco Sourdough adventures!