March 23, 2015 - 5:59pm
Adjusting Time When Changing Starter Percentage
If you cut the amount of starter in the recipe by half, does that mean you have to double the amount of time for bulk fermentation? Does anyone have a formula for this kind of adjustment?
Share
What you could do, if you have the time, is this...
If the recipe gives you a guide that the dough should double with the bulk ferment then you can always go by waiting till it doubles. And then proceed onto the shaping and final proofing.
Perhaps a little experiment?
When working out ones own recipe you need to bulk ferment, de-gas, shape and final proof within the time limit before the food runs out and the dough gets turned into a gooey mess.
I do my own recipes but keep it well within the time limit not always taking it to it's full potential. I might bulk proof for 4 hours when It could go to 6 hours.
From what I understand (and please can anyone correct me if I'm wrong)... one can knead and then go straight into final proofing (taking the dough to a certain limit of rising before the gluten bonds break and it can still get oven spring) and get a good bread. But the yeast might still have had plenty of food left to eat and bring out more flavour.
So we include a bulk ferment where the yeasts can ferment the dough more then we de-gas the dough so it can proof to the correct amount as the bulk ferment can be taken to more then the limit (not sure if I'm explaining myself too well).
So from forming the dough to baking has to be done before the yeasts eat all the food. And we include a bulk ferment with enough time for the final proofing. This bulk ferment can be any amount as long as we've left enough time for the rest.
I want to know how to calculate the outside time.
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/5381/sourdough-rise-time-table
Results night #1:
72% hydration, 2% oil, 2.1% salt, 20% inoculation, white bread flour, 25min autolyse.
At 63F the times are: 8:25 hours to reach my baseline (a bit over double), 14:25 to collapse, shaped at 16:15, baked at 19:15. Between autolyse and shape, I never touched it. I barely looked at it. The time lapse camera recorded all the action for me.
In spite of the neglect and its exhaustion, I was impressed to find out it still wanted to be bread.
Flavor: slightly sour, but very mellow. Crumb: soft and moist, but not very open. Crust: golden, crisp and thin, small blisters.
Tonight, I'll dial it back to 17.5% inoculation, and see what the times end up being.
A hypothesis I can foresee testing is whether I can simply put the ingredients on a table near each other, walk away, and then come back the next day to an amazing loaf of bread. At this point, I wouldn't be surprised if my starter took matters into its own hands.