March 22, 2019 - 7:27pm
The Retardation Threads
I recently discovered that retardation, throwing stuff in the fridge for the scheduled future, is really your friend in baking, especially sourdough baking. This is true for flavor and for scheduling.
So I thought I would celebrate my discovery (I had a starter in the fridge for almost three days, while sickand on the third day, like something biblical, it resurrected!) with a thread tries to collect advice, techniques and advantages, even schedules for using your refrigerator as your assistant baker.
Have at it!
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I was shocked to learnin Reinhart's book "Artisan Baking Everyday' that a stiff starter can go up to three days after it has rise. Under Dab's advice I let my sourdough levain rise about 25% then put it in the fridge (and an unfriendly party basement fridge) for three days.
Getting ready to do a rye starter I threw a bit of the starter, believing that...
IF IT FLOATS, IT BLOATS!
And low and behold, it did! I had to control myself at 6am to not shout in glee. It floated and boy did it bloat!
I really could not believe that when I took it out of the fridge, and even stirred it down, it rose back as soon as it warmed up a bit. Thanks Dab!
I use the fridge for everything! My starter lives in the fridge, I finish my bulk in it and I proof in it overnight as well. The cold dough is so much easier to handle as well. Took me a while to come up with a method that gave me consistently the results I was looking for, and I couldn’t have done it without the fridge.
What method would that be?
Curious about a bulk ferment in fridge- does it work at such a low temperature?
1. Refresh a portion of my cold starter with 3 builds over about 24 hours. Keep in a warm spot. Original starter goes back into fridge.
2. Do last build in early am (8-9 o’clock). Let double in warm spot. Usually takes 5-6 hours.
3. Mix flours and water two hours before levain is ready.
4a. When levain has doubled, add salt, yogurt, add-ins and starter. Mix one minute in mixer on low, then 5 minutes on second speed. Then do 4 sets of folds on 30 minutes intervals.
4b. If mixing by hand, do one set of 75 slap and folds, then 30 minutes later, a set of 40, and another set of 10 after 30 minutes. Switch to regular folds for another set or two, again on 30 minutes intervals.
5. Do two more sets of folds an hour apart.
6. After the last fold, place in fridge for 3-5 hours. I time this according to a 9-10 hour proof and when I want to bake in the morning.
7. Pull from fridge, divide, preshape, rest an hour, shape, put into bannetons, cover and into fridge for no longer than 10 hours. Fridge is at 38F.
8. In morning, bake in preheated Dutch ovens right out of the fridge.
all day but the results are worth it.
Thank you for sharing this, Valdus.