I'm trying to perfect my weekend baking routine and would love any suggestions for boosting flavor in my bakes. I usually bake two loaves, a batch of focaccia and a double batch of pizza dough. I put my doughs together on Friday night and bake the final loaves the following day. Pizza happens Saturday night on the grill. All the recipes utilize natural yeast/sourdough levain. I switched out the focaccia with some slider rolls this last weekend. Although I am very happy with the focaccia and pizza doughs, using mostly strong bread flour with a small portion of spelt or other whole grain I mill myself), I'm still looking for a little more flavor boost in the loaves.
I'm struggling with maintaining an open, airy interior any time I add more than approximately 15-20% whole grain (the rest is always bread flour/high protein), but less than this seems to yield less flavorful bakes. My go-to recipe calls for a total of 500 grams of flour, 50 gr of sourdough starter (100% hydration, fed with a combination of AP/Spelt/Rye at approximately 65/25/10% respectively), about 360-370 gr water, 10 g salt. I mix, autolyse for an hour, do a series of 3-4 S&Fs over about 2 hours, bulk ferment about 8 hours (overnight), next morning shape, proof about 45 minutes on the counter, 1.5 hours in the fridge, then bake in a clay baker. I typically get very nice oven spring and excellent crumb texture (not gummy or dense).
I'm only an intermediate baker at best, so not sure if I would be successful with a more complicated bake (I still haven't ventured into baker's percentages yet). I understand a longer proof could yield better results, but our family actually prefer the less sour versions of sourdough bakes. I'm just wondering if there is a sweet spot somewhere between wrangling more flavor out of my bakes without introducing too much 'sour' into my sourdough loaves. Any guidance is much appreciated.
(Pictured is my 'everyday' sourdough batard, a new whole grain seeded boule (inspired by a recent photo on this site) and some slider buns that turned out nice and light but with a toothsome crust. I won't coat the seeded loaf in more seeds next time I bake this...seeds got and get EVERYWHERE any time you so much as look at that loaf! But it is pretty tasty!)
I sometimes use a glug of soy sauce in sour dough. Contains salt.
Rosemary and thyme in sandwich loaves.
Latest was caramelised onion and parmesan for hamburger buns.
I think you should try the cold proof. (Confession, I'm kinda at the point where if my bread is only fermented 10 hours, I'm disappointed with how bland it is)
There are ways to mitigate sourness even with the cold proof. I bet you could bulk at 70-75º, use a young levain, retard the loaves and you'd love the outcome. Give it a try : )
It sounds like you enjoy the flavor of whole grains. Why not pick up a copy of the Laurel's Kitchen Bread book or Peter Rinehart's whole grain book and add a 100% whole grain loaf to your weekly bake?
There are a few tricks to it and once you have them under your belt you'll be able to add however much whole grain you want to your bakes without them being dense and heavy (unless you want them to be.)
First trick, autolyse your ww flour separately, an hour to overnight, then add to your mix and proceed.
just crumble in a fresh frozen slice from a previous bake into the levain. Maybe add a spoonful of water to make up for baked out moisture. ( or soak and wring out water, use water in recipe liquids)
I've found much the same issue, but have recently used a higher protein white flour alongside my home ground whole wheat flour. the mix of fresh ground grains plus a high protein flour seems to match my flavor desire with my rising dough desires.
25% hard wheat berries ground on Mockmill.
5% Rye berries ground on Mockmill.
70% high protein bread flour. (King Arthur Bread)
2% salt.
I will put some of these suggestions into practice this weekend and see how it goes. Thank you for all the great ideas! I so appreciate this community!