will it be sour?
I've baked basically the same bread since I started here last August. I think I've got it down pretty well. I play with changing things a bit here and there, but basically it's working and we like it. One of the things that I've had to do is to let go of the need to have a really sour loaf. I moved to wild yeast after the first month or so and played with feeding 2xs a day and different hydrations and I can't say I could really tell a difference once it was expanded out into a loaf. There is a nice, mild sour undertone, but I lived in the Bay Area for many years and came to expect sourdough to be San Francisco style sourdough, i.e. SOUR. I imprinted on that and I like it. I would like my bread to be much sourer than it is. I've tried many things over the time that I've been baking it. Here's the latest idea:
I started with 5 grams of seed culture and 10 grams of water and 10 grams of flour and let that double then another 50 grams of water and 50 grams of flour. So I had 125 grams of 100% hydration starter that was getting active. I keep my seed culture in the 'fridge and it likes a couple of builds to wake up and get active. Now I added 250 grams of flour and enough water to get a 50% hydration. I've put it out on the deck to ferment overnight at cool evening temperature. My plan is to elaborate that into a dough in the morning, also at 50% and let it ferment awhile in the garage where it's coolest during the day and then to work in enough water to get to a 68% or so hydration and perhaps a bit more fermenting, then proof and bake.
I'm hoping for sour from the dry, cool fermentations. Wish me luck. I'll post the results.
:-Paul