August 12, 2014 - 11:49am
Where did I go wrong with this 7-day levain build white bread?
Good white bread, nothing wrong with it taste-wise, but looks turned out to be deceiving, a good deal better than the taste. It had so much promise, a seven-day levain build and everything. Maybe I am not accustomed to working with a high hydration percentage and I did skip the Dutch oven instruction in the Forkish (three-day) recipe. Suggestions? http://ow.ly/AfBje
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I think your starter/levain was too starved to do its job. By the time you made your final dough, your "levain" was pretty much a starving starter since it was fed at less than 1:1:1 and never fed more than once a day for five days while in and out of the refrigerator.
I do agree with emkay.
A 7 day build but in and out of the fridge, the Starter did not know if he was coming or going.
It looks beautiful though, I can feel the crust between my teeth. yummy
I always bake with my starter anywhere from two to eight hours out of the fridge. It works wonderfully; lots of miraculous oven spring. This bread had nice oven spring as well. Almost never do I have the starter out and being fed a couple of times a day for a couple of days before putting in a dough. Maybe it's just that the taste of a high hydration dough is somewhat different. In any case, worth another try come October when I have some free time.