Thank you to the original poster of this recipe
I just got into sourdough bread making and found this recipe easy to make and the taste is excellent.
I do have one question though, when I made the levain it asked for a mature culture. So what I did I took my starter out of the fridge and mixed it with the called for ingredients and let sit for the prescribed time. It seems to work but in the back of my mind was I suppose to feed my starter THEN once it rose take the starter from that?
It's a recipe straight out of the book which would have explained on how to make a sourdough culture. So mature culture in this case would mean once your starter has matured into a viable culture.
In other terminology it would mean a starter (already matured) which has been fed and left to bubble up - mature.
So if you have a starter already then feed it, wait for it to bubble up - "mature" - and then use.
A lot of these books are designed in a way which applies to one starting from scratch. So one would be making a starter before using in a recipe. However if you have an on-going starter already then you simply skip that step, feed, wait for it to mature and then use. Like you have done.
Of course if your starter has been in the fridge a long while and you think it'll need more than one feed to nurse it back to good health then by all means do an extra feed before using in a recipe.
Lovely looking loaf!
ok thanks, it seemed to rise fine with the cold starter I used, but I will def use a fed starter next time and see the difference.
Pulling seniority on my younger brother, Glenn, whose recipe this is: "Mature starter" means the starter was fed within the past day or so and allowed to ferment until "mature." Maturity is relative, but does always mean the starter has had sufficient multiplication of yeast and lactobacilli to raise the dough and contribute the desired flavors.
My experience (and that of many others) suggests that, if one is starting with a starter that has not been fed for 4 days or more, at least two feedings at 12 hour intervals is going to produce optimal flavor - significantly better than a single feeding before mixing into the final dough.
Happy baking!
David
P.S. Your bread looks great.
Thank you for that clarification. The bread had a soft subtle taste to it one which I enjoyed. I haven't made enough SD bread to determine how much sour is beyond my taste liking.
Are you saying that if I had used a more mature starter that my bread would have risen more?
SB baking is truly a science and at times intimidates me........
More mature starter will result in faster rise, but not ultimately more rise. And flavor generally benefits from a slow rise.
It is most useful (in my opinion) to think of the amount of starter in terms of the percent of pre-fermented flour. In general, around 20% pre-fermented flour is regarded as optimal for sourdough bread.
David