OK, so I've doing pretty well with my starter lately and decided to try this. They did not come out well, very dense, crumb pretty solid. I don't think it's the starter.
I was wondering if it was her bulk fermentation instructions. She says knead only for 10 minutes but the dough did not seem very strong. No turns at all. I am wondering if I should have done some turns during the bulk fermentation even though she did not specify it. Does anyone think turns are pretty mandatory in any starter/levain bread in order to get enough structure?
Thanks
The changes I made were in 3 areas: hydration, % sugar and egg content.
1. Hydration: I used a 65% hydration starter rather than the 50% one Glezer uses--in fact, I used Nathan Myhrvold's "sweet and sour" starter from Modernist Bread (25% starter, 100% flour, 65% water and 20% sugar) so I could increase the sugar content of the final dough without slowing the rise. I made this starter by feeding a portion of my regular liquid starter according to Myhrvold's formula over a couple of weeks. I think this starter was a huge help for this recipe.
2. Sugar: I increased the total dough sugar content (including the sugar in the starter) to 15%. This was for both taste and texture reasons (sugar holds water and softens the crumb). I used 2/3 granulated sugar and 1/3 honey.
3. I use jumbo eggs instead of large, which increases the weight by 30%. I also added 2T of granular lecithin to increase the emulsifying power of the egg yolks.
Weirdly enough for a dough with such low hydration on paper, I found myself adding a fair amount of extra flour while kneading in the mixer. This was true with the original recipe as well. But I didn't do stretch and folds.
With these changes, the bread is delightful and I'm sure I'll be making it again.