The Fresh Loaf

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Pain au Levain w/mixed SD starters

alfanso's picture
alfanso

Pain au Levain w/mixed SD starters

Recently I began to try out a rye levain breads, and having leftover rye starter I figured I'd continue on that riff.  I cleave off a bit at a time from the remaining rye starter ball and still have a few bakes left in the slowly diminishing ball.  For the liquid levain, I used a recently refreshed stiff levain stater.

recent blog entry by David Snyder intrigued me.  I had long ago (if my under 18 months apprenticeship on TFL is long ago!) developed a pattern of being inspired by what I see on TFL and then give it a go.  So off I went to experience a few new things all at once.  Never used two starters in one dough before.  Ditto with any starter >100% hydration.  Also using Bread flour for the first time instead of AP flour (except for the substitution of bread flour for First Clear recently).  I amped the formula up to ~1500g so as to make three 500g batards.

I'd read that the starters take way longer than mine did to mature.  The 125% hydration bread flour starter took 7.5 hours instead of the anticipated 12-14 hours, and the way more viscous rye starter took 9 hours instead of 14-16 hours.  

Following the "make it your own" concept, I went with my standard 300 French Folds, and 2 sets of letter folds at 40 and 80 minutes, with another 40 minutes of bench fermentation time before retarding.  The dough remained retarding for ~3 hours prior to divide (I had things to do...), pre-shape and shape and then back into the refrigerator on their couche.  12 hours total retard time and then score and bake directly from the refrigerator.  13 min - steam, 20 min. - dry heat and 2 min. - vent.

The oven spring was wonderful, and the blisters on the surface almost make me wince in sympathetic pain (au levain!!)

Left: couched and ready for retard.  Right: scored and ready for the oven.

 

Steam just released and rotated:

 

The finished product:

The blue ribbon winner:

alan

 

Comments

dmsnyder's picture
dmsnyder

I just took half a loaf of this bread out of the freezer for tomorrow's breakfast. I hope you enjoy yours as much as I've enjoyed this  bread!

David

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

If those are before retard and right at slashing pictures side by side,y our batards hardly rose in the fridge.  Mine would be twice that size in 12 hours. and just about over proofed :-(  The spring, bloom,crust and crumb are all just right.  Well done and

Happy baking Alan

alfanso's picture
alfanso

This seems pretty typical so far, in my short history of cold, shaped retard.  The dough doesn't seem to rise very much, if at all.   But I'm okay with that, although it did take a bit of getting used to.  We all seem to acknowledge that the cold retard is as much or more so associated with flavor development as anything else.  What does seem to count is how the dough reacts when it hits the oven deck - along with good scoring technique.  And so far, it looks as though I'm on the right track.

Far be it from me to try and teach the teacher, so to speak, but maybe your bench rise time is too long if you want a long cold retard.  My kitchen is at a pretty constant 80d most of the year (I didn't spend 15 years in Sacramento because I was fond of the cold!) and so when the method for this bread, for instance, calls for a 3 hour bench rise with one letter fold, I give it 2 hours and 2 letter folds.  At least that much I've been able to comfortably comprehend!

alan

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

entirely.  After 3 sets of slap and folds and 3 sets of stretch and folds, all on 15 minute intervals,  i put it straight into the fridge and it easily doubles in 12 hours - it just explodes and nearly over proofs every time:-).  Maybe i should let it poop itself out on the counter with a bulk ferment before going in the fridge or just put it in bulk and reshape it the next morning for a quick final proof on the counter.  When I do it that way the crumb suffers from the extra handling.  

makebreadnet's picture
makebreadnet

Beautiful loaves!  What is your steam technique?

alfanso's picture
alfanso

Written about both from me and even more so from others, I use two steaming techniques overlapping.

Sylvia's steaming towels to start the oven steaming in advance of loading the dough, and then pouring near boiling water (2 cups) into a pan loaded with lava rocks, also written about quite a bit in these parts - TFL.  

The towels are loaded ~15 minutes before the dough, and the lava rock pan is sitting heating up for the entire time the oven is on.  In fact the pan lives in my oven.  It really doesn't matter what you load the pan with: lava rocks, nuts and bolts, river rock, expensive jewelry, etc.  What you are ultimately looking for is a body of thermal mass that will instantly create steam, and lots of it, the second that the water is poured on.  

A few words of caution:

  • steam is not visible above something like 212dF. Don't be fooled, so keep your distance upon opening the oven door.
  • boiling water is significantly less hot than the inside of your oven door, so place a towel down on the door glass before pouring any water in to a pan.  Else, you'll likely be buying a new oven door glass and singing the blues as you pay the bill.
  • wear oven mitts that cover at least up to the top of your wrists.
  • once steaming of the dough commences, do not open the oven door to peek at your masterpiece.  You will only lose that precious steam as it escapes and potentially get a nasty face burn.  

Have faith in the technique.  It works, as attested to many many times on TFL.

alan

makebreadnet's picture
makebreadnet

Thanks Alan,

I am a steam-geek and have tried many things in my oven to achieve optimum results.  My wife and I were (un?)fortunate to purchase a house that had belonged to a cook some time ago so it has an old heavy duty gas range that's big and wide and hard for me to get consistent results due to irregular heating pattern. 

My new favorite method is to use a baking stone as a base and a big aluminum bowl as a lid to trap steam.  It works well and I am pleased with current results but your loaves look sublime.  I had not seen the towel technique before so I've learned something new!

Thanks for your input and for sharing your technique,

Nick

 

Isand66's picture
Isand66

Great looking bake Alan.

Regards

Ian

alfanso's picture
alfanso

no pun (necessarily) intended.  Thanks, Ian.  After a year and change of working the baguette side of life, I decided to start playing around with batards these past few months.  And I'm really content with the results almost all of the time.

alan

FrugalBaker's picture
FrugalBaker

I can only have envies at this moment. Happy Baking.