December 31, 2008 - 3:05pm
Help with my proportion
I am totally new at sourdough and making my starter. I think that I am succesfull at it since my bread does rise nicely and have a great crumb.
However my bread is very Sour.I have a feeling that I am using too much starter as a percentage of my receipe. I read somewhere that I can substitute 15gr of dry yeast by 240 gr of starter. That is exactly what I have been doing
What is the quantity of starter that I should use for 700 gr of flour?
Thanks in advance for your input.
Dan
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Dan, one cup of the starter is one packet of yeast or 2 1/4 teaspoon.If your starter is too sour before it use it feed it with more flour and water that decrease sour.Let say,you have one cup of very sour starter use one cup of flour and water to your hydration.
Saintdennis
Yup,That is what I suspected... Too concentrated. I will mix it with more flour and I will also start the procedure from scratch just to make sure that all my parameter are all recorded this time.
Part of my problem now is that I am no longer sure what I have as a starter in terms of proportion.
Ho well I guess I should have known better to keep track of all my weights.
Thanks for your prompt reply.
Dan
When you are all talking about 1 cup of starter, that seems like a huge amount to me. The formulas I've been using start with small amounts (less than an ounce) of stiff starter (60% hydration) for a recipe that makes 3 loaves of bread. Are you using a much higher hydration starter or am I missing something?
Build your levain with 28g active culture, 172g water and 138g flour. This will give you a culture of 125% hydration.
Take out 28g for your next use and add the rest to 680g flour, 91g rye flour, 419g water, and 17g salt. (follow your usual method if you like, but I autolyse without the salt, then add the salt, mix and bulk ferment with folds, shape and retard overnight before baking). This will give you two loaves at 65% hydration.
The amount of levain used is about 20% of the total dough mass. If your culture is active you won't need dry yeast, you will also have authentic sourdough. The key to not being too sour in my experience is to start with only 28g of culture for your final levain build.
Cheers,
Gavin