Extreme Proofing
Recently I have tried a couple of sourdough recipes, one from Teresa Greenway, which call for extremely long proofing times on the order of 20+ hours.
I like the resulting flavor which is very sour and very "San Francisco". The problem is, as you might suspect, that the dough overproofs something terrible. It becomes mushy and difficult to shape, and the crust is unsatisfactory and doesn't brown.
Does anyone know of a technique to deal with this and prevent the loaves from overproofing, yet still achieve the same degree of sourness? I am using up a quantity of patent flour, protein content unknown. Would switching to a higher-protein flour mitigate the problem, or would adding vital wheat gluten?
I have tried proofing at room temperature and at 31°C (88°F). The warm proof had great flavor. The room-temperature proof was awful.
I have thought about doing the whole thing (proofing and baking) in a loaf pan and not transferring the loaf/dough.
I have to wonder how the creators of these recipes deal with the problem of overproofing, or if they even deal with it at all. Am I doing something wrong?
I would prefer to stick with white wheat flour as that was traditionally used for SFSD.
Thank you.
My experience exactly
The following solution seems simplistic. Does it work? It is basically to degas and reshape.
https://modernistcuisine.com/2018/11/dough-cpr/
What time and temperature do you bake the loaf? How do you form the loaf after bulk ferment? What do you mean by having a San Francisco flavor? Sweet? Salty?
Long bulk ferment generates products of fermentation which break down the gluten. In other words, make it mushy.
Baking: 1 hour total at 375 F, 40 minutes in an enclosed container and 20 minutes with the lid off.
The dough is so mushy it's hard to form, so I just bake the blob and the crust comes out very poorly.
Flavor - very strong lactic acid like sour cream, characteristic of the old school breads and EXACTLY the flavor I'm aiming for.
Nobody has any ideas?
with sour milk, sour cream or sauer kraut juice, buttermilk or adding lactic acid to the dough?
There is an alternate recipe which was developed by the USDA containing acid whey and vinegar which I have posted about here:
https://visualhotbed.blogspot.com/p/blog-page_5.html
Some are saying the added acids damage the gluten structure. I have yet to try the recipe with bread flour instead of AP flour to see if the gluten holds up better.
Some people claim they don't taste much sour in the USDA recipe. I sure as heck taste it and it tastes very "San Francisco" to me. We are adding acid whey and vinegar directly to the dough. How can you not taste it?
Still, this leaves the question of long proofs of 20+ hours and overproofing, including Theresa Greenway's recipe. The flavor is great but the dough is awfully gooey after 20 hours with all that lactic acid. It also leaves the question of how the old SFSD bakeries were able to have so much lactic acid in their loaves without damaging the gluten, and with much shorter proofing times.
Here is a quote from SourdoughSam:
"The fermentation time must be LONG, meaning 12 to 20 hours. Acidity and flavor develops during fermentation of the dough, and it takes the bacteria a long time to do it. If you ferment your bread for less than about 8 hours, you'll get a very tasty, but non-sour bread."
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/6815/how-develop-sour-flavor-sourdough