January 28, 2023 - 6:55pm
Timing issue for Tartine sourdough
I've been baking Tartine sourdoughs for some years now but I'm wondering how to adjust my timing. Right now I feed at 9 the night before and then at 9 the following morning. Then around 3-4 I start the process of developing the dough. It gets put away by 7 or 9 and then I bake the following morning.
My question is where/how can I adjust the schedule? Right now if I start that afternoon, I'm tied to the house for the next 4ish hours. Are there ways of slowing down this process? Putting it in the refrigerator to stall for time?
Thanks.
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You could feed it in the morning, again before you go to bed and it would be ready the following morning. What I sometimes do is give it a few hours after the second feeding and when I see it is getting a good bit of activity, I put it in the fridge until I’m ready to use it - take it out, let it warm up and get active (takes a couple of hours)
i’m not an expert on Tartine’s recipes/methods, but i have often refrigerated dough during bulk fermentation to make it fit my schedule. i think it is worth trying; just keep in mind that the dough will take a while to coold down in the fridge and then a while to warm back up, so how long it extends the bulk proof time may need to be determined experimentally.
if you’d prefer to mix the dough in the evening instead of the afternoon, it seems like either refrigerating the levain (as suggested above) or maybe building it with a higher feed ratio (so it would be ready later), might be an easier way to go.
-c
If you have a basement or someplace that tends to be 10 or so degrees cooler, that can slow things down. Also, using less sourdough starter will make the fermentation take longer (or using more to go quicker). I also sometimes use that same principle when feeding the starter and/or use a lower hydration ratio as a dryer starter will mature more slowly.
None of these things changes that 3-4 hour period of being around the kitchen, but it does allow me to get that period to fall at a time that works with my schedule.
If you do have a lower temperature or lower % of starter, though, it ia not essential that you do the stretch and folds every 30 minutes, so perhaps you could get away with doing a couple sets every 30 minutes, but then waiting an hour and a half before doing a couple more.