weak structure - sourdough
Hi. Been following a few books in regards to natural yeast breads (ken forkish, josey, tartine). No matter which version, long fermentation (fridge, no fridge) is leading to a final dough with weak structure. When I dump out of the banneton it just quickly turns flat. In a 3.8L dutch oven the flat dough climbs the wall an actually has oven spring, while the second dough in larger cloche, without supporting side wall, just turns into long flat bread. Crumb always has uniform holes, crust is always tasty and easy to chew. Ken forkish recipes using poolish/biga or the hybrid (yeast + levain) usually have more structure but as soon as I go to the pure levain my dough is getting weak. Doing some journal/ internet investigating. Proteases in the flour and/or glutathione are likely suspects breaking down the gluten matrices along with acidic environment when fermented over long periods. Tried 50 mg/L Ascorbic acid in the hydration water with some improvement but nothing significant. Increased water hardness by using 30 mg/L Ca and 10 mg/L Mg in hydration water as my local water is crazy soft (hardness = 3 mg/L CaCo3). Been using the same flour (13.5% protein) as it is local(http://www.anitasorganic.com/ [1]). Below is the last recipe i performed. Been adding diastolic malt as the final crumb can be wet and gummy without it but it is still good. Takes a couple of rounds in the toaster to get toasted though.
So question: Can anyone explain what am I looking for in regards to structure. Should the dough spread out in a matter of seconds after dumping from banneton? Or should it be minutes. Is there anyway to direct my starter populations to help with reducing this weak structure? The bread below only had a hint of acid so I don't think my issue is acidity. Or Is this just a function of flour and I need to switch flours?
Starter life:
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Sunday to wednesday in fridge
Wednesday to friday - 75g mature starter + 150 g 50/50 whole/white + 150 g H2o @ 78 degrees F. Feed at 11pm and by 8 am it has doubled. I missed the double feedings per day instructions in the tartine book before making the levain. Going to try this next but not holding my breath.
Levain is then ~20g of this mature starter into 200g of 50/50 and 200g of H20 at 85 degreeF. Usually take 6 hours to get to floating in water stage.
recipe
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- adapted tartine No3.
- 500g high extraction (sifted Whole wheat - Anita)
- 250g medium extraction -(Anita - Canadian)
- 250g whole wheat AP (Anita - Canadian)
- 70 g wheat germ (bobsMills)
- 1g diastatic malt
- 25 g sea salt
- total H20 = 850mL (med hardness)
- levain (young) - just floating 150g.
Autolyse flours with 750 mL of H20 for 3 hours -Heated 100mL H20 to 105 degree added to autolyse with salt and levain Used the pincer method to mix (~8 min). folded every 30min for next 2 hours. Folds included enough turns to get the gluten tight and forms a ball. Proceeds to relax in 30 minutes. Entire duration of fold + bulk fermenation was done around 78 to 82 F. Dump dough onto counter . Dough is slack. Do a preshape and cover. Over 30 minute it spreads out quickly. Do a full shaping (tartine technique) and put into proofing baskets. Put baskets into a container to proof for 3 hours @ 78 to 82 F. Dump dough and score. Place on dough into 3.8 L Dutch oven and the second dough is put into a larger area Clouche. This dough is not very acidic.