The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Adding oil to sourdough

maplechiken's picture
maplechiken

Adding oil to sourdough

Hello! Happy Saturday.

I am a beginner baker and I would love to hear your insights and advices on the bread I just baked!

I wanted to experiment with adding oil to this sourdough recipe to see if I can make the bread keep softer. When I usually bake this recipe, it tastes amazing with nice crust and all but the bread becomes pretty hard by the next day. (I keep it in a paper bag.) I want to make sourdough like the ones you can buy at grocery stores (not in the artisan bread section but the ones pre-sliced and bagged) so that they stay soft and easy to make sandwiches for the rest of the week.

I added oil towards the end of bulk fermentation because I thought adding oil too soon will interfere with gluten development but as soon as I did that the dough became very droopy and seemed to have lost much of gluten strength... The bread came out more moist but came out flat : (

I would love to know,
1st: Was adding olive oil good idea at all to achieve the softer, store-bought like sourdough?
2nd: Why did my bread become so flat...?

I added the photos from this batch and also the same recipe bread I baked without oil last time.

Thank you so much in advance!

 

My Best Sourdough by Perfect Loaf with OLIVE OIL

Url: https://www.theperfectloaf.com/best-sourdough-recipe/

Levain

35g

Mature Liquid Starter (100% hydration)

50%

35g

KA whole wheat

50%

35g

KA All P

50%

70g

Water@room temperature

100%

Dough Formula (CUT IN HALF FROM RECIPE TO MAKE 1 LOAF)

402g

KA Bread Flour

91.67%

36.5g

KA whole wheat

8.33%

377.5g

Water @ 90F

86.11%

9g

Fine Sea Salt (赤穂の甘塩)

2.03%

75g

Mature Liquid Levain

17.09%

10g

Olive Oil

 

Recipe : AS I DID. (Desired dough temperature 78F)

  • 8:00Levain Built.

  • 12:00Autolyse

  • 13:00Mix Levain in

  • 13:40Mix salt

  • 13:45-18:20Bulk Fermentation

    • first 3 turn every 15min, then 3 turns every 30min. (Added olive oil at 5th turn)

    • The dough got very droopy after adding oil so did another 4 sets of turn every 15min.

  • 18:20 Pre-Shape

  • 18:40 Shape

  • 18:45 Into fridge

  • Next Day 10:15Bake 25 min covered, 25 min without cover.

Result

  • The FLAT bread!

  • The crust is not much softer at all...especially the bottom.

 

 

Same recipe but without oil from last bake.

Elsasquerino's picture
Elsasquerino

But bag it in a plastic carrier once sliced, you loose the crisp crust but it'll keep all week easily.

maplechiken's picture
maplechiken

Will try thank you!!

Heikjo's picture
Heikjo

I always do this. Sometimes I even bag it before we cut it open the first time. I prefer my loaves soft and not the hard crust. Once it's cooled down enough for a few hours, I put it in a plastic bag and keep it there until it's gone. This makes the crust soft and keeps the crumb nice and soft too.

I've tried with paper bags, cotton bags, leaving it on the counter. Plastic is by far my favorite since it keeps the moisture in the bread.

aroma's picture
aroma

I always add 1.5 to 3% olive oil to my bread. (a) it's good for you and (b) it makes the crumb nice and soft.  I add it at the start of the bulk fermentation stage.

maplechiken's picture
maplechiken

Thank you! i will try to add earlier next time.

lepainSamidien's picture
lepainSamidien

I might suggest bringing down the hydration ever so slightly if you're incorporating olive oil . . . sometimes, a little too much hydration will make a dough pancake rather than puff up proudly.

maplechiken's picture
maplechiken

I will try to cut some hydration. It's hard to make sandwiches when the bread is so flat.. :(

gerhard's picture
gerhard

making too many changes all at once, you may end up not knowing what changes where responsible for what results.  

Gerhard

kilroyscarnival's picture
kilroyscarnival

Hi! I just found your site while searching this exact subject. I've been practicing baking different types of breads. I've made a basic sourdough from the "Bake with Jack" (UK) web site (his YouTube bread tip videos are great by the way), and I've been working on the timing and structure. I like the basic sourdough but my sweetie finally confessed he doesn't care for it. He prefers more enriched and soft sandwich breads. So I'm experimenting with adding a tangzhong to my sourdough and was wondering what adding fat would do additionally. I'm thinking you added too much olive oil and perhaps, as you said, at the wrong stage.  I'm wondering what adding room temperature butter would do instead, and how much. Or, for that matter, milk in place of water.  If you are unfamiliar with the tangzhong, the King Arthur Flour has a couple of good explainers including how to adapt a specific recipe to include one. I use an Excel spreadsheet. Basically you lightly cook a mixture of flour and water (or milk), changing the structure of the flour to a gel-like consistency which helps retain hydration and keeps bread softer and fresher for a longer period of time. The one I'm making has 10% of my total flour, and the tangzhong needs a 5:1 liquid to flour ratio, so you then adjust your remaining dry flour and liquid to subtract the tangzhong amounts. Though KAF makes a point for upping the hydration ratio to 75% overall, thus increasing the plain liquid added.  I look forward to browsing more of your site!  - Ann 

Martin Crossley's picture
Martin Crossley

The stiffening is NOT the bread becoming stale - although a lot of people completely misunderstand this.

The stiffening is merely the starch crystallising (!) if you want to make it soft again, just wrap a chunk or slice in aluminium foil (to stop it drying out) and put in a pre-heated oven at 450°F (250°C ) 5-10 minutes. All this does is melt the starch again,

No need to add oil to sourdough - it should keep for at least a week without problems, although after a few days you won’t be able to ‘revive’ it quite fully using the above technique it certainly won’t be stale.

personally I eat the loaf fresh for the first couple of days, then slice it and put it in a ziplock bag in the freezer. That way I can take a slice out and put it straight in the toaster whenever I want :)