Hi all,
Long time reader, first time poster.
I have been making a few recipes in Ken's Flour, Water, Salt, Yeast book and moved onto sourdough (the overnight country blonde recipe).
The first time I made it, I used my new starter that I had been feeding twice daily for 2 weeks and all was going well.
Loaf turned out OK (first time working with such high hydration doughs).
I put the starter in fridge, took out again 2 days later as our bread suddenly vanished and I needed fo make more (funny how all of a sudden everyone in the family loves bread...)
I refreshed it three times at 12hr intervals with my usual 1:2:2 ratio (all AP flour since the day the starter was born, unfortunately whole wheat and rye are impossible to find right now).
The bread came out fantastic! Still some things to work on but to my disappointment, when I bit into it, it's no longer as sour as the first loaf!
I understand there are ways to manipulate the acidity for extra tang by lowering hydration and feeding whole wheat flour, but my curiosity is more from the fact that I don't believe anything has changed in order to change taste so dramatically? Could the few days in the fridge have done something?
Any ideas?
P.s. this was the finished product (the dough wouldn't come out of the banneton right so the top is a bit messy)
bacteria are more mellow now that yeast numbers are up. Notice any time differences in how fast the dough rises?
Anyway the loaf looks great despite banneton sticking. You will find that loaf getting smaller all day long with everyone home cruising thru the kitchen for snacks. Seems like my bread knife has now taken up residence near the bread board instead of the drawer.
Try using less starter (half) to get more sour in the finished bread. It will take longer to ferment.