Loaf 52 – SFBI with Tartine Starter

Posted on Jun 15, 2012 in loaves

Now that I know I was under-proofing my sourdoughs, I’m going to experiment more and try to perfect it.

These loaves were made with the Tartine recipe starter that I grew and the SFBI sourdough recipe and process. I fed the starter on Thursday at 4:20pm and it doubled in size and peaked at about 8:30pm (four hours). By 9:40am the next morning it had dropped to only about 40% growth and had the smell of sweet white wine. I used this starter without another feed.

I mixed the dough at 9:55am, divided at made boules at 12:45pm, did only a so-so job of shaping at 1:20pm, and let them proof for 3½ hours. I baked in a 500° oven lowered to 450° with a cup of water in the bottom for steam. After 25 minutes of baking I vented the oven and baked for another 8 minutes.

There are two differences between the two loaves:

• Loaf A was degassed in pre-shaping (boules) and shaping, and the scoring right before baking was at a very oblique angle (almost horizontal instead of vertical along the top of the loaf.
• Loaf B was degassed only before final shaping. The scoring was less oblique – maybe a 30° angle off vertical.

Loaf B was the better of the two loafs. The ears on Loaf A never opened up, so it looked less appealing. I believe this was due to the scoring angle, not the extra degassing.

Both loaves had the same texture and flavors. Using the starter 13 hours after peaking did make the flavor a little bit sour, but not as much as I had expected.