The Fresh Loaf

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Tartine Olive Sourdough

Nick-C's picture
Nick-C

Tartine Olive Sourdough

Hello, it's my first time posting, pleasure to be among you all!  Thanks for all the helpful posts I've enjoyed!

I've been baking the "Tartine-style" country sourdough for quite sometime with success and have been experimenting with adding olives.  Almost every olive loaf I've made has come out with the same issue: poor oven spring with scores that blob open only a little.  Usually the crust is a bit more pale and takes longer to darken.  

The loaf on the left is a plain country loaf and the loaf on the right is the olive.  Same dough, levain, etc. with approximately the same bulk ferment time and temperature.  

Every now and then I will have an olive loaf that comes out with more success but 9 out of 10 come out like the one in the picture.

The olives certainly add a bit more water, but I try to drain them pretty well  so hydration probably isn't much more than 76/77% (my basic country dough is 74% hydration).

I thought that it might be some of the added salt in the olive brine that was affecting the bulk ferment so I have experimented with longer bulk ferment times also without much success. (though I want to play with this more still) 

The inside crumb usually isn't too bad.  Usually it's fairly open which makes me doubt it has to do with the bulk ferment but maybe I'm wrong.

Anyone have any ideas of what else could be going on?

Thanks!

alfanso's picture
alfanso

My first impression is that the salt % should be lowered to accommodate for the salt introduced by the olives.  If you are currently adding ~2% salt now, lower that to ~1.5%.  When you mention olive brine, I'l take it that you are not adding that to the dough as part of the hydration.

Arjon's picture
Arjon

that may be in play are the flour you're using and your handling / shaping of the dough. High hydration doughs are more "sensitive" in terms of how more water makes them harder to work with. So for example, all else being equal, the difference between 75% and 77% is likely to be more noticeable than between 65% and 67%. Flours with less gluten can also be somewhat more sensitive. 

Compared to the same loaf without olives, the added salt, the added weight of the olives and the higher hydration are all working against getting the same spring.  Accordingly, with the same handling and shaping, you should probably expect less until / unless you're able to compensate by using stronger flour and/or adjusting your handling / shaping. 

Nick-C's picture
Nick-C

Thanks for the responses!  I'm experimenting with all of the suggestions.  I also have a loaf retarding in the fridge which I rolled the olives into instead of having them mixed into the dough for the bulk ferment.  I'll let you know how it comes out.  Thanks!