August 31, 2013 - 11:43pm
Converting yeasted sandwich loaf to sourdough loaf questions
Hello, for the first time I am attempting to convert a favorite yeasted sandwich loaf recipe to a sourdough recipe. If possible, any pointers are welcome. That being said, I do have a few specific questions.
How much starter would you use for 1000 g of flour? I found a recipe (on this site) that calls for 300g of starter for a loaf with 500g of addition flour in it. That seems like way too much! I previously have been making 1000g of dough + 200g of starter.
Does dairy (such as in an enriched bread) effect the starter at all?
Thanks!
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and build my levains from a small amount of it - 10-20 g. My rule of thumb is to use 10% to 15% of the total flour and water amount, including the levain, as the levain amount if the dough is to be retarded for 16-20 hours. If retarded for 8-15 hours then i use 15% and if not retarded i use 20% for the levain.
I use 10 g of starter for long retards and 20g for none retarded. Perhaps I should add an example. If your recipe has 1,000 g weight f flour and water and plan to retard the sourdough for 15 hours then:
Take 15 g of starter and do 3 builds of 4 hours each ending up with 150 g of levain. This will use 75 g of flour and water from the recipe so don't forget to deduct that amount for your flour and water in the dough. Take the dough flour and autolyse it for 1 -4 hours depending on what kind it is - whole grain longer.
Mix the levain with the autolyse, add the salt and develop the gluten with machine or by hand I usually do 10 minutes of slap and folds as a norm. Then do 3-4 sets of S&F's over the next 2 hours - every 20 minutes. Then let rest until the 2 hours is up.
Now you can either bulk retard in the bowl or shape it up, pan or basket it for the 15 hour retard.. Once it comes out of the fridge then you can either let it warm up and finish proofing 1-2 hours before baking with steam for roughly half the time on a stone or if it fully proofed in the cold just let it warm for 30 minutes, slash and bake but add 10 minutes to the baking time to account for the cold dough
If bulk tryarded let the dough warm up for an hour and then shape and proof.
The gent over on BreadTopia says he substitutes 1/4 cup of sourdough starter for 1/4 tsp instant yeast. Obviously they will work differently and his substitution was for the no need style. I have not tried this but it is on my list to do.