First try at sourdough a success...but why no flavor?
Hi! Total noob here. First post. First starter. First attempt at sourdough.
Here's what I used:
10 day old starter (100% hydration doubling and very active for 2 days prior) - used just past peak, but still floating
Let autolyse for 40 minutes
Let bulk fermentation happen for 4 hours, then cut and shaped and rested in fridge overnight.
Left on counter for 1 hour prior to baking.
Baked at 450 in dutch oven for 30-40 minutes.
- 100% hydration sourdough starter (10 days old doubling and very active for 2 days prior)– 16 oz/453g
- Water – 18 oz/510g
- Bread flour – 32 oz/907g
- Olive Oil – .5 oz/14g
- Sugar – .5 oz/14g
- Sea Salt – .8 oz/22g
The bread turned out nice, I thought, but I would love your thoughts on the crumb. When comparing my formula with others online, it seemed mine had a LOT more starter than others. But, it looked fine, so not sure.
My biggest compliant is that it isn't very flavorful. Do I need more salt? Could it be that simple? Is it because my starter is too young? Appreciate any guidance.
Is right. It could be that your starter is very young. It will develop character as it matures. If you want more sour, do a search here on how to get that, but let your starter get a bit older first.
Remember that sourdough is not a flavor- most commercial sourdoughs have souring agents added (citric acid,tartaric, etc). Most flavor comes during the bulk fermentation so try extending that to 10-12 hours at room temp- refrigeration slows down flavor development
Regarding flavour, your levain quantity of 453g is quite high for the amount of bread flour in your dough; try reducing it to 227g to give a slower bulk fermentation, which should help develop more flavour. Add 115g extra water and 115g extra bread flour to keep the recipe in balance.
Please note that the starter is your ongoing sourdough culture that you feed at regular intervals and keep either on the counter (daily feeds) or in the fridge (weekly feeds). Levain is what you build from the starter specifically to make your bread dough.
Another way to increase flavour is to replace 10% of your bread flour with 10% of whole grain flour - wheat, spelt, rye - whatever you can get at the moment.
Lance
First time poster, long time lurker. I began my starter about 5 years ago. I'd say that age has a bit to do with it but I've found to have the largest impact is starter temperature and dough temperature.
I don't know the scientific names of the bacteria, but basically keeping the starter between 80-85 while you build it up for your dough and keeping it at that same temp helps develop the type of bacteria that gives a zing of sour and then a cold proof after it has been shaped give out a mellower, more sustained sour. The amount of whole grain you use in your loaf helps the sourness too. I use anywhere from 10-25 percent while grain (rye flour is great if you can get it)
As for your other questions, your loaf looks great for only being in the sourdough game for 10 days. Crust is cooked to a good color, crumb is fairly open and the bread looks nice and soft. That's a lot of starter, but it's got the same ingredients as the bread so that's not too big of a deal for taste, just speeds up the leavening a bit.
Good luck!
Actually, albacore is right about a slower rise helping develop certain flavor, (this can happen during the cold proof). So that would be another reason to reduce your starter percentage.
Also, I'd suggest making one change at a time so you can better discern how the flavor differs.