The Fresh Loaf

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San Francisco-Style Sour Bread

doughooker's picture
doughooker

San Francisco-Style Sour Bread

They don't make sourdough bread like they used to — not even in San Francisco! The city used to be renowned for its sourdough bread as far back as the California gold rush of 1849. I call this recipe "sour bread" because it does not use a traditional sourdough culture; it would thus be misleading to call it "sourdough".

Through the years, San Francisco sourdough has been closely studied by microbiologists and food scientists. The microorganisms that produce the acids that give the bread its tangy flavor are well known.

The two main souring agents in San Francisco sourdough bread are acetic acid and lactic acid. This recipe is for a yeasted bread to which the baker adds acetic and lactic acids. The result is a sour bread which is very close in flavor to traditional San Francisco sourdough.

A loaf of traditional sourdough bread takes a long time to make due to the long proofing times required for the starter and the bread dough. Because this recipe uses baker's yeast, the proofing time is greatly reduced.

These directions are for one small loaf or boule. You can make a larger bâtard simply by doubling the ingredients.

Because acids are added directly to the dough, it is advisable to make this recipe using bread flour (not all-purpose flour) due to bread flour's higher gluten content.

 WHAT YOU WILL NEED:
A digital scale White vinegar Liquid lactic acid  https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000MBW7V2/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1 An eyedropper Bread flour Water Salt Instant or "rapid rise" yeast A sharp blade An electric mixer is helpful but is not required. Some knowledge of artisan baking techniques is helpful.

IMPORTANT!!! Do not use "active dry" yeast. Make sure the yeast is "instant" or "rapid rise". If Fleischmann's yeast is used, look for the bright yellow packets.

It is important to measure the ingredients as precisely as possible. In addition to a digital scale, I use an eyedropper to measure the vinegar and whey.

Combine the following ingredients in a mixer bowl:
146 grams flour
92 grams water
(Optional) 1/2 teaspoon diastatic malt powder

Mix flour, water and malt powder to the "shaggy" stage. All of the flour should be wet. Let rest (autolyze) for 30 minutes.
Add the following ingredients:
3.5 g Instant dry yeast
1/2 teaspoon salt
1.5 g White vinegar
1.5 g liquid lactic acid
Mix until a dough ball forms.
Place the dough ball on a towel or preferably a flax linen cloth and allow to proof for 2 hours in a warm place.
Using a sharp knife or blade, cut some slits in the top crust, about 1/4 inch deep. These slits allow the crust to expand while baking.

Bake at 375° to 425° F for one hour. You can steam the oven prior to baking by placing a shallow pan of water in the oven as it heats up, or bake in a Dutch oven or roasting pan.

During baking, the slits you have cut into the crust will open up. This is an indication of oven spring, or the degree to which the yeast has raised the bread.

VERY IMPORTANT: It is important to let the loaf cool completely after baking. This will take some time, anywhere from one-half to one hour. The flavor is still developing as the bread cools, so for the best flavor it is important to allow the loaf to cool completely.
THE RECIPE IN BAKER'S PERCENTAGES
IngredientBaker's percentage:Grams boule:Grams bâtard:
Flour100%146292
Water60%88176
Salt2%36
Instant Yeast2.7%3.57
Diastatic malt powder 1/2 tsp1/2 tsp
Lactic acid (liquid)1%1.53
White Vinegar1%1.53
Total Dough Weight 240480
Hydration60%  

Comments

DanAyo's picture
DanAyo

Chris, over proofing will definitely lean to more sour, not less. Slick’s sour report seems similar to mine. I had a little sour, but not glaringly noticeable.

I am going to start the mix now for your sour bread. WOW! Do the birds know something? There are flying into the back yard by the droves. <Just Kidding>

As for browning. I baked at a much higher temp. I couldn’t locate your instructions so I guessed. I think I started at 500F and dropped to 450.

lou1al's picture
lou1al

1st off I may have made a mistake (s) but I'm not aware of them. The recipe calls for a very small amount of flour. Recipe has only one rise ???

I multiplied the portions and made the bread. I was looking forward to a great treat but received great disappointment . My bread was very bland. It's going into the rubbish.

I can't understand how things could be so bad. I am ok with math. I'm going to try with experimental amounts of acid and vinegar.

DanAyo's picture
DanAyo

Lou, it is an unusual formula and process. I am in the process of baking this for the second time. 

