September 18, 2018 - 12:50pm
Sourdough Rise/Oven Spring
I usually make a Tartine style 75% hydration sourdough and though I get a pretty good oven spring, it never seems to be bursting at the seams like what I see posted here and elsewhere. I have noticed that a lot of people seem to make sourdough with a small amount of commercial yeast in it also. Is it possible to get a huge rise out of 100% sourdough?
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There are really a lot of things at play with rise/oven spring. I don't know that adding commerical yeast will give you "more" spring/rise... there's only so much food (flour) to go around. So adding more consuming yeast won't necessarily translate to larger rise.
But yes, you can get a big rise out of 100% sourdough, assuming by this you mean no additional yeast added.
In my own personal experience, starter maturation/strength + autolyze length + length of bulk fermentation + gluten development all play major factors in the end spring action. Add in a good score, and you can get some really great rise/spring.
Two thoughts come to mind. The first (my best guess), is your starter and resulting levain strong and very active? Second, are you careful to not over-proof?
My experience with supplemental yeast is different from Eddie’s. Peter Rienhardt advocates using yeast with levain in one of his (don’t remember which) books. In the past, I have used a combination of yeast and levain with noticeable success. I no longer choose this route, but years back I did on occasion. Yeast can be considered a crutch, and is completely unnecessary. But it does work...
Many good bakers get huge rise and bloom from 100% levain.
Jelly, when you say, “busting at the seam”, are you taking about an ear? An image would be very helpful.
Boy! If you click on Eddie’s profile icon, you’ll see an absolutely gorgeous bread with gigantic bloom and a perfect score.
Danny
You could deliberately make and bake a bread or two that haven’t risen/proofed as much as you usually do. That sort of leaves more potential for enthusiastic oven spring and ears and such. And you could try feeding your starter as much as three times a day for a few days. I do that from time to time and get my starters really ripping. You might be surprised how fast sourdough can go.
You could deliberately make and bake a bread or two that haven’t risen/proofed as much as you usually do. That sort of leaves more potential for enthusiastic oven spring and ears and such. And you could try feeding your starter as much as three times a day for a few days. I do that from time to time and get my starters really ripping. You might be surprised how fast sourdough can go.