I’ve been baking sourdough for a couple of months now and I’m not sure what’s happening with my bulk rise – i’m using the Tartine method, mostly basic country bread but sometimes 50% ww flour. My other flour is a classic bread flour (type 60). I’ve always fed my starter 1:1 ww/ap or ww/bread flour, and it doubles regularly within 3 hours and peaks around 5. I’m mixing my levain about 6 hours before i mix my dough, at a warm room temp around 77F, water at 80 and I control my temperature to stay around 78-80 during bulk rise. I stretch and fold every 1/2 hour for the first 2 hours and I see air bubbles developing but don’t have any rise in volume within 3-4 hours. I’ve left it longer thinking that was the problem only to end up with a soupy mess. When I stop the bulk rise before this stage, shape then retard in the fridge overnight, I’m getting relatively flat loaves with large air pockets and dense crumb near the bottom crust. The bread is ok with lovely crust but lacks volume and is dense.
Could it be my starter’s balance is off? I started feeding it more often last week (once a day), and it seems to be a bit livelier now but I’m still not getting any volume in bulk rise (or in final rise for that matter). Could it also be my stretch/fold technique?
Any help much appreciated!
It looks to me that you're lacking gluten strength/development. Are you new to sourdough? It's a common mistake among beginners to stretch&fold very gingerly , barely tugging on the dough instead of getting a solid stretch--but I may be off base here!
I am leaning towards an acidic starter. The pics look like they could be over proofed/fermented or under fermented/proofed. It looks dense and gummy, and the big holes are usually due to lack of gluten structure, which could be due to going too long or not long enough. I'm leaning towards the starter as a 1:1:1 feeding doesn't seem to be enough to keep healthy at the temps they are in. An under fed starter will get acidic and that will interfere with gluten development, which could cause what we see in the pics. Here's a test to see if a starter is getting enough food to last between feedings. Feed it the usual ratio, note how long it takes to drop and how high it rises. Instead of feeding, stir it up real good. Again note how long and how high. Lather rinse repeat till it doesn't rise anymore - this is the point where it's really out of food. Using that you can adjust how much food is needed to last a certain time. And it's a kinda fun experiment. Enjoy!
A higher percentage of whole wheat will ferment faster and will likely over proof over night in the fridge. I would use less levain before it peaks and more folds. The dough should have some tension and resistance at the end of folding. If you think it’s bulked to far shape it and bake it after a short proof.
Thanks for your replies, I’ll try a combination of younger levain and more stretch/folds and see how it goes!
Baked this one this morning (50% ww). looks like my starter is livelier, and I was more violent with the stretch/folds. Still room for improvement but this is great! Thanks to all for your comments.
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