Tartine Leaven vs Stiff Levain?
I bought the book Tartine #3 and it describes the typical long process of creating a leaven by feeding, discarding all but a small portion, feeding, repeat... But he wants us to do this every time we want to make a loaf of bread, then mixing 1Tbsp of the final product with 200g of flour and water each and discarding the rest.
Rather than that, I've got a stiff levain we've been using at school for many, many years that's usually fed once a week. If the recipe calls for 150g of leaven, can I just use 150g of my levain instead of going through that drawn out and wasteful process? Should I take 1Tbsp and mix it with the 200g of water and flour, or use it straight? As a college student I really can't afford to make it every weekend to bake bread, I'd rather have a master levain that I refresh on a weekly basis with ~60g of feeder.
All this building loads and discarding all but a small amount is very wasteful. Build up! to the correct amount.
If you have some stiff starter then take a little off and build up to 150g in 2 or 3 stages. The first stage you could convert to 100% hydration starter then in the second stage you could feed it again to get your 150g. Or the 3rd stage if that's what you wish to do.
E.g. if you have a 50% hydration starter then you could do the following.
Stage 1: 9g starter (6g flour + 3g water) + 22g water + 19g flour = 50g @ 100% hydration. Allow that to bubble up and peak then onto the 2nd stage...
Stage 2: 50g starter + 50g water + 50g flour = 150g starter @ 100% hydration.
Just an example but you see what I mean.
I maintain a 100% hydration starter, but the concept works for whatever your hydration. If I need 150 grams of levain for a loaf I take out 30 grams of my starter, mix it with 60 grams of water and then 60 grams of flour. I let it sit on the counter for around 8 hours (this can be for the day if I make the dough in the evening, or overnight if I want to make dough in the morning).
If I want a stiffer levain, I'll put about a fifth of the total levain finished weight of starter in a bowl and divide the other four fifths by whatever level of hydration I want to end up with (so, if I use 30 grams of starter I'd adjust the hydration of the remaining 120 grams to reflect the finished hydration).
In the overall scheme of things, the hydration of your mother culture doesn't matter very much to the finished bread.
Alright, I'll get a bit more specific now that I understand this a little better. I don't think I got my question across clearly to you all, my apologies.
In the book, he uses a 50/50 starter and feeds it twice daily. He then takes 1 Tbsp of that starter and mixes it with 200g of flour and 200g of water and lets it sit at room temperature for six hours.
So my concern is, it sounds like he's just making a levain, and I believe his final product from this method is going to be the same as my stiff levain [though I used 60/40 instead of 50/50]. Am I correct in thinking this? If so, then if a recipe calls for 150g of leaven I can use 150g of my levain. However, if that's incorrect, then I can take 1Tbsp of my levain and mix it with the 200g of flour and water and use 150g of that product instead.
So basically... Use 150g of levain, or do the mix and use 150g of that result?
Feed your starter and take some off to use in your dough or take some starter to make a Levain to use in your dough is the difference between a six and 2 threes.
A levain is an off shoot starter.
Also, in the book he might be explaining how to build a starter from scratch and the Levain is the final feed. Once you have a starter just take some off and build to requirements. So a person who has a starter can skip to the last step. As long as you end up with 150g starter built to the correct hydration and flour then that is fine!
Alright, wonderful! Thank you very much. This can all be a bit confusing to me since I've only just started making sourdough breads, always stuck to the simple loaves until recently.
As long as you have 150g of active starter built to the correct specs then Bob's your Uncle :)
I just follow these few rules...
1. The flour being fed to the starter should be equal or more than the starter weight. So a feed of 1:1 or higher.
2. I build up so there is no discarding of the Levain.
3. It's nice and active.
Best of luck!
P.s. building a Levain is my preferred method. I keep my mother "seed" starter in the fridge. Each time I'll take a little off to build a Levain with. When my mother starter runs low I'll take it out, feed it, allow it to bubble up by half and return to the fridge. Voila!
Here is a great starter maintenance method by Dabrownman http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/40918/no-muss-no-fuss-starter
I've been doing the same thing since really reading the Tartine book - I keep my starter in the fridge so I only have to refresh it rarely; I've been baking frequently enough I can use the built up levain, and then add to it in about 48 hours to get it rising again for the next loaf.
The priority, as I understand it, for the tartine style, is to have the levain be fresh and on its way up. How you get there is up to you.
I've been speaking to someone at school who got the book, and he mentioned that if you use it on the way up it has a sweet, milky flavor. He uses it during the decline, which he refers to as a mature leaven, to get a more sour and acidic bite. I did the last feeding this morning, so it should be ready to use tomorrow or sunday depending on the time it takes to mature.