Hamelman's levain build doubt
Hi,
i got Hamelman's book recently and love it; i baked my best breads recently with it, all with commercial yeast.
Now i'm on day 3 of preparing my liquid sourdough starter (what a rich smell already!).
I've searched a lot on this site and on the net, and of course i've read several times the relevant parts of the book about it, but can't find a clear answer.
What i do not understand clearly, is how to get to the final levain build in each recipie. For example the 'Vermont Sourdough': it calls for .3 kg in order to make 3.68 kg total for the build. He suggests on page 146/147 to get to such a larger amount in at least two phases. Since the proportion of starter in the build affects the timings, i don't want to screw it up: do i really have to make the final build with that proportion (like 30g for 368g final) at once, or i have to get to the final amount in two steps? If so, how much in the first step and how much in the second?
Thank you very much for your help; i really look forward to start making sourdough bread, but can't really understand this detail...
Best,
Daniele.
Hi Daniele,
How much mature culture do you have, and how much do you need?
The formula calls for 3.68 kg levain to make 16.69 kg of bread!
To build the levain you need 300g of mature culture, and that will work in one go (point 1 on page 154).
The example on p.146 is how to make 8kg of levain from 500g of mature culture, quite a different ratio:
3.68/0.3 = 12.2
8/0.5 = 16
So, somewhere between the ratio of 12 and the ratio of 16 is the place where you want to build the levain in 2 steps (or Mr Hamelman suggests it), the "exact" place has probably to do with many factors: liveliness of your culture, ambient temperature, and maybe personal taste...
I look forward to hear about your results.
Juergen
Daniele,
Your starter is apparently fairly new and may not be strong enough yet to deliver the lifting power for a good open crumb Vermont Sourdough. I have always interpreted these instructions to mean that you are to use .3 kg of active (mature) starter to inoculate the levain build. If you bake every day or several times a week, your starter will be active soon and robust. For people who only use their starter infrequently and keep it in a refrigerator, you might need to go through a feeding cycle where you feed at room temperature to get the bacterial activity revved up to maximum before using it to build the levain... I hope that's clear.
Eric
Daniele,
Hamelman multiplies his starter by about 10X per build (1 oz builds to 11.8 oz in a single stage over 12 to 16 hrs if you look at pg 155) though the important point is to use 10.8 oz of mature starter (levain) in the final dough. The convenience of a 10:1 multiplication is that the timing allows you to leave it at room temperature overnight and bake the next day. If I am going to mix first thing in the morning I put it in the cupboard over the refrigerator overnight, but if I am going to mix at noon I just leave it on the kitchen counter. The lower temperature on the counter assures that the process is ready about 15 hrs after I do the build while the slightly higher temperature over the refrigerator gets it ready in 10 hrs. If you need it in 5 hrs, your build should be 2:1 or 3:1. After a few trials in your kitchen you will find a good combination of time, temperature, and multiplication factor and get comfortable with how to deal with dough that is mixed with under- or over-ripe starter.
Cheers,
Doc
Thank you Jurgen and Eric.
So far i'm following the metric column on every formula i'm trying, divided by 10. So in the case of the Vermont Sourdough (the first i'll try), i will end up with +/- 1.67 kg of dough.
Being at day 3 of creating a new culture i think, if all goes well, i'll give it another 5 days or a week of feeding every 12 hours before attempting anything with it.
So far, i'm sticking with the quantities specified in the book for creating a starter, with a fairly big amount: 605 g.
My doubt arises from the fact that, in the feeding routine, i'm using a 3:1 ratio every 12 hours at 77ºF. It seemed a lot of difference to build the formula's levain all at once with such a bigger feeding (12.26:1) and let that stand for 12/16 hours at 70º.
So if i get that correctly, when i will try to make the Vermont sourdough (not really Vermont, in my case), i will have to use, after about 12 hours from the last regular feeding, 30 g of starter mixed with 150 g of bread flour and 188 g of water. Let this stand at about 70º for 12 to 16 hours.
Would this be what is really specified by Hamelman?
Also, if i get 30 g off the build after those 12 to 16 hours in order to perpetuate it, i suppose i will need to feed it right away with the regular 3:1 feeding, right? On page 355 he says 'the removed sourdough is considered fully refreshed'; but to me it seems taht, since it's been fed 12 to 16 hours ago when building the levain, it might need a feeding if not used in the bread. Or is the bigger feeding it was given able to keep it going for another 12 hours without a feeding?
Thank you for your responses; it's almost clear now.
I will make sure to upload a picture of the first (succesful...) sourdough i'll bake.
Best,
Daniele.
Yep, you have it. In practice, I would feed the starter again and put it in the fridge. I use a 3 Cup glad food container and keep about one large Tablespoon of old starter, to which I feed 80 g of water and 100 g flour. That's an 80% hydration semi firm starter. I like that hydration because the amount of food (flour) will keep the culture happy and viable for 2 weeks in the fridge. It will be weak and will have lost the web of gluten but a 30 g Tablespoon will rise your dough just fine at any time during that two weeks. There will be enough to bake 5 times in the two weeks without additional feeding.
Eric