The Fresh Loaf

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A more tangy Tartine style loaf?

johnstoeckel's picture
johnstoeckel

A more tangy Tartine style loaf?

I've been making Norwich sourdough for quite some time and really enjoy it's tangy flavor.  Particularly after I followed the tips from this forum at http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/1040/lesson-squeeze-more-sour-your-sourdough. 

Recently I picked up a copy Tartine and tried the basic country loaf. I was really happy with the oven spring, extra crispy crust and crumb with huge holes.  Which, BTW, I baked on a preheated stone with an aluminium turkey roaster lid since I didn't have a cast iron cooker.  However, the taste was a little mild for my liking. 

So, now I've been trying to come up with something that combines the tangy flavor or the Norwich recipe and the crust and crumb of the Tartine.  My first attempt was to use the Tartine recipe, but substitute 200g of my full strength starter for the 200g of leaven.   This gave me the flavor, but not the oven spring, crust or crumb that I was looking for. 

So, I'm looking for suggestions for how I can get more flavor in Tartine recipe while maintaining the crust and crumb? 

Baker4life's picture
Baker4life

But when wanting to add tang to my SD I increase the amount of ripe leaven in the formula (30 percent or more) and do a long ferment at 50 degrees or less. 

This was done after a search on here for the same answers you seek.

David Esq.'s picture
David Esq.

How long was it since your starter was fed before you made the leaven?

How long was the leaven to ripen before you made the dough?

and how long did you retard the shaped dough in the fridge before baking?

johnstoeckel's picture
johnstoeckel

I fed my starter about 12 hours prior.  

I did not make a leaven per se.  I just added 200g of starter to the dough mixture (in place of the 200g leaven in the Tartine recipe). 

I did the primary ferment about 3 hours with stretch and fold at 30 minutes intervals. and then retarded overnight in the frig. 

The next day, I rough shaped, rested 30 minutes, then did the final shape and proofed 3 hours before baking.  

Basically, I did everything per the Tartine recipe / method except that I substituted 200 g of starter (fed 12 hours previously) for the 200g leaven. 

David Esq.'s picture
David Esq.

The book suggests using a ripe old starter to create a leaven used young. 

Your 200 grams of 12 hour fed starter may be the problem. If you are feeding every 12 hours, maybe the starter is not ripe enough to impart the flavor you seek. Worth following the book to see if it gives the bread you want. You can always go back and experiment if you want something different. 

I sometimes use my week ago fed and refrigerated starter to make the leaven. I am promising myself to take notes so I can figure out what gives what results to my bread. 

The easiest and best solution requiring a 3 stage build with feeding every 4 hours is debatable. Not because it wont give the promised results but because it stretches out the process considerably so may not be doable for the working stiff. 

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

increase the tang is to build the levain from a small amount of starter seed and do a 3 stage, 4 hours each, of increasing larger flour and water builds at 93 F.  Make sure the levain never runs out of  food.  Then develop the gluten and do the ferment for the dough at 93 F.  Do a retard for 12 hours at 36 F .  That will give you the sour your seek and then some.  LAB love 93 F and 36 F where they reproduce at 3 to13 times times the rate of yeast.  More LAB to yeast ratio in the dough means more sour in the baked bread.

Happy SD baking

pmccool's picture
pmccool

I would add that having an all whole wheat levain will also serve to punch up the sourness in the finished bread; more so than a white levain.  This past weekend I made a light whole wheat bread, just 20% whole wheat flour to 80% white flour, that was surprisingly tangy since my starter usually produces fairly mild-flavored breads.  It featured a whole wheat levain which had been fermented overnight in the oven with the light on.  While I'm not sure what the exact temperature was, it was definitely well above ambient temperatures and the levain more than doubled in volume in about 7 hours.  

Paul