Did your dough come together well. Were you able to fully develop the gluten. 

Do you usually bake with sourdough. 

Dan

doughooker's picture
doughooker

"My bread was very bland. It's going into the rubbish."

Something is wrong somewhere. How does the lactic acid powder taste on your fingertip?

"I'm going to try with experimental amounts of acid and vinegar."

Yes, please do. I'll be interested in hearing the results of your experimentation.

I can't be the only one this recipe works for.

DanAyo's picture
DanAyo

Chris, I tried texting you for your opinion on upping the hydration. The second bread is baked. While mixing (per Doc’s instructions) I determined that the acids and salt would be very dry and could be difficult to thoroughly incorporate into the dough. IMO at 63% your dough is very dry, so I opted to increase the hydration to a modest 68%. I added the extra water to the acid/salt slurry.

The dough came together a LITTLE better this time, but I was still unable to develop the gluten to my liking. No nice wndowpane. I think the acids are interfering with that, but might be wrong. I baked the dough seam side up without scoring. The oven remained @ 425 throughout the entire bake. First 20 minutes covered and the last 10 uncovered. The crust browned nicely, but once again the bread didn’t get any oven spring. I attribute that to the weak gluten development. The crumb did turn out much nicer than last time.

There is a slight sour flavor, but I can’t imagine that Larraburu’s bread tasted similar. It is ok for a yeasted bread but lacks when compared to a good sourdough. I will say that it is a breeze to prepare and bake, a very quick bread. I will continue to monitor the bread for staling. BTW - I think the increase in hydration may help the staling. I like this bread better than the last, but it will not replace my SFSD.

Chris, you might consider increasing the total weight of the boule. 247g TDW is very small. I’m from south Louisiana, and down here we’d call that a biscuit <LOL>

Danny

lou1al's picture
lou1al

When I feed my starter I do not throw away anything. I put "excess" starter in another container and feed it. After a while I wind up with a lot of starter.

I put it all ( about 4 cups) into my kitchen aid mixer ( with arms to hold bowl ) and go from there. I don't measure or weigh as I've "been there done that"

( I hate that term )  Just very recently I bought the items mentioned in the above recipe and will have some fun with them. Failures are certain that is why every loaf is an adventure.

If you want to have some fun if or when you are bring bread to a group put 2 tablespoons of black pepper in the mixture for 2 loves.

That will get there attention. Cheers Lou 

lou1al's picture
lou1al

Gluten : I was adding too much, way too much. This last batch had 2 tablespoons Next batch will have zero. It does make bread chewy BUT kills the rise.

Vinegar 2 tablespoons in last batch next one will have 1 TBL. These batches are about 6 cups of flour.

I have been making much more bread than I can eat. This makes my neighbor very happy.

I put 2 TBL of Lactic acid powder in last batch and did not detect it ??  Next time 3 TBL.

I THINK  adding gluten would be very good for pizza dough. Give it a 4 hour 1st rise then made you pizza layout maybe 1 hour rise ( it will be small rise ) this will give you a good chewy pizza.        Cheers Lou

doughooker's picture
doughooker

Please feel free to adjust the amount of either acid. Just heed my past warnings about overdoing it.

Too much vinegar will give itself away, and so will too much lactic acid.

We could increase the hydration. Keep in mind that Larraburu was 60%. All that will take a backseat to getting the flavor right.

rmzander's picture
rmzander

Thank you for the research and clear directions on this SF style sour bread sourced from Eastern USDA in Flourtown PA.  My loaf showed the 3 Cs well- crust, crumb, and color.  I followed the recipe, but know that some varibles couldn't be duplicated.  My yogurt whey may have been different, the all purpose flour protein content and ash could vary, temperatures and humidity are important sometimes.  The initial autolyse was 35% hydration and very difficult for me to incorporate all the flour.

I really appreciated the reminder of adding diastalic malt.  A little goes a long way to enhancing crust color. That's one I will use again and again.  Making sourdough bread is a wonderful hobby for me and I am grateful to all who contribute to my knowledge base.

lou1al's picture
lou1al

Does citric acid powder ,vinegar, or anything else you may know of damage natural sourdough yeast ?

I realize proper amounts must be used. I read somewhere lemon juice may be used instead of vinegar.

