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My quest for “Old-Style” San Francisco Sourdough bread: A tasty digression

dmsnyder's picture
dmsnyder

My quest for “Old-Style” San Francisco Sourdough bread: A tasty digression

My quest for “Old-Style” San Francisco Sourdough bread: A tasty digression

October, 2016

 

This trial builds on what I learned from my first two trials. It is a bit of a detour in that I have made some changes that, I hope, result in a bread more to my current taste, even though it deviates from the breads of the old style in having higher hydration and whole grain flours.

 

Total Dough

Wt (g)

Bakers %

Hi-protein flour #

42

10

Bread flour +

264

61

Whole Wheat flour

87

20

Whole Rye flour

44

10

Water

305

70

Salt

8

1.8

Total

750

172.8

# I used KAF Sir Lancelot flour (14% protein)

+ I used Central Milling ABC flour (11.5% protein).

 

Sponge

Wt (g)

Bakers %

High-protein flour (14%)

32

100

Water

16

50

Firm starter*

16

50

Total

64

200

* The starter should have been fed within the preceding 3 days. It may be refrigerated after the last feeding. Optionally, one can make extra starter with this formula to save, after being fermented, for use in generating the next sponge.

  1. Dissolve the firm starter in the water.

  2. Add the high-protein flour and knead until all the flour is well-hydrated.

  3. Ferment at 80ºF for 9-10 hours.

  4. Refrigerate overnight or up to 3 days.

 

Final Dough

Wt (g)

Bread flour

264

Whole Wheat flour

87

Whole Rye flour

44

Water

283

Sponge

64

Salt

8

Total

750

Procedures

  1. In the bowl of a stand mixer, add the water and flours and mix at Speed 1 to a shaggy mass. Cover and let rest at room temperature for 20-60 minutes. (Note: This autolyse step is my addition. It was not used in the original method.)

  2. Sprinkle the salt over the dough and add the sponge in chunks. Mix at Speed 1 for 1 or 2 minutes until the ingredients are evenly distributed.

  3. Mix at Speed 2 for 10-12 minutes, until an medium window pane stage of gluten development.

  4. Cover the mixer bowl and let the dough rest for 20 minutes at 90ºF.

  5. Pre-shape as boule, cover with a damp cloth or plasti-crap and let rest at room temperature for 30 minutes.

  6. Shape as a boule and place in floured banneton. Place banneton in a plastic bag and seal.

  7. The journal article says the bakery proofed for 5-8 hours at 85-90ºF. Monitor the loaf frequently after 4 hours using the “poke test.” Proofing is sufficient when the dough is poked with a finger and springs back to fill the hole slowly.

  8. Place the banneton in the refrigerator for 8 to 24 hours.

  9. Pre-heat oven for 1 hour at 500ºF with baking stone and steaming apparatus in place.

  10. Just before baking, transfer the loaf to a peel and score as desired.

  11. Bake with steam at 460ºF for 15 minutes, then for another 25-30 minutes. (I did the second part of the bake with the oven set to 440ºF, Convection Bake.

  12. Remove to a rack and cool thoroughly before slicing.

Okay. This is more that a “detour.” It's a different bread. It is a really good pain au campagne, I would say. The crust is chewy. The crumb is tender. It is moderately sour – less so than I expected, actually. But it has a predominant sweet, wheaty, mellow flavor. I think there is a lot of lactic acid influence there.

 I will be getting back to my quest to replicate old-style San Francisco Sourdough, but this diversion produced a bread I am going to want to make again.

 Happy baking!

David

 

Comments

PalwithnoovenP's picture
PalwithnoovenP

What more can I say! Sure it didn't stay true to the recipes in the articles from that period that you presented last time but this one is sure to be tasty.

nmygarden's picture
nmygarden

A lovely bread, David, you did well to step off the path. We learn from every experience, and this one will surely provide rewards.

Looking forward to more Old-Style in coming weeks,

Cathy

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

produced a fairly similar crumb - maybe this one a bit more open.  I missed it before that the bread hit the basket for final proofing 50 minutes after mixing.  That is pretty short.  I assumed that it had a longer bulk ferment stage.  This one will make some fine sandwiches and has to be tasty at 30% whole grains.  Looking forward to how your quest comes out. and how it compares to your Larraburu and SFSD quests or even SJSD.

Happy baking David.

dmsnyder's picture
dmsnyder

I have commented in a previous posting that this sort of very short bulk fermentation is typical of doughs that are mixed intensively. Of course, since I made a single loaf, there was no "dividing." And, the crumb structure certainly suggests adequate fermentation.

I had a couple slices un-toasted, with almond butter for breakfast this morning. It was impressively moist and has a very nice flavor.

I believe that the very warm fermentation promotes lactic acid production. I wonder if making such a small quantity of dough impacts the flavor much. Just sharing thoughts. 

David

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

affect the whole ferment and proof process since I have never made mire than (3) 800 g loaves at a time.  Is bashing 100 pounds of dough around in a commercial spiral mixer for 10 minutes any worse than bashing 1600 g around for 10 in a KA?

