Hi All!
Attempting a loaf today with main intent to get good structure! I've also started taking very detailed notes so I can compare and make adjustments where needed.
This is the plan for now. Anything you think I need to adjust or watch out for?
Levain- fed at 3.5 hours ago, 1:5:5 with half white/half wheat.
Currently in warmish water (80f) waiting for it to triple.
Yesterday, it tripled in 3 hours feeding it 1 : 3.5 : 4.5 (starter:water:flour) so hopeful that will happen in the next hour or so.
Recipe
Tartine-esque
420g Bread Flour (14.9% protein)
40g Rye
40g Wheat
340 g Tap Water (70% hyrdration if I did math right)
90g Leaven
10 g salt
Flour and water mixed and going through autolyse now, waiting until my levain is ready.
Then-
Mix in levain in kitchen aid and mix until medium gluten development, wait 30 minutes.
Sprinkle salt over, wait 30 minutes.
Mix salt in and do first coil fold.
Coil fold every 30 minutes for 2 hours.
Then asess where my gluten development is at. This is usually the point where my dough seems to get less developed and start to break down.
It's holding at 25-26C in the flat, so I am guessing I will need about 4 hours bulk fermentation?
Pre-shape, bench rest 30.
Shape and then I will shape and retard overnight to bake tomorrow morning.
Does this all sound about right?
Cheers!
Steph
Love all the detail in the process Steph. Overall it sounds like a good plan. I had really good luck yesterday following a similar process... best crumb I've had yet with 50/50 whole wheat and white flour.
You mentioned that you feel like the dough starts to break down after your stretch and folds. Do you mean it is slack and hard to handle/shape? My house temps have risen to basically the same as yours in the last two weeks. I am now doing my stretch and folds every 15-20 minutes and doing the windowpane test starting with the third one, just to make sure I know when it's ready. It didn't take long yesterday, probably just over an hour. So it may help to be a little more vigilant with gluten development.
Also, the bulk is hard to say as it depends on the activity of the starter and ambient temps, so you will be the best judge of that. I let mine double yesterday and I think it took about 5 hours (I don't keep strict times as you can tell, but rather just monitor the dough). I mark where the dough starts on a plastic tub and then mark the rough double spot where I would like it to get to, then do my pre-shape after it hits that second mark.
Good luck and let us know how it turns out!
Thanks Somaek, that's helpful. It is very warm today, and I've just done my second coil fold. It feels much better than before! It's actually holding some shape.
One question- So do you only do stretch and folds for a portion of bulk ferment, and the rest of the time it just sits and chills? I've been trying to do folds the entire length of bulk ferment - maybe that's my issue.
Yes, that is my understanding, but I've only been baking sourdough since Christmas. I basically follow the process outlined by the Foodgeek. For some reason his explanation was the one that clicked for me. The basic idea is that once you reach windowpane, the gluten is developed enough to build structure. At that point, I leave it to rise 75-100%. It is able to do that because the gluten is developed. Here's what Sune the Foodgeek says:
How bulk fermentation affects oven spring in sourdough bread
Bulk fermentation is the time where we agitate the dough to strengthen it and let the wild yeast do it’s work.
Usually the bulk fermentation is split into two parts. The first part is where we stretch and fold the dough and strength is being built. Gentle handling here is key to getting that coveted open structure.
Just leave it alone!
The second part is the rise, where the dough is left alone while it ferments. Usually you let the dough rise from 20% all the way up to 100%.
The term “under fermented” means the dough hasn’t expanded enough to be ready to bake.
The term “over fermented” means that the yeast in your starter ate all the food and there is none left for it to eat and produce CO2 which is what gives the rise and the holes in the crumb.
If you have an active starter that expands to triple the size when it’s fed, you can absolutely let the dough rise to double the size. There’s still enough food in the dough for the yeast to make the bread rise during baking.
To get good oven spring I usually let the dough grow about 50%, so there’s still a lot of rise left. This dough is probably slightly under fermented. I guess it’s a hack. I should make a YouTube video: “One crazy hack that will make your sourdough bread blow up!”.
How do I know when the bulk fermentation is over?
Judging when the bulk fermentation is over is not only about the amount that it’s grown, but also how the dough feels. The dough should feel light (not weight wise), puffy and have visible signs of fermentation: bubbles and bulges in the dough. Also, if you wiggle the container it’s in, the dough should jiggle and not seem rigid.
It’s a learned skill to judge the fermentation, so all I can say is: bake, bake, bake. Notice how the dough looks and how the bake goes and you will start to get an idea about how it works.