Looking for Sour
How do I treat my starter to significantly increase its sourness? I have a good sturdy starter and I have baked (and read this blog) enough to deal with slack doughs and retardation in the refrigerator, but none of my approaches so far have produced a real "tang".
Should I do something with the starter itself, or do the lactic acid bacteria develop in the loaf? Should I feed the starter, get it active, then stick it in the refrigerator for some unknown time to get sour(er)? Should I take my standard starter, make, say, some ciabatta dough and then proof the dough in the refrigerator?If I leave the dough refrigerated for two or three days will it get more and more sour?
Sorry for the flurry of questions, but I'm going in circles on this one. What am I missing?
Basically, the sour is not necessarily in the starter. It is more the procedure used in making the dough(fermentation times, temps, etc) that can make any bread sour, even if the starter isn't.
My starter is very sweet, but i have made some awfully sour bread breads with it.
Do a search for "more sour" for pertinent info. Much, much info here already.
Here's the link to a lively and lengthy discussion which started in 2006 and still continues.
Using the TFL search bar turns up quite a bit of beneficial information.
I had this same problem with my starter. It had great yeast activity, but lacked the sourness I was looking for. Basically my starter had evolved into a baker's yeast starter and my bread had the white bread taste. I tried every thing and even used citric acid, but no luck. Took me seven months to develop my starter to five me the sourness that you seek.
I'll tell you how I managed to do this, but it is late and I'm tired, so, I will continue at a later time.