Pain Au Levain | What's the secret?
I'm on the verge of throwing in the towel.
After too many attempts to count, I do not seem to be getting any closer to a great loaf of bread. Some have bascially good flavor but do not rise up in the oven into beautiful loaves of bread.
I've tried multiple formulas and it seems that the only remotely acceptable results is when I use a high gluten flour like KA Bread or Wheat Montana Natural White.
That said, my latest attempts have been with Giusto's Artisan Bread flour which I believe is around 11.5.
If I were to follow a recipe that called for 68% water, the dough is entirely too wet—regardless of how many french folds I do. I say regardless, but the most I have done is 4.
I set up a calculator in excel to get the amount of dough I need to fill two bannetons and came up with the following:
GRAMS
Stiff Levain 25.00% 190.4
Water 65.00% 495.1
Flour 100.00% 761.7
Salt 2.00% 15.2
TOTAL % 192.00%
TOTAL DECIMAL 1.92
TOTAL DOUGH 1462.5
PROCESS:
25 minute autolyse.
5 minute mixer knead on speed 1
5 minute mixer knead on speed 2.
I added a bit of flour at the end of the knead during the last minute or so because the dough was sticking to the bottom of the mixer bowl.
The above I used with today's dough and had cut the water from 68% to 65% and still ended up with a pretty floppy dough.
I guess my question is: What's the secret? Should I do stretch and folds til the cows come home? Until the dough is stiff and muscular? Should I add more flour—less water? Today I did 1 stretch and fold—but it was about a minute or less of folding and turning folding and turning etc, until is felt like a springy mass
I used wet surface and hands with the stretch and folds.
I know today's batch will not be very good. The dough, even though doubled in the bulk fermentation, was simply droopy, and began to oooze off my work surface. I'm thinking that when the dough is dumped out is should more or less hold it's form in the shap of a big mound. My dough starts out as a mound and then oozes into a large flat shape. I would essentially say that it has no gluten at all.
You don't use yeast in this naturally leveaned bread. That means it will take much longer to rise than a yeasted formula. Maybe you're not giving it enough time to mature.
I think you're contaminating your formula as you process beyond the initial kneading effort. You're using a power drive kneading method (as opposed to hand kneading) and you're adding flour much too late in that process. Try starting with a bit drier mix and, during kneading, add water a tablespoon at a time if you feel it's necessary. I don't know what "1" and "2" means with respect to the kneading with your mixer. But it's possible that "2" is too fast (or "1" is too slow) and your dough is getting too warm or not warm enough during that part of the process. Actually, I dont' know why it would be necessary to change speeds half way through your kneading step. If you kneaded by hand you wouldn't knead with greater pressure or increased speed when you had the dough about half kneaded.
When you wet the stretch/fold surface you're adding water to the formula. If the dough is already wetter than you want it to be, working with it on a wet surface only exacerbates the problem. A lightly floured surface would probably work better but if you do that you'll need to allow enough time for the lose flour to hydrate or you'll end up with gluey strings of dough in your loaf. You could, of course, use an oiled surface for working with a slack dough.
You don't describe your oven temperature, humidity in the oven, type of surface (stone, bread pan, ???) you're using so those issues remain mysterious possibilities too. The slack dough you describe, when gently degassed and gently handled, makes a pretty nice foccacia or ciabatte style bread.
Whatever you do, don't give up. It took me years to make a loaf of bread that was worthy of human consumption. You can do it too.
Post Script:
Forget about those decimal points. Bread making isn't structural engineering. Round the results of your calculations and it'll work out fine.
My loaves are almost done now, and have risen enough to resemble biscotti when sliced.
I guess I'd be curious as to whether any pain au levain bakers out there actually use 68% hydration or even 65%. AND, are they truly using all purpose (not high gluten bread flour).
Hi marc,
A 65-68% hydration for this pain au levain sounds ideal to me. What's the hydration of your stiff starter?
I have a question about your mixing times, however. Whenever I make a pain au levain, I use a flour with 11% protein. That's more like your all purpose flour. High gluten flour is good for pan breads and certain multigrain breads, but not European style hearth breads. Pick a flour with a protein content in the 11% - 12.5% range, such as the Artisan flour you've tried. When you autolyse the flour, you should be very careful not to mix too long in the mixer. Especially with lower protein flours. After a 25 min. autolyse, I usually mix my pain au levains for 2 mins. on 2nd speed and that's it. If you let the dough autolyse prior to mixing, it can break down pretty quickly in the mixer, since it's quite far developed before you even put the hook into action.
