Maurizio Leo's Beginner Sourdough Bread

Profile picture for user SaraBClever

Getting back into sourdough after a long hiatus and a few false starts.  I built my starter and it took almost two weeks, but now it seems strong and vigorous.  Going to try to keep track here of how things turn out.

I made several rounds of the Ken Forkish basic country blonde, but today I tried Maurizio Leo's beginner recipe.  I was really happy with the result--I had a large open crumb and a beautiful oven spring.  As I try to learn the difference between the different types of starter I'll note here that Leo's is a 100% hydration levain, vs. Forkish which I believe is 75%.  I am sure it's in my books but I wonder if the difference is attributable to the levain hydration.  the other difference was I retarded overnight in the fridge, vs. the Forkish method where I bulk ferment overnight.  This bread recipe reminds me a lot of the Tartine recipe, so I should compare it with that.  I also autolyzed for about 1 1/2-2 hours (by accident...)

It seems a lot less sour than the Forkish recipes as well.  I don't know if those have overproofed a bit, or if they are supposed to turn out so differently.  I tried a 3-day old Forkish bread today to compare with this loaf and it was suprising how much more sour it is (though i don't know if sourdough gets more sour with age).

I used Barton Springs Mills Flour--Abruzzi Rye, Ruby Lee, and their all-purpose 00 as "white" bread flour.

 

Image
312C4756-9B28-4FDA-8397-80BE73C85E23.jpeg