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Sourdough formulas interpretation in Advanced Bread and Pastry

tropicalbaker's picture
tropicalbaker

Sourdough formulas interpretation in Advanced Bread and Pastry

Hello everyone,

My name is Srdjan and this is my first post/question on this forum :)

I recently acquired Advanced Bread and Pastry by Michel Suas, found a really good deal at the local bookstore.

I found the book to be really informative and well written, even for beginners like myself.

While I understand most of the principles and formulas described, I am not sure I totally understand sourdough formulas that have only levain and final dough formulas, without total formula, for example:

San Francisco Sourdough bread:

Levain formula:

Bread flour 95% (0.348 kg)

Medium rye flour 5% (0.018 kg)

Water 50% (0.183 kg)

Starter (stiff) 80% (0.293 kg)

Total: 230% (0.843 kg)

 

Final dough formula:

Flour 100% (2.106 kg)

Water 72.8% (1.534 kg)

Salt 2.53% (0.053 kg)

Levain 40% (0.843 kg)

Total 215.33% (4.536 kg)

Is total flour and hydration calculated by adding flour from final dough formula and levain formula, including starter?

What is the best method for scaling such formulas to a desired weight?

Thanks a lot!

Srdjan

dmsnyder's picture
dmsnyder

Welcome to TFL, Srdjan!

Suas' formula format does not conform to current "best practices, as you have observed. However, you can use the baker's percentages he does provide for both the levain and the final dough to scale the formula as desired. 

David

tropicalbaker's picture
tropicalbaker

Hello David,

Thank you for the reply! 

Srdjan

dbazuin's picture
dbazuin

Example percentage:

flour is 100%

water 70%

salt 2%

total % is 172

If you want 800 gram dough you devide the dough with with 1,72

800/1,72 and that gives you 465 gram flour. 

Total ingredients 

465 gram flour

325 gram water

9,3 gram zout


For levain I ussaly use plm 12% preferment flour


So the levain should contain 55 gram flour

 

Levain

50 gram flour

50mgram water

10 gram starter 

Dough

410 gram flour (465-55)

270 gram water (325-55)

9,3 gram salt

 

 

 Nice took to use

https://foodgeek.dk/en/bread-calculator/

phaz's picture
phaz

Nevermind

tropicalbaker's picture
tropicalbaker

Thank you for your replies!

What I eventually did was to scale the recipe down to 2 loaves. He does mention the yield (10 loaves), so I just divided all the numbers in the formula by 5. I am sure there are other ways to make his sourdough formulas more user-friendly, but this worked for me. So, my first San Francisco sourdough bread turned out quite ok :)

Cheers,

Srdjan