April 25, 2013 - 8:12pm
Tartine Country Loaf with Rye Starter?
Just wondering if anyone has tried making the Tartine Country Loaf without going through the many day process of developing a whole wheat starter? I typically keep only one type of starter around, which is my alive and doubling well 100% hydration mature rye starter. I plan to make the levain using this rye starter. Anyone had any luck or experience doing this? If so, any tips or changes that should be made to the original formula?
John
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Thanks for the feedback Le Copain. I am more confident now in my weekend endevour.
John
the hydration and the total weight of your rye starter to match the Tartine one and you are good to go. You will like the taste and the tang much better using your rye starter.
Happy baking.
I just took some of my standard starter made with APF, refreshed it with a 50/50 blend of APF/WWF, and I was good to go the next morning on the Tartine recipe. This was quite a while back so my memory may be faulty. The starter was so lively that I've maintained it separately and continue to do a 50/50 refresh each time I make the Tartine bread. (Also use it for miche.)
As to substituting rye, though, in Jeffrey Hamelman's sourdough rye class a couple of months back he told us that rye was the first starter he used and he used it in everything, including all-white breads, till he acquired a white flour starter many years later. I've since tried using his rye starter in my baguette preps with pretty good results. Will do a post on that when I get a formula I'm really satisfied with but I would say no reason not to use the rye starter in the Tartine build. (You still need to create a levain with quite a bit more WWF as you know.)
Otis
Thank you Otis for your advice. The original recipe does call for a 5 - 6 day starter process, from scratch of course. I am sure a difference could be tasted between using the recipe's starter and my rye starter, but I just can't be bothered to start a whole new starter when I have a healthy 4 month old rye starter already in the fridge! One day I will try it, but for now, sounds like this will do.
John