The Fresh Loaf

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Help please - Question on Crumb - Fig & Walnut Sourdough

Moya Gray's picture
Moya Gray

Help please - Question on Crumb - Fig & Walnut Sourdough

 

Hi everyone 

can anyone tell me what impact the autolyse and or preferment has upon the tenderness of the crumb?  I've been making the Tartine country bread most of ths year. Recently i began to vary the procedure and borrowed from Txfarmers 36 hour baguette.  I autolysed without starter, for 12 hours, then added in the levan with a few s&fs, then the salt and 2 hours later the figs & toasted walnuts, continued the s&fs for the remainder of the 4 hours, shaped & let rise.   Baked at 450 in dutchoven for 20 minutes and removed at an internal temperature of 211.1 degrees.  The loaves turned out nicely - the crumb was very soft, the crust was not crunchy-crackly but it was thin and chewy.  Overall the family loved this loaf.

i don't understand why this batch is so much softer than others I've made - any ideas?

 

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

bread Moya.  We love this bread too along with prune and brazil nuts.  We like to put pistachios in there too as a sub and to mix things up.  I don't know why the crumb is softer but autolyse does make the bread more SD tangy so it also might soften the crumb some too.  One of the the fine 'Bread Scientists' on TFL will know though!

Nice baking!

Moya Gray's picture
Moya Gray

Thank you dabrownman - the prune and nut mixture sounds really tasty!  I'm hoping someone can help on this question!

longhorn's picture
longhorn

A 12 hour autolyse will result in significant enzyme breakdown of the starch and that will tend to give you a different texture/crumb so that is probably what you are encountering. Without salt there could be a bit of bacterial contribution to the texture difference. 12 hours feels like it is approaching too long if all the flour was in the autolyse (usually only a portion receives an extended autolyse/presoak). Note: you should have built up a pretty good supply of sugar so your proofing should go faster than normal for there is more food for the yeast.

 

Moya Gray's picture
Moya Gray

Thanks Longhorn for your help on this.  sorry it has taken so long to respond-I have been sick for a while .  At any rate, my proofing tends to go much faster than the usual time called for in most recipes simply because of our climate, rather hot and dry.  I usually have to cool,things down a bit.  

 

thanks again for your help, 

Aloha, 

longhorn's picture
longhorn

Salt significantly retards yeast activity. Even a half a percent slows it significantly. So you can play with the timing of salt addition (and the amount) to slow your proof - though you don't want to go over about 3 percent (of flour weight - baker's percentage) from my perception in the levain expansion or about 2 percent (of total flour in the final loaf - bakers percentage). I live in San Antonio so I am familiar with "warm"

Good luck!

Jay