Wanted to share a sonewhat strange experiment with you!
I was refreshing my rye starter from the fridge, so kept 75g and refreshed (back in the fridge after a while) and decided to boost what was left with some white flour and water to build into a baking levain. I knew I could only do one small loaf, but the starter seemed so lively, I thought "Why not use all of this?"
Dubious recipe:
53og rye & white starter 100% hydration (roughly)
200g flour
50g warm water
8g salt
(to get to around 68% hydration I think)
Mixed up fine without the salt - autolyse for around 45m then S&F in the bowl. Getting late so it went into the fridge for around 14 hours
Out again this morning, S&F, added salt, S&F. It appeared to be getting more rather than less sticky with the S&F in the bowl, and I had a reasonably good windowpane. Turned out onto a floured board and shaped roughly then one formal S&F and covered for 30m. Repeated again and waited 30m. Rough shape and waited 30m. Final shape - it seemed fine, quite firm, getting a reasonable shape (though I am not very good yet).
Floured very lightly, then covered with oiled clingfilm to proof. After about an hour and a half, I checked and saw - the cowpat!
The skin was tearing all across the loaf - in some places just gently folding away from the inside! Finger-poking felt normal (some spring back) but I thought I ought to bake ASAP!
Oven 230, didn't bother to slash as it was splitting anyway - just a little bit of steam at 5m and 10m
It came out looking almost reasonable (if a bit still cow-patty):
It tastes quite nice! Quite sour - which I guess comes from teh long retarding and the really high %age of sourdough starter.
I'm guessing the tearing of the skin comes from being well over-proofed? It wasn't particularly long, but I assume the low amount of flour compared to the amount of starter meant the yeast ran out of food too early? Any other thoughts?
Sali
