September 29, 2013 - 6:01am
Sourdough trilogy
this weekend I've been super productive, I've bake a sourdough chocolate cake, 50% ww English muffins and a Norwich.
with the help of TFLers I've finally pull together a not too sour sourdough. But I still can't taste the subtle sweetness as describe in others post. Probably I should get one and use it as a benchmark.
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I really like the crumb of your Norwich sourdough. Nice!
Yes its pretty good, if the bottom is rise properly it would be even better.
one I like the best is the Chocolate Cake since I am hopelessly addicted to chocolate anything. Those blisters are to die for on the Boule and the crumb is very nice too. The 50% WW English muffins look fantastic.
Now we have no figure out why the bottom half of the sides of your boule and bottom didn't brown up like the top did.
How did you bake it?
Actually, I put it in a springform pan to bake hoping to give it a bit more support. It ended up didnt even touch the side of my pan at all and rise beautifully. So next time Im gonna leave it on a parchment paper and bake directly on the stone.
To me it has a mildly sour after taste which i think is pretty good, but my frds complaints it is too sour, do u know how to control the sourness (apart from adding active dried yeast)? Thanks in advance
right on the stone. Make sure the stone sits at baking temperature 20 minutes after the oven says it is at temperature. The stone temperature will lag the oven one by 15 - 20 minutes depending on the stone.Toward the end of the bake, if the bottom still isn't as brown as the top just turn it over - bottoms up. No damage will happen to the top at that point. i have to do this regularly in the nini oven where ther is no stone
To reduce sour there are 3 things I do. First is to do everything for the starter, levain and dough between 68 and 72 F where the yeast production is favored the most over lab production. Not retards of high temperature proofs.
Seconds you can add in a small commercial yeast booster of some kind I usually don't do this but when i do i use a small poolish to develop some flavor.
Third and my favorite fool proof way is to use a yeast water levain with the SD one. This always produces a bread with a very slight SD tang.
if I flip it over for the last few minutes would the top get squashed If its not a hard crust?
for controlling the sourness I think is gonna be easier when wintering is coming soonPro guess getting a proof box would be helpful.
But yeast water is something new to me, this gives me sth to investigate into for the next few days before my weekend bake.
For the time being I guess I would add a pinch of yeast to reduce the sourness.
Once again thank you so much !
no worries about mooshing the top. In the winter I use a heating pad for a make shift proofer, I just set it on medium and then put a kitchen towel on top of it put the dough bowl on the towel and cover with another towel I put my probe thermometer underneath the dough bowl and see what temperature results. Since you want 68 - 72 F of the temperature is too low I adjust the temperature of the heating pad up a notch if too high down it goes, You can also add towels underneath if too hot too. It's not a proofing box but it does seem to work for starters, levains and dough.
Another trick that Clayton uses to reduce sour is to put a 1/8 tsp of baking soda in the mix which, as a base, counteracts the sour too.
For me, sourdough bread is supposed to be a least a little bit sour but some folks don't like the sour. It is a taste in bread they aren't used to and they are conditioned to what bread should taste like and it takes a while to get them reacquainted with the new taste. Another thing you could do is to make a yeast bread with a kicker of SD instead of the other way around. If the sour is still too much after doing some of the other changes.
One thing is for sure is that your bread is well shaped and sprigs great so no need for a pan as suipport.
Happy experimenting
Is that why the sourdough english muffins doesnt taste sour at all? If I add Soda into the dough do I do it at the very beginning? or during bulk fermentation?
In Asia i think we are more accustom to buttery and sugary bread, as we all grow up with "Pineapple bun" or Custard Buns.
The sourness Im getting is after taste sour, which is only a tang. But my ultimate goal is to make great bread with wild yeast only.
Thanks for the great tips. Without your advice I dun think I can pull together a proper bread like this.
Looks like someone is in sourdough action. I second DAB I want that cake it looks so good.
As for sweet. Well with a white sourdough the best way to get sweet is to really get a good caramelized crust. If you could use a better baking vessle and get that crust deep read even black if you dare. to me simple sourdoughs flavor is all in the crust. Well the complicated and intricate flavors. The inside is just some texture and a place for holding food.
Again fantastic stuff. What's next?
Josh
I really should post the crumb shot of my chocolate cake, it is really moist and sort of melt in the mouth.
I agree, the browned crust is absolutely fantastic, with that perfect aroma and sweetness. Baking vessel? Do u mean like drainage pipe in half? or an oven that can offers higher temp?
I am thinking of sourdough crackers or carrot cakes. the only problem is I dun have enough starter for both.