Tartine method clarification
Hi there, I'm so glad to be a part of this great community!
I have some questions regarding the Master Method found in the Tartine book 3. I'll get to the point :)
1. [Leaven] It says that leaven should be made with 1 tbsp of sourdough starter + 200g flour + 200g water. If the recipe calls for 150g leaven, can I make it from 1 tbsp SD and only 75g flour + 75g of water? Or would the 1 tbsp of SD be too much for only 75g flour + 75g water?
2. [Autolyse] In the book it is explained that you should put flours in one bowl and the liquids and leaven in the other (apart from the 50g of water), combine everything and let rest for 30 mins to 4h. I find it strange that there's also leaven/sourdough included in the autolyse process. Shouldn't the autolyse be done only with flour and water?
3. [Baking] When baking 2 loafs, the first one is put in the oven for baking while the other is waiting and proofing in the basket. Won't that approximately 1 hour of extra proof potentially over-proof it?
Thanks in advance for your help :)
Great to have you on board! I'll do my best to answer your questions...
1. I like your way of thinking. Many recipes build far too much and use just a fraction. Logic says it'll ferment faster but with these ratios I think you'll find if you build the levain before bed it'll be ready in time for a bake the next morning. It's always wise to build a little extra (about 10g or so) to allow for loss fermentation. So if 1 tbsp. to 75g water + 75g water is fermenting too quickly then go for 10g starter. I'm not sure how much a tablespoon will weigh but I reckon about 20g.
2. I too find it strange. A true autolyse is without the leaven. But many do with the leaven. However the bulk ferment starts when the leaven goes in. So to say 30min - 4 hours is a big difference especially when the fermentation has started. Perhaps you have read this wrong? If not, then I'd stick to 30 minutes or miss out the leaven if doing longer and add later.
3. Yes. Stagger them and use the fridge to slow things down. Or if your oven is big enough then do both at the same time.
Hope this helps.
Thanks for the reply and warm welcome Lechem!
1. From my experience with my 100% hydrated SD, 1 tbsp is around 10g. I think I'll make around 200g of leaven with 1 tbsp of sourdough and see how it goes.
2. Yeah I know it's strange but that's what the book says or maybe I'm wrong but I'll post just that part of the page when I get home so you can take a look.
3. Ok I was actually thinking of using a normal no-fridge proof so that extra hour was troubling me.
Thanks again for the help :)
You can do both at room temperature but about 45 min before baking the first just pop the 2nd into the fridge just to slow it down while you finish off the bulk ferment and bake the first. You don't have to do a long bulk ferment in the fridge for hours.
P.s. If someone can give a more accurate time to refrigerate the 2nd that'd be great.
I like the idea.
Anyway since this Saturday I'm going to bake the Tartine basic bread for the first time I think I'm going to divide the loafs and proof one at room temperature and retard the other just to see the difference. "Retarding overnight" as the book suggests, usually means around 10 hours?
Depending on a few factors like how much is pre fermented and how far the bulk ferment has been taken to will effect the length of time for final proofing in the fridge.
The norm for what I imagine is 20% starter in a Tartine recipe I imagine 8-12 hours is about right. Within normal range.
Hi Lechem, as promised here's the part that says about "autolyse" https://goo.gl/photos/Vz11byiEeSNWBUm28 Since this is the first time I'm making a tartine bread I'll do as the book says and see the results (even tho the overnight "autolyse" with SD scares me a bit :D)
Also in the previous posts I've said that the book calls for 1 tablespoon of SD instead of a teaspoon, my bad :)
It is misleading! Does not make sense to add the leaven to a long autolyse as the bulk ferment starts as soon as the leaven goes in. So with a quick Google search I found this...
http://tartine-bread.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/guest-baker-chad-robertson.html
Tartine is not the easiest beginner breads. But follow this carefully and see what happens.
Perhaps the confusion is where a lot of people slip up.
Thank you! This article is amazing and I'm just stunned that they've written that you should autolyse with levain (the article says that you'll get good results with or without the levain but the results surely can't be the same and it should have been explained better in the book!)
Curiosity: He's doing a 4 hours proofing in the fridge, isn't that a bit short? Judging by the photos obviously not and the comments say: "This is a matter of reading the dough". Ah, the world of bread making is so complex it almost makes me want to quit my job and dedicate myself completely to baking until I run out of money for the flour, but at least I wont starve :D
Thanks again for the article, bookmarked with much <3
and I bet part of the reason why some have not had much success with tartine.
If you include the leaven then it has to be a short autolyse and doing a long autolyse has to be done without the leaven. Both ways give good results.
If you do a long autolyse then prepare your leaven at the same time so it matures at the same time the autolyse is ready.
