Testing my sweet bran starter in true-sourdough enriched dough

Thanks Jon, appreciate it!

That's intentional :) 

The reason behind that is, since any information I learned from this batch (and few batches to come) is to be applied to my 85% hydration milk loaf, and since high hydration dough is a lot more prone to overfermentation, I wanted to shift the amount of time taken to ferment more as stiff dough, so the final fermentation (as wetter dough) will take less time. It worked on previous 2 white batches, but I messed this one up 😂

Since my starter was already osmotolerant to sugar, apparently it's not too tolerant to butter

I will do a number of fixes to the next batch, including 2 stages levain and much higher PFF%. But I need to take a step back to all white flour first. I'm so determined to figure the fermentation schedule out!

(Note: I assumed skim milk powder is about 50% lactose, which is sugar)

Jay

Answers to your questions:

1. biga

   I started out everything I know about sourdough practically derived from biga (because here it's hot, and hot weather creates harsh tasting sourdough unless adjustments are made), from there, along the way, I came out with various solutions. For example, if dough strength is the concern, why putting white flour in the preferment at first place? Why don't I put all rye, bran, black rice flour, soybean flour in the levain without white flour all together, and make it as dry as biga? The principle is the same, just different flour. Cariah Marey even went as dry as 33% hydration in the past.

   Unfortunately because of hot room temperature, stiff preferment alone is not enough to prevent bread becoming too sour, if that's what you meant with flexibility. I could make stiff levain at 9pm, do final mix at 9am, only to have the end product slightly too sour (I usually use 3 grams for every 126 g levain flour to make bread worth of 1.11 kg of flour). While in subtropical countries time is a friend to flavor, here time could be an enemy

   2. PFF%

   I feel they are so different in a sense that, I am so used to judge maturity by merely smelling, now it's non-negotiable to use aliquot jar. I used to be able to just do things on autopilot and still get decent flavor and structure, now I have to carefully adjust the amount of sugar and milk. I used to able to get away with weak structure, now the fat content and prolonged fermentation requires me to be more mindful about my actions. I think it's because enriched dough emphasize texture and mouthfeel, and you can't get those with weak structure and careful planning

   The original intention of increased PFF% was to enhance final proof speed, because at crusty bread level of PFF%, the dough got overfermented before fully proofed. I didn't know any better when the first time I did sweet potato milk loaves months ago.

   If we're talking about flavor beyond sour/not sour, yes, prolonged room temperature fermentation I learned from previous white milk loaf intensify the flavor by a lot. It was pleasantly cheesy. The fermentation flavor managed to keep up with enrichment flavor.

   As for less browning, I actually think it's an advantage. It allows me to achieve drier end product by baking at much hotter temperature. I like to bake croissants extra hot (270 °C up 200 °C low) for 30 minutes. It always came out extra shattery crispy and not burnt at all, thanks to the liquid levain. I have yet to find good reason using diastatic malt

   3. potato puree

   I won't call it drier. We usually call that quality 'elastic'. Yes, potato puree lends it's ability to hold more water, so we get crumb as fluffy as Japanese milk loaves, but easy handling in relation to increased elasticity.

   I have tried 116% hydration one. It was overfermented, but the crumb was so tender and moist, it felt like eating cake than bread, in a pleasant way (maybe that could be a solution to 'diet' cake 😂)

   Jay