December 14, 2014 - 6:43am
How soon after feeding the starter can one make a preferment?
Is 3 hours after feeding too soon? I'm in singapore so it's always hot and humid here :)
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How soon after feeding the starter can one make a preferment?
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It depends on how active your starter is, what your ratios of starter/flour/water are, and temperature. For some people, 3 hours might be too long, and for some 3 hours might be too little time.
The important thing is that your starter is showing plenty of signs of activity. For liquidy starters, that might look mostly like a lot of bubbles, for a 100% hydration starter, it might double or triple in volume, for a stiff starter it may quadruple in volume.
The perfect point at which to use it can also vary, depending again on factors mentioned above, and also on what kind of a flavor you want. Using it sooner will usually give a milder flavor, later, a more sour one.
Feed, rise, peak and begin to fall. Just when it starts to fall that is the time to use it.
Hot humid places will be quicker than colder places. Depends on how much you've fed it. After a while you'll get to know your starter and how it behaves.
Don't forget that when you take some off to use in your recipe that your starter has eaten all its food and will begin to starve. If you bake everyday and feed it everyday then won't be an issue. If you only bake once a week then feed your starter again so it has a supply of food then return it to the fridge after a few hours.
As usual no easy answers with sourdough ;)
I'm in a crazy practicing mode where I bake one small loaf almost everyday, I keep it in small quantities (10g starter fed 30g water and 30g AP flour at 12 hourly intervals)
I wanted to preferment overnight, so I used the starter 3 hours after feeding. 8 hours later the preferment looks ok. Am going ahead with the bake. Will post results here.
Once again, thank you for taking the time :)
... you can do the simple * float * test.
Fill a glass with water, use a small spoon and take carefully some of your Starter out of the jar and gently put it in the Water.
If it floats it is ready and has strength to rise a bread, if it goes down you need to wait longer for your Starter to be ready for baking.
I know my starter and by now can tell by the look of it if it is right for baking.
Will do definitely!! Muchos Gracias!
Is my typical peeve......A Gummy crumb. I've only ever got the perfect crumb once by accident and I can't figure out what I did differently. I'd like to put up a pic of my accidentally perfect loaf but I can't seem to figure out how.
If your crumb is gummy it probably was not baked enough. Test the interior temperature of the loaf with an "instant read" thermometer. The temperature should be 200° to 205°F (93° to 96°C). Also let the loaf cool for 8+ hours before cutting into it; this builds and sets the structure of the crumb.
Ford
You fed your starter to make a pre-ferment? If you had enough starter then you could have gone straight into the pre-ferment. Pre-ferment is just taking a little off from your starter to build a lot more starter to add as the levain. Many people do two or even 3 builds for a pre-ferment to make it stronger. The first build for me usually takes overnight but then the second build takes just a few hours as it's very active. Now I've just re-read your question, and later comments, I think we miss understood you.
You fed your starter, which effectively is your first build, which only took a few hours as you live in a hot country. Then you used it to make a pre-ferment but then left it overnight. Where in fact being the second build it would've sped things up.
Am I missing something?
And when I want to bake, a take bit from the starter and add a tiny bit of water and flour and leave it for anywhere between 4 to 8 hours. This is what I call a preferment to which I add more flour and water to make the dough.
Usually I take a portion of my starter to make my preferment about 8 to 10 hours after I have fed it. The question I asked was because I had just fed the starter when I thought I might like to bake. So I waited 3 hours and took a bit to make my preferment. And it turns out that was fine and not too short a time to use the starter.
However my problem of a Gummy crumb remains unchanged. :(
Makes sense. Right back to the gumminess.
It's difficult to tell from photos. Gumminess can be if you cut the bread to quickly after taking out of the oven. But don't think that is the problem as you say it's on-going.
I'm no expert but if anyone here can help diagnose the problem you're going to have to tell us more in details.
Can you describe the recipe and method you use? And perhaps start another forum too as the title of this one will be misleading.
Your bread looks perfectly ok from the photos. Looks very good in fact.
Will start a new thread as you suggest. Like I said before, I once accidentally made the perfect loaf ...It had such a perfect, soft, not gummy crumb and I've no idea how it got that way!!! So I practice as often as I can, in the hope of replicating that success, distributing my trials among happy friends ;)
Without more details of your current recipe and process, we will have a hard time trying to diagnose the gumminess issue. One thing you can do right away is start keeping notes of your bakes. Stick with one simple, basic recipe, and change your technique a little each time. Only make one little change per bake and note the exact change you made and the resulting loaf. Lots of things can contribute to gumminess. So, you may have more than one issue to address. Make a change, note the difference, and if it isn't helpful, do the next bake without that change. One change I can recommend you try is letting the bread sit a little longer on the final proof. Also, the flour you're using, amount of water, and both the ambient and baking temperatures have an affect on taste and texture.
When I'm baking our daily bread for sandwiches and such, I do something like this:
1000g white flour
600g water
300g starter (100% hydration, bottled water, white flour)
23g salt
Mix starter and water. Add flour and salt and mix well until no dry flour remains. Leave at room temperature. Every hour, stretch-and-fold in bowl for bulk proof. At my house this takes anywhere from 3 to 6 hours, depending on what "room temperature" is at the time. Divide, shape and place in two 9" x 5" loaf pans. Final proof at room temperature until risen about an inch or so above the tops of loaf pans. This is usually 2-3 hours. Bake in pre-heated 375F oven for 40 minutes.
If I'm making a boule, I use a bit more water and bake in a cast iron combo cooker at 500F. And I always get a crunchy crust and a gummy crumb! Have fun experimenting!
... perfectly fine to me.
Nice thick crust with a lovely crumb.