It seems that he got a good proofing in just 4 hours in the fridge. Not sure if that necessarily means you can't go for longer. What does that part of the recipe say?
I'll post the comment from the author regarding the autolyse:
Yes. Extended autolyse warm. Chad just did a four-hour final ferment for this particular loaf in the fridge. He probably could have gone longer. I didn't ask him why he chose that time frame. This is a matter of reading the dough. Since I have not personally done the extended autolyse warm, I would have to see for myself if my final could be pushed. I will, and I will post about it as we move along. [...] In levain bread production, the autolyse technique can be a great benefit: "The levain contributes a considerable amount of acidity, one effect of which is the reduction of extensibility. The autolyse, by increasing extensibility, helps to offset the effects of the levain's acidity. Dough work-up is easier, and bread volume improves". - J. Hamelman
As you can see, it's fine (and indeed beneficial -- this is what I meant by a 'balanced' dough) to add levain to your dough prior to SHORT autolyse. And I really cannot stress enough how my 1-hour autolyses seem to produce consistently optimum results. The dough with my 2 and even 3 hour autolyse was fine, but I really think I prefer a 1-hour autolyse. Plus it fits neatly into my bread baking schedule. I already do very long final ferments, so, 2 more hours really makes me have to plan things differently. So, unless I am going to embark on the extended autolyse as Chad does in this post, I will personally probably stick with 1-hour.
-----
If I recall correctly I think the final proof is around 4 hours at room temperature or a retarded fermentation overnight, but I have to check when I get home.
Is learning to read the dough. Final proofing cannot be given an exact time. When it's ready, it's ready! If you are refrigerating it'll slow it down but then you need to gauge the minimum time it needs. In Chad's case it was 4 hours. However that doesn't mean it'll soon over proof like when done at room temperature as it'll buy you more time. Not forever but an extended time. At room temperature you've got to be careful to not go over. And in the fridge not to under. If you go close to the maximum time in the fridge more than likely it'll be ready to bake.
Can I apply the poke test also for the refrigerated dough or should I just wait for it to roughly double?
Till the cows come home and will never be quite sure what I'm looking for.
I'd rather think that a cold dough will behave differently anyway.
Final proofing is the most difficult part of bread baking. But as with everything practice will help.
If the bulk ferment is done properly and it's been in the fridge for the maximum, or close to, recommended time then more than likely it's ready.
Haha yeah I've been struggling with that for a long time, can't seem to figure out when the dough is ready and I'm always poking the poor dough but can't seem to figure out when it's actually ready. I'm just waiting for the day when it will rebel and poke me back in the face.
Yeah practice and making thousands of loafs will surely help, I just need to find time to do it :)
1. Don't worry too much about the proportion of starter in the levain; it won't make much difference. The point is that the levain has a very low inoculation to develop a particular flavour profile. Using a tablespoon of starter, 150 grams of water and 150 grams of flour will be just fine. Especially as he doesn't really measure a tablespoon accurately to start with!
2. Yes, most purists say that the autolyse doesn't include anything but flour and water. However, just follow the recipe and call it a 'rest' if you prefer. It doesn't matter what you call it, but if you're following the Tartine method then do it his way. The time difference depends hugely on the temperature and humidity in your baking area, so just keep an eye on things.
3. If you can only fit one loaf at a time into your oven (and I regularly bake six to eight at a time in mine), then put the other one in the fridge until the first is baked and the oven is back to temperature. Bear in mind that it will take a period of time for the dough to cool down in the fridge, so if you put it in there when it has peaked, it will likely be over-proofed after sitting in the fridge for an hour. I would probably put it in the fridge about half an hour before baking the first loaf. If it's not quite ready when the oven is, you can always let it warm up on the counter for a while before baking it.
The time and temperature of both the bulk ferment and the final proof tend to be very variable for Tartine breads, if you do a search on this site. People have had all kinds of problems with over-fermenting and over-proofing (or under, on occasion). I like your idea of experimenting to see what works best. Of course, it won't be 'Tartine' bread if you change things, but you've already changed things by baking in your kitchen instead of his!
Hi Lazy Loafer
1. Actually the recipe calls for the total of 150g of levain so I was thinking of mixing around 75g flour + 75g water + SD and see how it goes.
2. Ok, I think you're right, I'll try as the book says especially since this is the first time I'm making a tartine bread
3. Great, I'll do like you suggested
For the time being the only thing I'll experiment with on Saturday is that one loaf is going to proof on room temperature and the other is going in the fridge in order to see the differences (if any).
