Cook's Illustrated Pain au Levain Recipe
Hello Fresh Loaf,
The latest issue of Cook's Illustrated contains a recipe for "almost no-knead sourdough bread", and a link to one for pain au levain (available until approx dec. 2016 at https://www.cooksillustrated.com/oct16), both of which contained a couple of oddities I thought I would ask about.
1) They suggest refrigerating the levain four twelve-eighteen hours approximately 5 hours after feeding it. I have seen other bakers suggest this as a way to adjust the timing of a recipe, but CI implies that it will improve the resulting loaf. They usually test most variables, but they do not explain this one in the recipe. Any thoughts?
2) They suggest baking the bread by placing it in a cold dutch oven, then starting it in a cold oven. I have never seen this advice before, and I wonder if they have reasons for it, or if they just couldn't bring themselves to advise people to lower a loaf into a hot dutch oven. Has anyone tried or had any luck with cold starts like this? Or can anyone suggest what might be behind this advice?
There are some other oddities about the recipe too, so please feel free to share thoughts on the recipe below. I tried it once and it was a disaster (squat loaves, oddly-shaped with very thick crusts and VERY chewy crumb but a nice sweet flavour), but I was in a hurry, and may have made mistakes. Your insights will be much appreciated!
I saw this recipe and wanted to give it a try but I am having way too much fun with 1-2-3 bread. The recipe does sound strange to me as well!
1. Refrigerating the levain will slow it down encouraging more tang as it will have more acetic acid. The first five hours is to "activate" it and the rest of the time in the fridge is so it can mature in colder temperature. If left at room temperature it will peak much faster. In the fridge it'll need longer. An interesting way of doing it but I think that's the gist of it. I keep my mother starter like this and do the pre-ferment/s all at room temperature. Retarding the dough, either at the bulk ferment or final proofing stages, has the same effect. They're just doing this for the levain build. Interestingly enough they have retarded the levain build and final proofing both to get more flavour. I think you can easily just do a normal levain build and then get enough flavour with the final retard. Yes, a retarded levain will be more tangy but it's also how you use it within the actual dough. Most peoples sourdough starters are flavoursome and these added steps are to encourage one flavour or the other. Doing both will certainly help but not strictly necessary. Of course it's up to you and it depends on your starter as well. Your squat loaves and thick crust could have to do with mistiming the retarded levain and it wasn't active enough. Do a normal levain build and proceed when it's mature and bubbly. The one retard for the final proofing will be enough.
2. With the Pain au Levain the baking seems very confusing. Bit of a waffle going on there and certainly can be improved upon or changed to suit your more traditional way of doing things. I think what's happening is they're using the oven to finish off the final proofing so you can't pre-heat the dutch oven. I've re-read the recipe a few times and that's as much as I can make out of it. The explanation doesn't flow. I cannot access the other recipe other then a video which i'll have to watch later. Not baking in a pre-heated oven could well have also effected your loaves.
I've only used it a few times and never done a side by side comparison vs. using a preheated one, but with this caveat, all of my small sample of loaves using a cold DO have turned out well, with no differences significant enough for me to remember.
Do a search on this site for "cold Dutch oven"; it has been discussed fairly thoroughly and some folks have done side by side comparisons. This thread is only one of the ones you will find in that search.