I attempted a higher hydration sourdough, recipe as follows
420g bread flour
336g water (27 degrees)
5g salt
1 tsp stiff starter straight from the fridge (100% hydration)
- Mix flour and water throughly until no dry spots left
- Add starter and salt to separate sides of dough and mix to combine
- Left dough overnight (9 hours) at rtp (27 degrees)
- S&F 5 times at 30 mins interval
- Bench rest for 30 mins
- Score and bake in preheated oven at 240 degrees Celsius for 40 mins
The above is how my loaf turned out.
A few things I’m boggled by:
- Crumb was shiny and tacky, and had a “wet” feel to it. The loaf had developed a nice dark crust when I took it out, any longer in the oven and it would have burnt. When I tapped the bottom of the loaf, there was no hollow sound. It was also noticeably lighter in colour.
- Crumb had uneven holes and had a few dense spots. There’s also a dense steak at the bottom of the loaf...not sure what happened
- It was impossible to preshape the dough - it just fell flat. Scoring also made no difference. However, there was quite some oven spring.
- There were bubbles on the surface of the dough after 10h of bulk ferment. S&F caused some of the bubbles to collapse, not sure if that’s how S&F goes.
- During S&F I also noticed a few hard lumps even though I made sure to mix my dough THROUGHLY in the beginning. This it not the first time I’ve noticed this
Just wondering if how I can further improve! :)
The problem probably revolves around your starter. I've never mixed in stiff starter straight from the fridge like that. I let it obtain room temp after sitting out a few hours. Feed it to give it a jolt of fresh activity, then mix it in after 4-12 hours depending on the method.
considering one teaspoon of "stiff" starter would be a 10g maximum inoculation to 420g flour and baked after 12 hours? A 100% hydration starter as stiff? Something doesn't add up. How did the bread taste? Sour? Bland? The salt is just over 1% and that may be too low. Try 7 to 8 g salt.
Dough hydration looks like 80%, might want to drop that back to 75% and work up as skills and salt increase or fold the dough sooner. Good crust color is a sign the dough was not overfermented but the light bottom may indicate not enough heat under the loaf, or too much heat above it. Lumps points back to uneven dough mixing. What are the lumps made of? Salt or starter or dry flour? I've had salt turn into lumps if not spread out over the dough and worked in well. First give the flour a chance to hydrate, then work in the starter, then sprinkle on salt and work it in. Salt will tighten up the gluten matrix when added. Try not to add a lot of bench flour when handling dough during folds. See if that helps.
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The final product tastes bland and chewy. The starter is whole wheat, and the whole wheat flour I use absorbs water like a beast. Even at equal parts in weight of flour and water, the starter still remains stiff.
Regarding the lumps, I cant really tell what they are made out of, but I’ll try spreading the salt out a bit more the next time.
I was experimenting with a “less Levain, longer autolyse” method, and I’ve also heard about others using their starter straight from the fridge and not making a difference in the final product, so decided to give it a go.
with a starter, I tend to use a larger inoculate. 20% would be 84g but depending on the room temp, and how sour I want my end loaf, I might go for more. Why? The smaller the amount of starter, the more sour the bread will become, generally. The bacteria will work like crazy to lower the pH in the dough and there is a long lag time before the yeast can multiply and raise the amount of gas needed. I might drop the temps down a few degrees to 25-26°C to flavour the yeast growth over the bacterial growth.
Certainly interesting with the small 1:42 amount of starter. Might want to raise the salt amount and repeat with longer slightly cooler proofing times. A bread flour should be able to take the long fermenting without too much degradation. Now what about that pale bottom?