I'm using Giusto's Artisan Bread flour. I think it's 11.3 or 11.5%
My levain is 50% hydration.
I made bread yesterday and cut the hydration to 60%. The dough and resulting loaves were much better—though the crumb was a bit on the tight side. In general though, and much more manageable dough. I'm thinking that tomorrow I will increase the water a bit—to maybe 63%. At 60% the dough and water mixture for the autolyse just came together and I was nervous that there would be dry clumps in the dough—but luckily none.
Your mixing theory has peaked my curiosity. I'll give your suggestion a try tomorrow. Honestly, after 5 minutes on speed 1, my dough yesterday looked ready to go. Between the lower hydration and possible overmixing, I may have made a dough that was too tough to rise up nicely in the oven with a loose open crumb.
Thanks for your feedback.
Day before yesterday, I did the Susan's Simple Pain Au Levain method with very successful results. Of course that recipe called for higher gluten bread flour.
On the same morning I also mixed my formula that I had posted here (using 63% hydration)However, I followed a different mixing strategy. After the autolyse, I kneaded in the pieces of levain and salt for a minute on speed 2, the ratcheted up the speed to 4 and kneaded for 8 minutes. Then, having great success with the simple pain au levain method I followed those steps for the stretch and fold. One at 30 minutes. Another at 1 hour, and then a final at the 2 hour mark. My resulting dough was great to work with, poofed up beautifully in the oven. And, once sliced—there was a large, open crumb. BUT...the loaves were very heavy and when feeling the inner part of the bread, it felt very dense and solid. Very unlike the simple pain au levain that felt light and airy—even though the simple pain au levain used high gluten flour.
This made me wonder—did I over mix and thus make the dough too tough? You mention mixing your pain au levains for only 2 minutes. Are you making yours with an all-purpose, or a high gluten bread flour? Are you doing any stretch and folds.
Tomorrow, I'll make another attempt, and trying kneading in the mixer for only the 2 minutes you suggest.
I could probably stand to increase the hydration a bit more than 63%, but I am nervous since so many past attempts have resulted in loaves that simple do not rise up very well in the oven and are just too stickly and messy to work with.
For me, commercial yeas (instant) was a lot easier, then getting on with natural levain. Do you have pictures of the various stages? Do you time the stages?
I recall baking once and leaving out of bit of the dough, for other couples of hours. Then that started to rise, and became the best bread ever. I really had to experiment, since the recipes don't account for local temperature and theight.
It took me ages to ge to the level I am at now, and I still make 'mistakes'. Mostely it is the form that does not work out, but the taste is always good.
Don't give up, it is still worth the road to get there.
Happy baking!
Cheers,
Jw.
Hi, Marc.
Your formula looks good. I have some suggestions on your procedures, although they are not specific enough for me to tell exactly what you have been doing. In any case, I think you are closer than you think to great bread.
Suggestions
Note that, for bulk fermentation and proofing, I did not give times. This will depend on levain activity and room temperature. Watch the dough, not the clock. That said, fermentation may take 2-4 hours after your 3rd stretch and fold. Proofing may take 1.5-3 hours. These are rough estimates.
If you have questions about any of these steps, please ask.
Happy baking!
David
Thanks for the feeback David.
I'll review and incorporate your suggestions in tomorrow's bake.
Of course, now I'm a bit confused: Hans says to knead less—you say to knead more. I think my dough yesterday at 60% hydration was too dry and maybe I overkneaded and made it too tough.
Tomorrow, I'll try 63% and see how the dough feels in the mixer. Would you say that the dough should pass the window pane test before doing any stretch n folds? I've been confused about that since I started doing them as part of the process.
Hi, Marc.
Hmmmm ... I think hansjoakim makes good points, and it is futile to argue with his results. If you do the stretch and folds, the gluten should develop adequately. I retract my recommendation regarding longer mixing.
When I plan on doing 2 or 3 stretch and folds, I mix to the point I'm just starting to get some window paning. (Yes. Window panes have a spectrum of development.) Truth is that, for familiar breads, I stand over the mixer and watch what the dough is doing and stop when it's "ready." So, I'm not really timing the mix. It may well be shorter than it seems.
David
Hey David:
I made new dough this morning using 63% hydration, and kneading for a longer time. Did one set of stretch and folds. And now the dough is resting for a 3 or 4 hour fermentation. The dough consistently seemed much better, being just a bit wetter and having the extra kneading.
marc,
I checked your formula's math: (I rounded to the closest gram)
190 gm starter @ 25% Hydration contains;
152 gms flour
38 gms H2O
Add:
762 gms flour
495 gms H2O yields
914 gms. flour
533 gms H2O
and, Dough Hydration:
533/914x100 = 58%
That hydration doesn't correspond to the wet dough you describe.
