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Seed Starter Sourdough Bread

bread1965's picture
bread1965

Seed Starter Sourdough Bread

I came across this recipe a few weeks back. It talks about making a 40% hydrated starter to be left neglected for a few weeks while acid builds up and yeast permeates the starter. Later that "seed sourdough" is used as part of the bread recipe. I decided to give it a try.  I made the "seed starter" three weeks ago and left it in a cool room @ at about 55F degrees. I then followed the recipe as outlined.

The crust is delicate, not too crisp but almost shatters as you cut into it; it also has a bit of a chew to it. The aroma is subtle but fragrant. The crumb is very soft and almost lacey in texture and has a "milky" quality in it's taste as well.  It's a very nice bread and I'll play with this some more. I also thought this could be good way to use left over starter - to feed it to a 40% hydration and leave it for a few weeks to be added to future bakes.

The one thing that was VERY strange was that the dough skin during bulk tore with light coil folds. It was as if the structure was too weak to handle it's own weight. I'd fold it and then come back in 30 minutes to fold again but find a tear on the skin. And as bulk went on the skin would tear while doing subsequent folding. It wasn't completely falling apart, but definitely struggled. I thought perhaps to add a few percent of gluten flour to help next time I try this. It didn't proof and expand very much - maybe by 25% - I think because the structure wasn't fully there.  I think "why?" has to do with the acid overload that the seed starter is providing. I know I've read the link between gluten development, starch, the development of enzyme alpha amylase and acid but don't remember how the connection all works. If someone comes across this post and knows what's going on in this bread please share - thank you!

I'd encourage you to try this. There's something special going on with this bread.  The French salted butter helped! :)

Comments

DanAyo's picture
DanAyo

How would you describe the sour flavor?

In your opinion, did the aged starter enhance the sour?

Thanks for posting...

Danny

DanAyo's picture
DanAyo

I had no idea this was Teresa’s bread. She is super innovative! If you are a fan of sour flavored sourdough and have not taken her online course for SFSD, I highly recommend you give it some thought.

Here is a comment I wrote to the bread link you posted in your original post.

” Teresa, I was surprised to read that the bread had only a moderate sour flavor. Your course on “Mother Dough” also produced less sour than anticipated. After baking your San Francisco SD for years, I have become a firm believer that super sour flavor is obtained during the actual fermentation of the dough and not nearly as much from the starter, as many bakers believe.

I’ve baked at least a couple hundred of your SFSD, and speaking from experience, a very sweet (non-sour) starter can produce a super sour bread.

You are my “super sour bread guru”! The day I discovered your San Francisco Sourdough course was a definitive turning point in my bread baking progress. After years of searching I found what I was looking for.

Danny Ayo”

bread1965's picture
bread1965

Dan - you can tell it's sourdough from the very slight tang of the smell and taste but it's very much a sweeter tasting bread than you'd think given the seed starter. The seed starter itself smells very sour and had I tasted it I'm sure that it would have made me pucker! But the final bread is very very nice and not sour at all. Give it a try..

Danni3ll3's picture
Danni3ll3

That the same thing happened to my dough and the only thing I could figure was that I wasn’t diluting the acid enough in my builds. I haven’t had this happen since I changed my builds to be 1:2:2. This would be consistent with your thoughts on the extra acid weakening the outside skin do that it can’t hold its insides/guts/whatever you want to call it. 

And as to your butter, that container looks very familiar. It wouldn’t be some beurre d’Isigny would it?

bread1965's picture
bread1965

I still have some seed starter so I'll give it a try in two weekend as I'm away this weekend and will try to google about acid load and adding gluten.

Danni3ll3's picture
Danni3ll3

About the butter is that at the price they sell it, you’d think that they would come up with a better lid to cover it! I just threw a partial container out because the air got at it and it went rancid. 

bread1965's picture
bread1965

#1 - Eat it faster with all that bread you bake!

#2 - Load it into a french butter dish: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CfNV9t5-kU

We often use our butter dish. I haven't loaded that butter into our dish yet but will this weekend. You can probably find one at a local pottery shop, or of course amazon: https://www.amazon.ca/s?k=french+butter+dish&ref=nb_sb_noss_1

 

 

Danni3ll3's picture
Danni3ll3

I have one! I made it! I’m a potter! ??‍♀️

bread1965's picture
bread1965

And looks beautiful! :)

 

Danni3ll3's picture
Danni3ll3

bread1965's picture
bread1965

And yup.. totally duh! :)