DOUGHHOOKER I don't know how to send a private message. I would like the formula. I'm at lou1al@outlook.com. Thank you Lou

 

 

DanAyo's picture
DanAyo

If you still want to reach DoughHooker use this link.

https://www.thefreshloaf.com/messages/new/60830?destination=user/60830

doughooker's picture
doughooker

Hi Lou -

Sorry for the late reply.

Citric acid is not one of the main flavoring agents in real sourdough so I would be disinclined to try it unless you want lemony-tasting bread. The main flavoring agents are lactic acid and acetic acid (vinegar). Some bakers of fake sourdough use fumaric acid but that's not the way to go if you want an authentic flavor.

Jacbuys's picture
Jacbuys

I would like the formula for San Francisco sourdough bread

DanAyo's picture
DanAyo

Jac, the very best method for sour tasting sourdough is taught by Teresa Greenway of Northwest Sourdough. It is an online class that is worth the effort if you are serious about San Francisco SD. I have contacted her to get a discount coupon.

 

https://www.udemy.com/course/bake-san-francisco-style-sourdough-bread/?couponCode=MARCHFUN

Use Discount Code FEBFUN. It is good till tomorrow. 

Here is the link to the course. I think the cost with the discount is about $10.

Let me know if you are interested.

Danny

Jacbuys's picture
Jacbuys

Thanks for the response. I have taken Teresa’s couse but am not getting a real sour profile like I remember San Francisco sourdough to have. Trying to figure out why...

DanAyo's picture
DanAyo

Jac, if you want to talk, PM me (click the icon near one of my post) and we’ll set something up. Teresa’s bread, if baked properly, will get you sour.

Danny

Jacbuys's picture
Jacbuys

PM does seem to work on ipad...

DanAyo's picture
DanAyo
doughooker's picture
doughooker

My recent attempts at the USDA sourdough recipe have been disappointing — nowhere near sour enough.

The first time or two I made it, it was wonderful, comparing very favorably to the SFSD I remember. Then it went downhill from there. No change to the recipe or technique, and no sourness, either :(  What went wrong? Did my kitchen need an exorcism?

I'm wondering if obtaining acid whey by draining plain yogurt is a dependable source of lactic acid, so I'm in the process of modifying the recipe using lactic acid powder. The stuff I use is Druid's Grove lactic acid powder available from amazon.com. I've had to wait for IDY to reappear on my grocer's shelves; it's been scarce lately.

I figure the other ingredients: flour, water, IDY, salt and vinegar can be left alone. I am keeping the USDA's 7 BP of white vinegar unchanged, using experimental quantities of lactic acid powder in test loaves until I'm satisfied with it. I will post the finished recipe when I get the flavor right.

Here is the original USDA patent:

https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/cd/3b/0d/f2eb7c00201294/US3826850.pdf

Using conventional sourdough starter, the only way I found to make it sour enough was to way overproof it. Needless to say the dough didn't like the overproofing and so I wasn't getting good loaves but they were plenty sour. I'm thinking maybe the way the old bakeries such as Larraburu maintained the starter had something to do with it. They were baking 24 hours per day and would refresh their (stiff) starter every 8 hours. I'm just a casual baker in my kitchen, not refreshing my starter every 8 hours and not baking 24 hours per day.

Some believe the flavor of SFSD comes principally from acetic acid, which is basically vinegar. If this were the case you would taste the vinegar. There is one sourdough bakery still operational in San Francisco which bakes a vinegary-tasting sourdough. Without a doubt, the sourness of good old-school SFSD such as Larraburu, Parisian, Colombo, Toscana, etc., comes principally from lactic, not acetic acid.

doughooker's picture
doughooker

Hi, Jac -

I, too have tried Teresa Greenway's method and it was quite disappointing. The only way I found to get the authentic sour flavor you and I are seeking is by extreme overproofing. It turns out plenty sour but the dough turns to goo from the overproofing and the loaves don't turn out well. So this is a quandary. How did the old S.F. bakeries do it? (Several of the old-school sourdough bakeries were actually in Oakland.)

One reason I tried the USDA recipe is to have better control over the sourness. USDA is where SFSD was first studied in the 1960's.

doughooker's picture
doughooker

Lactic acid powder was giving my bread a sour but off flavor. It tasted a little citrus-y, as if there were some citric acid mixed in with the lactic acid, so I have abandoned the idea of using lactic acid powder.

I'm still finessing the recipe but liquid lactic acid seems promising.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000MBW7V2/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

It seems about 1 BP of lactic acid liquid makes it good.

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