85 F is about as good as it gets for yeast so the proofing should be as fast as it is going to get, 90 F would be much  better for the LAB and possibly slow the yeast down some.  Fast means less time to make acid of any kind.  I think the higher temps also promote lactic acid too and why a well balanced loaf should be retarded to bring out the acetic tang.

All of the intensive mixing is at the beginning of the process.  I suppose this is so to develop the gluten structure as much as possible, as early as possible, since the dough won't be messed with at all later.  With this process you get a more closed crumb after 5 -6 hours of proofing.  I would think that doing a set of gentle folds, say 3 hours after the start of mixing, to redistribute the food and wee beasties, the crumb would end up much more open even at the same time limits and temperatures and might solve the closed crumb of the first shot you made.   A few percent more liquid to at least 72 -75% for this more whole grain loaf would be in order too.  Heck, at 60% hydration they didn't even need baskets to proof in either........

I go the way of developing as much acetic acid as I can and increasing the LAB to yeast ratio as early as I can by using a long retarded whole grain starter, making a retarded bran levain of about 15% prefermented flour (5% less or more depending on the winter or summer)  This also gets all of the whole grains wet the longest and lets the acid break it down so the crumb is more open with less gluten strand cutting,  Then do the gluten development on the counter at 84 F to give advantage to the yeast and then back into the fridge for a cold retard to really bring out the SD flavor and slow things way down again.

This more modern technique gives me all the sour and open crumb I want with plenty of whole grains and grain flavor especially when using sprouted grains  So working back to an old  SFSD style bread is a bit of doing the opposite of the regular method I normally use today:-)

dmsnyder's picture
dmsnyder

With a larger mass of dough, folds become more important to equalize temperature, metabolites and oxygen exposure. Also, supposedly, there are more complex metabolites produced in larger dough masses that improve flavor.

My understanding is that intensive mixing emerged as a way of decreasing the required time of bulk fermentation, at the sacrifice of flavor, of course.

I'm cogitating on where to go next with time and temperature.

 

David

Lechem's picture
Lechem (not verified)

Absolutely lovely. What would an old style San Francisco sourdough taste like? Anything like a dark French sourdough? I'm on a quest for a French Dark Sourdough that I found in my local bakery, which was really delicious.

Anyway, this one certainly is impressive. 

dmsnyder's picture
dmsnyder

And Shonah tovah!

An old-style San Francisco Sourdough was very sour from acetic acid. It had a distinctive crumb too. The crust was not very dark - golden yellow - but very crunchy.

Typical French Pain au Levain is not very sour at all, although I understand that pain de campagna in the pre-baguette era was very sour. The sourest bread I have had in France, which was pretty sour indeed, was from a little bakery in Les Eyzies in the Dordogne region. It was brown and probably had at least 10% rye. It was cut from a huge miche - 3 or 4 kg, I'd say. It was fabulous. We ate with some local cheeses and good wine by the side of the road, across from a goose (i.e., fois gras) farm. 

The bakers who made most of the old-time SF SD breads were actually French Basques. I have not been to the Basque country, but I wonder if the bread there is similar to SF SD.

David

doughooker's picture
doughooker

We know that acetic acid is basically vinegar. My recollection of old-school S.F. sourdough and Pioneer sourdough made in Venice, California is that they didn't have a particularly strong vinegar flavor, leading me to think that lactic acid was the predominant souring agent in these breads. Our taste memories may be different, but I wonder how much of a contribution acetic acid really made to the sour flavor.

I look forward to reading your future posts in your quest for authentic S.F. sourdough.

On the other hand, Boudin as it is made today (the non-Tadich bake) has a very strong vinegar taste and aroma which fairly dominates the bread.

Ru007's picture
Ru007

Taking the scenic route to your final destination is a good thing sometimes 

The crumb looks great, must be a lovely sandwich bread.

Looking forward to the next one :)

Ru

Shiao-Ping's picture
Shiao-Ping

Shiao-Ping

dmsnyder's picture
dmsnyder

What a treat to hear from you! Thanks for you kind words.

I hope all is well with you and your family. I assume you have continued to create novel and beautiful breads, even though you haven't been sharing your creative baking and gorgeous photos on TFL.

David

Shiao-Ping's picture
Shiao-Ping

Thank You. All is well, but no, I hadn't been baking much because, would you believe it, I had lost the touch - I mean I hadn't been able to make sourdough like I used to -  until only a week ago! More later. 

Truth Serum's picture
Truth Serum

I wonder what variable you decided to change to get the flavor , texture and crust you wanted. This made such good reading.

Happy Baking!

dmsnyder's picture
dmsnyder

The variables we have play with are basically ingredients, mixing, time and temperature. I know from experience I especially enjoy sourdough breads that have about 70% white flour with the remaining 30% some mix of rye and whole wheat.

More whole grains, especially the rye, speeds fermentation and also increases acid production. Temperature and time can be varied to control flavor balance. Mixing and dough handling also contribute to crumb texture. 

There are other variables, but these are the main ones. (If I dealt with all of them, I would have to write a book!)

David