WW Starter More Sour?
I currently have a WW and a white/AP starter that I am maintaining. I use them alternately with the same 1-2-3 formula that is what I most commonly bake. I have noticed that my WW starter produces a more sour result than the white/AP starter. My preparation methods are pretty much the same each time (with some variance in time of each step depending on ambient temp that day.) Is this more pronounced sourness from the WW starter a characteristic that is a common difference? Or perhaps it is because the WW starter is a bit older than the white/AP starter (which was "born" from the WW starter)? I am interested in your comments.
FWIW, I'm happy to have this difference between the two, as it gives me a good way to produce loaves with different levels of sourness without having to change my process.
Here are a few pics of today's bake:
Out of fridge (16 hours) for about an hour
Onto parchment:
Scored:
20 minutes into bake (@ 450 df), lid of dutch removed:
Done baking and onto cooling rack:
One more:
Happy baking!
Rich
I switched over to a 100% Whole Grain/Stone Ground Rye starter a few months ago and absolutely love it!! I do notice a much more pronounced flavor.
I think it has something to do with the fermentation of the whole grains. Not sure, just taking a newbie guess.
Time to do a bit of research to see what I can find out.
I'm sure one of the pro's on TFL will respond.
Cheers!
I found this, which gives a very short and newbie explanation.
http://www.culturesforhealth.com/how-to-make-truly-sour-sourdough-bread
Works for me. Although I would love to know more of the scientific part of it as well.
content and the flour's ability to tolerate acid or buffer acid before the acid has a detrimental effect on the dough matrix. The more the dough can buffer acids, the more sour you can let your dough get before baking.
One way to check for higher ash content (what's left over in the dish when specific amount is burnt to
helldust) is to compare the fibre content of the flour. Usually the more fibre, the higher the ash content. High fibre flours tend to be whole flours and contain more of the outside layers of the grain berry. They will also contain more protein than their refined counterparts.Thanks for the link, Dave. I guess the suggestion that acetic acid producing bacteria love whole wheat flours is one of the keys that track. Of course, for a given hydration, a starter made with whole wheat will also tend to be thicker than with AP, so maybe that's part of it too?
Mini, I looked at my two flours (both King Arthur), and the AP has 1g of dietary fiber, while the WW has 4g. So looks like (for my small sample) there's a definite correlation there based on what you typed above.
Thanks so much for the information from you both, it's nice to have come background to what I'm observing! :)
Rich
will give you a more sour bread.
I have a 50% hydration wheat starter to bake with and I love it.
It will give me fantastic tangy sour bread.
My 90% hydration starter is much less sour * some in my family prefer that one * .
I love to do a 80/20 wheat and wholmeal flour bread and with the 50% hydration starter it is the most wonderful bread.
by grinding whole grains and sifting out the 20% hard bits and feed that to the starter and resulting levain if making a bread with the milled flour. Whole grain starters make more sour bread and feeding the low extraction hard bits to them and in the levain make for an even more sour bread. To get end more sour retard your stiff whole grain starter for 8 -12 weeks in the fridge and then do a 3 stage levain build over 4 hours each with progressively larger feedings and then retard the levain for 48 hours before using it. Don't worry, your bread won't be too sour if you like sour bread.
This process is perfect for whole grain SD breads to get enough sour to stand up to the whole grain complex and deep flavors. It also has more acid that 100% rye bread s need as well.
Great looking 1:2:3 SD bread by the way!
Happy sour baking
So, the moral of the story is that there are numerous ways to tweak your ingredients and process to affect the level of sour in the final product. Guess I need to bake more... :)
Rich