November 1, 2014 - 8:19am
How do I recover from this goof?
Hello all, in my endless quest for the tartine bread holy grail, I am in the process of another attempt. This time, I miscalculated and did not grow enough levain. I was only able to put in 75 gms into the 500 gm flour instead of the recipe amt of 100 gm levain. How will this affect my bread? Will it rise slower in the bulk fermentation? Not rise at all? Taste different? Not matter at all?
In addition I left myself very little starter to keep. I have it sitting on the counter right now with what I was able to scrape and fresh flour and water. Hopefully it will grow back again to a respectable amt. yikes!
we're in the bulk fermentation phase right now and the dough feels good but no rise yet.
Thanks for any input.
Share
but the bread and starter that results will likely be better because it took more time. Up the temperature to 84 F to speed things along if you want but,,,,,, I would just wait and get better results instead. Patience comes to those who wait a long, long time :-)
Don't worry about either problem because they're not problems at all. Using less levain will simply mean a slower bulk fermentation rise and a small difference in the hydration of the dough. From what I've studied of the Tartine doughs, they have high hydration levels to begin with so your bread certainly won't be a disaster or food for the birds.
As long as you follow sound procedures for building up your starter, some might call it refreshing the starter, both the starter and you will be just fine. Just don't try to build up an overly large amount in one sitting because it will be slower than you imagine it should be. If you use a one part starter to two parts water, two parts flour, you should have a happy 100% starter. Should you still feel bad, give it another feeding or two. Everything is going to be all right.
Completely agree with all of the above. I don't know which Tartine book you're using, in his first book most of the breads are 20% leaven, while in Tartine 3, most breads are only 15% leaven but in both the bulk is 3 to 4 hours (as guidance, I agree with watching the dough, not the clock ....). I've made breads from both books and find they come out well and the bulk time depends on my kitchen temp, the flour I use and the state of my leaven (eg. how perky it is and how early/late I use it). Post a photo when it's baked, this mix of flours should be really good!