Loaf 41 – Better (not yet great) Sourdough

Posted on Apr 23, 2012 in loaves

More sourdough using the SFBI starter which I’ve been feeding every 12 to 14 days but haven’t used in awhile. The starter needed to be fed twice to get a nice liquid levain going. I did this on a Saturday so I could bake on Sunday for dinner and for gifts at Sarah’s work on Monday. The second feeding was at 7:30pm, and I started baking at 9:45 the next morning. You can see from the picture that the levain had risen during the night, and then dropped again by morning – it started at 12 ounces, got up to 22 ounces, and was at 16 ounces when I used it.

The dough was mixed, went through a series of stretch and folds, and then rose for another hour. I then divided it, let it rest for a 1/2 hour, shaped it into baguettes and batards, and then proofed for another hour and a half. I think I timed the proofing about right, for the finger poke test the dough recovered very slowly.

Results

The loaves were beautiful. I scored the baguettes properly, and the batards developed nice crispy ears. I wasn’t completely happy with the crumb yet – in the batards there were a few large long holes, but most of it was much smaller.

The flavor was not ideal – there wasn’t a strong sour flavor, but what was there was more bitter or acidic than the tartness I would prefer. The flavor was right in line with the odor of the starter, though, so I know that is what I need to work on.

Lessons
I will read up more on sourdough, but I suspect that I let the liquid levain over-develop and should have used it near its peak rather than after it tired out.