If your total flour weight is 762 gms, and total H2O weight is 495 gms, that corresponds to 65% Hydration, but your total dough weight (including the salt) is only 1272 gms, not the 1463 you report.
I suspect, but have insufficient information to prove it, you are not adding the correct amount of flour and/or water. (My guess would be too much water, or not enough flour)
Note: another clue is 2% of 762 is 15.2 gms which is your formula's salt weight.
Apologies if I misread or misinterpreted what you wrote.
David G
David,
I think Marc is saying that the weight of the starter is 25% of the dough's flour weight, not that the starter is 25% hydration. That will probably jigger the results of your calculations.
Paul
I didn't think of that.
Without the starter hydration I don't know where to start recalculation.
Thanks
David G
The correct ratio of flour and water for 65% Hydration and a 1463 gm (including 15 gm salt) dough weight is:
878 gm flour
570 gm H2O
David G
Yes, I routinely bake Dan DiMuzio's pain au levain, and Hamelman's Vermont Sourdough. Both are approximately 68% Hydration.
David G.
I originally tried DiMuzio's formula with Giusto's artisan bread flour and each time I tried the dough was a complete sticky mess. However, when I tried it with high gluten bread flour, the results were better, but then there were the side effects of using high gluten flour—tougher, denser bread and tough chewy, and leathery crust.
I switched to the Artisan flour because I saw a post from Dan that I interpreted him as saying that when he says "bread" flour, he is essentially talking about all-purpose flour. Maybe I got that wrong?
I think what is meant by the all-purpose is the brand used..King Arthur's All Purpose Flour instead of using King Arthur Bread Flour..it's to strong..their AP works where bread flour is called for in a lot of recipes! So you will find there is a difference in the hydration.
Sylvia
This may be anathema to the bakers here, but bread is an art as much as it is a science. Use ALL of your senses, not just your calculator. How does it look? What does it smell like? How does it feel?
You have my endorsement. However, even in art, an understanding of the science usually comes first. The artist must know the science behind the medium (how to prepare watercolor and oil paints, composition of stone, etc.) before he/she can create successfully. We can't share artistic talents in a forum like this, at least not beyond trying to describe desirable results the baker can expect throughout the process of making a loaf of bread; things like dough texture, reading the "window pane", the whisper of the dough telling you when it's proofed enough. But if we can help others understand the science it may, hopefully, reduce the time and effort they will have to apply in eventually becoming bread making artists.
I completely agree!
I'm just trying to get my dough somewhere close to the ballpark so that I can actually tell what it should look like, smell like and feel like.
Right now—at 68% hydration, regardless of the amount of levain—the dough is well beyond sticky and messy. If I add enough flour to pull it together, it still falls apart after the first bulk fermentation. By falling apart—I mean—when I dump it on to my work surface to divide for rounds, the dough is like pouring out a large batch of chocolate mousse. It simply spreads and spreads, rather than holding together in a mounds and being "light and springy" as described in the books where I obtained these formulas.
What kind of water are you using? (Tap? Spring? Distilled?)
David
I'm actually using Tap water.
I use to only use bottled mineral water (Evian to be specific) until I realized there was no difference in the result when testing with tap water.
started out great...but I may have over proofed them. But I also wonder if the scoring is part of the issue. The photo below shows an example of how I scored the loaves (on the left) but I'm wondering if I shouldn't be scoring so completely across the loaf and maybe score more like the image on the right.
The finished loaves baked up more like shape "A", whereas I am trying to obtain a shape like in "B"
I'm sure that these may have been overproofed, though they didn't completely fall until I scored and slid them on to the stone. But I'm still interested in any feedback about the scoring.
Today's bread was made with 63% hydration & Giusto's Artisan Bread Flour (11.5%). I did a longer knead and the resulting dough felt great. These smelled wonderful in the oven—and I'm sure they will taste great.
Hi,
did you try to make the final dough rest in the fridge (covered) overnight? It helps a lot to consolidate the gluten and the results are often surprising and much better than without the cold rest. Another trick that helps develop the bread higher rather than larger is to roll the dough flat on a floured surface and roll it tight; when it's cold it can be handled much easier, even if it's very wet.
Have you tried spiking the dough with just a tiny bit of yeast? If you did that, and it worked, it would show you that your starter wasn't doing its job properly. 99% of my sourdough problems were related to starter. Gotta run, good luck.
Susan from San Diego