Baguette aux levain - first batch in a long time
Here's a small batch of 3 baguette de tradition aux levain using a young starter and a new batch of Moulin d'august T65. Its been so long since I even had a starter and considering I killed off about 3/4 pounds of prized fresh yeast a couple weeks ago figured its time to build a new starter. First bite confirmed the reason I prefer yeasted breads - a considerable tang as well as a slightly tougher crust and crumb. It always amazes me how different especially the crumb feels when baking sourdough - personally I feel that the 'complexities' of the flavor are masked by the sour and tangy flavors - if they are there I cannot discern them, however with a well build yeasted loaf there is no powerful acid to mask the wonderful subtleties of a long fermentation. On one hand even though the crumb is a bit more resilient there something nice about sourdough texture but all in all - here's to yeasted breads (coming soon, as in tomorrow)
sad early demise of your fresh yeast, but it did give a reason for you to do a levain bake and be able to compare the results based on your current skills and oven set-up, and not just on your memory of what it tasted like so many months ago.
These still look incredibly good to me, and I'll just take your word for it on the flavour (I'm most often in the opposite camp, where I usually prefer a tart and zingy flavour --- something for everyone, right!)
Hope you at least enjoyed the experience - and we'll look forward to seeing your happier results from your preferred style!
I have heard that a young starter often has more sour notes ? Is that generally what most people understand ? If so it makes a lot of sense as I was really surprised by this bake - with such a young starter it was really quite distinct - glad to have a starter alive again as its a nice to have and thinking now about trying some hybrid recipes as mentioned there are qualities of sourdough that I like and seems like an interesting challenge to find a nice in-between :)
The SD had to make these taste especially wonderful. Well done all the way around and
Happy baking
By themselves they really delivered a pronounced bite almost too much however with butter I must say it was quite nice and a definite departure from the usual weekend bake. I'm interested to see how the starter changes over time as I think a more mature starter should become more complex as it does whatever it does down at the microscopic level - thankfully there's plenty of SD heads here so looking forward to seeing what can be done !
flour fed twice a day at 100% hydration it will be so not sour you won't even know it is sourdough.
The last starter I had and killed after a while was just like that - hardly noticeable as SD - I would assume this double feeding routine would start to take effect after a week or do you think just a day or two ? Right now its just chillin' away in the fridge actual I split it as I was thinking about adding rye to one of the portions. Just wondering how long it should go though this routine veforebfoing back into chill mode ?
I would think after a week it should be sweet. Remember to do a levain build right before using and use it young about an hour after doing the build - ala Chad Robertson. Can't get less sour than that.
Thanks for the pointers and yes I understand the rye would add sour notes but just figured if I have two starters then why not - the more the merrier !