The Fresh Loaf

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1.5 g starter comes a long way

pul's picture
pul

1.5 g starter comes a long way

This is a small loaf built with a levain made with 1.5 g starter, 30 g water and 30 g bread flour. The levain was left to mature for about 12 hours on the counter at about 30 C room temperature. It was not used at its peak, since I could see that it receded way before I arrived home from work.

The final total dough was about 250 g flour from which 50% is bread flour and the rest is a mix of rye, spelt and red fife. The total hydration was about 75%. I used a standard procedure for mixing, applying 4 stretches and folds every 30 min or so. Bulk fermented for about 4.5 hours, shaped, and proofed in the fridge overnight (about 5 hours) to bake it in a cold pot / cold oven.

Great crumb and crust. The flavor is quite subtle, perhaps due to the levain, built using a small amount of starter.

Comments

Elsie_iu's picture
Elsie_iu

The bread truly had some serious oven spring! Good bread like that is priceless.

Great bake!

pul's picture
pul

Thanks, it was spot on, good oven spring, even though the dough did not rise much in the fridge

DesigningWoman's picture
DesigningWoman

and extremely enlightening for this newbie! Thanks for sharing.

Carole

leslieruf's picture
leslieruf

incredible that just such a tiny bit of starter can do this! a bit of a lesson to us all I think.

well done

Leslie

pul's picture
pul

I was curious to see whether small amounts of starter could do something. I will reduce further the starter and pre-fermented flour amounts

pul's picture
pul

Thank you ALL. I was surprised to see the result too. It has been so bloody hot here that I decided on doing this experiment; using a tiny bit of starter to build the levain. It worked quite well, but it took a bit longer for the bulk fermentation.

I forgot to take a picture of the levain, but it looked more like a poolish at end, with lots of bubbles on the top. I will repeat the method throughout summer here.

Cheers

Ru007's picture
Ru007

Such a great result with a tiny bit of starter :)

Well done. 

Ru

pul's picture
pul

Thanks and good to see you back

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

at the right time for sure.  It was still a bit more than 10% pre-fermented flour,  I bet the flavor would be better yet with 20 g of flour in the levain rather than 30 with the 10 g more flour added to the dough flour.  The retard should have made it tangy though.  You would want to cut down the stater to 1g though or the levain will be too far past peak when you get home from work.

That is a nice looking SD bread for sure.

pul's picture
pul

Yep, those are good points to try. Thanks

not.a.crumb.left's picture
not.a.crumb.left

little loaf and unbelievable with just that small amount of starter...I love the ear on it! Kat

pul's picture
pul

Ears are one of my favorite features in bread

Danni3ll3's picture
Danni3ll3

You got a wonderful crust and crumb! Well done!

pul's picture
pul

Thanks, crumb is soft and crust crispy. I am baking small loaves now because I really enjoy them fresh. Two people can finish this loaf in two days, which still keeps it fresh. I am baking at least twice a week.

pul's picture
pul

Yep, those are good points to try. Thanks

bread1965's picture
bread1965

..the award for making the best looking loaf with the least amount of levain!

What a great experiment and result!! Wow.. Well done!

pul's picture
pul

Hahah, It is amazing how these yeastie beasties can multiply so fast