? about P. Reinhart's San Fran sourdough recipe
Hi all,
I'm a newbie who has been making Peter Reinhart's basic San Fran sourdough recipe for a few weeks. I am REALLY pleased with it, and impressed that I can make such a tasty loaf. But I have two questions about it ...
1) Can I make the starter dough (allowing it to sit for 6-8 hours) ... and then immediately make the dough? So that I would actually make the bread over TWO days instead of THREE? (I've been allowing the starter to sit overnight, which is nice if I have the time to plan ahead that far, but I don't always). It's not clear to me whether not allowing the starter dough to sit overnight improves the tang of the sourdough enough to make a point of it.
(I'm asking because I would very much like to shorten this to a TWO DAY process ... making starter dough, letting it sit, making the ACTUAL dough, popping it in the fridge overnight, then making the bread the next morning).
2) Whenever I make the loaf -- either a round boule or an oval loaf proofed in a banneton -- it ends up being somewhat triangular when baked. In other words, the middle score REALLY opens up, and the bread takes on this pyramid look. It doesn't seem to affect the flavor (like I said, I'm very happy with it), but it looks a little odd. I'm sure it's something to do with the way I'm scoring ... ?
Thanks in advance for your help.
If the bread is opening up a whole lot, perhaps you are under proofing the loaf and it should wait a bit longer before placing in the oven to bake.
It is also hard to tell since I do not know how you are scoring your bread as well.
As for the first part, I can not help since I do not know the recipe, but what I can say is if your levain is ready, then you should use when it is ready. If you have just been prepping it at night to be used the next morning, you can prep it in the morning and once it is ready late afternoon (if that is the case), use it in your dough without a doubt.
Hi, medora66.
Welcome to TFL!
You can certainly make the SF SD without retarding the starter or the formed loafs, but it will have more flavor if you follow Reinhart's instructions.
Regarding the baked loaf shape: It would be easier to help if we saw a photo, but, from your description, I think Arlo is right about you under-proofing.
David
David,
Truthfully, I can't tell whether Reinhart is suggesting I let the dough starter (is that called "levain?") sit overnight. I don't THINK he's saying that, but I'm not sure. If anyone out there has the book and has made this recipe, I'd love to hear from them.
~e
It is from Artisan Breads Every Day, correct?
Yes, you can make it over 2 days. I have made the starter one evening, left it overnight to proof. The next morning, I made the final dough, let it sit for 6-8 hours to ferment and then shaped, proofed and baked the bread.
And let you know. In the meantime, one other question -- I just pulled the dough out of the fridge for baking later today. Peter Reinhart SEEMS to suggest that if I wanted to make two loaves from this dough I should have separated it out last night, after I completed making the dough, putting it in two separate bowls after the stretch and fold sequence. I didn't because I thought one big loaf would be okay this time. But this morning I realize I'd rather make two smaller loaves. Will I be compromising the rise or anything if I split this dough in two when it comes time to shape the loaves later this morning?
David