The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Light airy sourdough ?

oo7wazzy's picture
oo7wazzy

Light airy sourdough ?

HI Bakers

 I have a question about the density / lightness of sourdough.

I was making a wholewheat recipe and it called for 500g of starter for 1000g or flour. I only had 250g starter so i added 2g of instant yeast to compensate. 

The dough rose beautifully and the final loaf was exactly what i’m looking for in a loaf. The crust was crunchy to begin with and then chewy. The crumb was flavoursome like sourdough but light and airy enough to have as a good sandwich bread.

What i want to know, is there away of making a 100% sourdough with the same light airy crumb ? 

is it wrong to mix sourdough and instant yeast ?

 

any thoughts  ?

thanks

Maverick's picture
Maverick

It is not wrong to mix sourdough and commercial yeast. It is just different. There is nothing wrong with a hybrid dough. The flavor of the sourdough might not come out as much, so some people never do it. As to light and airy, usually that comes from more fermentation. But I will let others address that.

oo7wazzy's picture
oo7wazzy

Thanks Maverick

i am trying to keep it a pure sourdough and the pictures ive seen form bakeries like Tartine, look really light and airy, so i agree with you on the added length of fermentation , will get the right result. 

 

thanks

jimbtv's picture
jimbtv

Pain au Levain Pate is sourdough with added yeast. There are sourdough purists who claim they never add yeast to their breads but sourdough/yeast combinations are often used in production bakeries.

As you have probably experienced, strictly sourdough can be finicky and will ferment on its own schedule. If you are running a production bakery and have to have the bread at the commercial accounts by 9AM, you cannot count of just sourdough to deliver on schedule. Henceforth a little yeast is added to pace the fermentation, in concert with the flavor development of the sourdough.

It is hard to predict the crumb texture that you like without actually seeing, feeling and tasting it. One thing to keep in mind is that a well-nurtured sourdough mother will produce the best offspring so regular feedings and maintenance will probably help develop a quality product - maybe one to your liking. Using a mother that hasn't been fed for many days, then placing a sample into your formula, will likely marginalize the end result.

 

oo7wazzy's picture
oo7wazzy

Hi Jimbtv

Thanks for the confirmation. I am abit of a purist but also the end result is what im after so i think the small bit of added instant yeast is not the end of the world. My starter was floating well but could probably have benefitted from a few extra feedings before the bake.

cheers

 

MichaelLily's picture
MichaelLily

Tartine is not light and airy.  It's rather moist and therefore dense.  Not a dry dense, but dense from the amount of moisture.  FYI.  Not like a pillow.

oo7wazzy's picture
oo7wazzy

HI MichaelLily

I not expecting the loaf to be super soft and light but do want to get it to be , as you say , moist but with a lighter crumb and not as heavy as my results have been in the past. I think the fermentation time needs to be a bit longer.

thanks

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

on the TFL showing open, soft, light airy and moist crumbs of SD bread where no commercial yeast was used.  Many are healthy multigrain and even sprouted whole grain breads so getting a crumb like this is fairly easy.  Making great SD bread that has these characteristics is not difficult once you get the basics of SD bread down but that is like anything else worth doing in this world.

Happy SD baking  

oo7wazzy's picture
oo7wazzy

HI Dabrownman

My results have been pretty good so far, and definitely improved with every bake. It just time, the slow fermentation process doesnt always fit in with my schedule so the results will always be different if i dont have enough time for the bulk fermentation.

Thanks for the reply.

oo7wazzy's picture
oo7wazzy

Success !

 

So i tried a few things differently.

Firstly my starter was stronger, with more regular feedings

Secondly my bulk fermentation was a bit longer and the environment was warmer – i let the dough rise in the oven ( switched off ) with a bowl of boiling water on the bottom tray to increase the temp inside.

I used only white bread flour and didn’t add 100g of wholewheat flour that Tartine adds. the dough was at 75% hydration but was a more sticky when shaping compared to previous attempts. I Let the dough proof over night in the fridge and baked in the morning in a cast iron pot..

The result was a beautiful golden crust and chewy but light crumb.

 

Thanks to everyone for the comments.