Sourdough not sour!
Hi everyone,
I've made probably ten loaves over the past few months and none of them have been sour at all! I typically follow Claire Saffitz's recipe from the NYT. It's 500g bread flour, 375g water, 100g starter and 10 g salt. The levain sits overnight, I autolyse for an hour, fold for ten minutes until the dough passes the window pane test, then do a series of folds every 60 minutes until it's ready to shape. Typically between 3 and 5 hours.
I shape the dough and let it sit in the proofing basket for 1-2 hours until it passes the poke test then let it sit in the fridge overnight, typically for about 16 hours.
I worry about leaving it in the fridge so long it over proofs, but I've yet to get any serious sour flavor at all.
My bread has always risen well with good crumb and oven spring, it's just not sour!
I have a feeling the lack of sour flavor has something to do with my starter perhaps? I followed king arthur flour's starter recipe of 113 g flour/water and when refreshing a 1:1:1 ratio. Would decreasing the amount of starter in each refresh make a more sour sourdough? My starter smells pretty fruity and boozy on a typical day.
Any advice you have would be greatly appreciated. I love a really tangy dough and this has just been a complete mystery for me!
Thanks so much!
The are different ways to make ist more or less sour.
See https://truesourdough.com/18-ways-to-make-sourdough-bread-more-or-less-sour
I've read this article before and I've done almost all of the suggestions. I always keep the hooch, I don't feed it too often, I stir it a LOT to get oxygen in, I do a cold ferment for at least 12 hours, I've never enriched the recipe, I use warm water, I use a preferment, and I'd never use baking soda!
Unfortunately, rye flour is impossible to find at our grocery stores right now, and I've tried 30% whole wheat and it didn't change the sourness. Does degassing include when you fold the dough? Because I do that at least 3 times for each loaf. My starter is only a few months old...could that be it? Do I just have to wait?
I really love sourdough flavor and I'm just stumped!
I’d read contradictory accounts of how the percentage of starter used will affect the sourness of the baked bread. On Breadtopia someone posted an experiment where they baked two loaves, one with a smaller inoculation of levain and one with a larger inoculation of levain. I think most people say that the one with the smaller inoculation will taste more sour. However, it was the baker’s opinion that the one that they used more levain was more sour. I couldn’t find the thread to share here, but that was the gist of the post.
Benny
Here is the Breadtopia thread I mentioned in my post above. It is worth a read, it was quite well done as an experiment.
Thank you!
Hey mandolin,
You might want to try a different feeding ratio for your levain. I feed mine 1:3:5 for a stiff (60%hydration) levain or 1:5:5 for a liquid (100% hydration) levain and ferment at room temp for at least 12 hours. I also use a blend of 85% bread flour and 15% rye (or durum if I want more sour from my levain - also grind my own whole grain flours with a Komostone mill).
For a more pronounced sour, you want to use your levain on the riper side of things (I wait until my liquid levain starts to collapse) as well as use a smaller amount in your final dough. Try 8% pre-fermented flour which in your formula would amount to 80g of 100% hydration starter (you would need to adjust the flour and water in your final dough by 10g each to keep your dough hydration the same).
By using less levain your dough bulk ferment and final proof will take a bit longer which will give the acids time to catch up to the yeast. An overnight final proof in the fridge also helps to slow things down. Give it a whirl and see how it goes.