I really have to force myself to make the same bread over and over again in order to understand where have I gone wrong and what can be changed but there are so many types, flours, hydratation levels, SD types that I can't help it but make a different bread every time I bake it :D
Thanks for the help, I'll post the Saturdays (hopefully positive) results
science. Professor Clavel coined the term autolyse and defined it for bread making because he was a chemist and the process reminded him of what happens during chemical autolysis even though it is not the same. The actual process he named was much, much older though and no one knows when it came to being used by bakers but, Clavel found a recipe calling for a rest period for the flour and water only in a recipe in a French bread book published in 1490 and this is what put him onto the process. But the process is all about enzymes.
The two amylase enzymes, amino acids that at proteins, go to work as soon as the flour gets wet to act as catalysts to help break the protein bonds in starch that release sugar that the wee beasties can metabolize. Without amylase the wee beasties would starve because there would be no food for them to eat in the dough.
Another enzyme that goes to work when the flour gets wet, helping to break protein bonds, is protease. This enzyme helps to break the protein bonds that hold gluten strands together. When flour gets wet two other proteins form gluten and protease helps to break gluten down. This is both good and bad. Without some of the gluten strands being broken the crumb would act like rubber band to hold in the CO2 produced by the yeast and the crumb would be dense and rubbery. Protease beaks some of these binds to make the dough more extensible weakening the gluten strand matrix allowing the crumb to be less strong, rubbery and more open as the as expands it can make bigger holes resulting in a lighter more airy crumb. But too much gluten destruction will turn the dough into a weak mass with no structure to hold the gas in and you get a horrible flat bread that doesn't rise or spring and a very dense crumb - it's too much of a good thing.
Salt and acid both act to strengthen gluten strands plus they both hinder enzymatic action. This is why salt and levain are both excluded from the autolyse process. They just get in the way to hinder what you are trying to accomplish with autolyse - make more food and break gluten strands.
The 3rd thing is temperature. For every 14 F increase in temperature, enzymatic catalytic action doubles. Enzymes are not alive and do not reproduce. They are amino acids that make chemical reactions easier, more likely to happen and happen faster. Things happen very fast using high temperature autolyse and very slow using low temperature ones. Just remember that too much of a good thing is a very bad thing when it comes to bread.
What one baker can do in SF at 68 F in the kitchen with an overnight 8 hour autolyse foir whole grain breads is not the same thing I can do in my kitchen in AZ where it is 91 F right now and things happen 4 times faster. I use no more than 1 hour autolyse for white bread and no more than 2 hours for whole grain ones in the summer but can go much longer in the winter when my kitchen is also 68 F.
Knowing the science of bread making can help you craft your process to make the best bread you can and just as good as Chad Robertson can.
Once you add levain you are now fermenting as opposed to doing an autolyse even though there is still enzymatic action taking place. The thing is to do an autolyse for the right amount of time so that while the dough ferments later it doesn't break down from further enzyme action.
Happy baking
Great stuff, thank you for the info, it's definitely what I needed. I'm in dire need for explanations on how the things work because I feel that's the only why I can actually progress in bread making (other than making bread over and over again :)).
A few questions:
1. What's the science behind the whole wheat autolyse and why does it take longer to properly autolyse/hydrate? I'm really into ww baking so this kind of info would be very useful.
2. What effect does the released sugar have on the dough/bread? Please correct me if I'm wrong but with autolyse I'm producing more food for the wee beasties (this would be the yeast microorganisms?), they have more food meaning they're going to reproduce faster + release more CO2. In practical terms does this mean that the dough fermentation will be faster and that correspondingly I should shorten bulk/proof time? Also is autolyse directly helping with obtaining the airier crumb (due to the increased CO2 release)?
3. Autolyse vs Rest period. The Rest period is often done with flour + water + SD (sometimes even with salt). This would basically mean that everything explained above is also happening during the rest period, since there's water involved, but at a weaker intensity and what you really get with resting is building up the gluten right from the start? This is surely contributing to the extensibility but hinders the elasticity of the dough. Are there any advantages from the rest period, other than building up the extensibility, and should it be used instead of the autolyse?
Thanks again for all of the great info
is always done with levain usually salt salt in the dough flour and water. Salt and acid slow enzyme activity down greatly. Nothing is resting then though. The wee beasts are going crazy trying to reproduce and metabolize the food into CO2, ethanol and acid plus a whole slew of other fermenting by products too numerous to mention. The only thing you need to form gluten is water flour and time and why no knead, including no folds or slaps works to make fine bread. Elasticity is decreased and extensibility is increased over time both great things when it comes to bread making and opening the crumb to a point.
the bulk ferment also builds flavor in the bread - the most important part as the yeast and LAN=B metabolize sugars and and excrete their by products of fermentation beyond CO2, ethanol and acids. The autolyse gave the wee beasties plenty of food to eat but the bulk ferment and final proof is what gives the bread its wonderful flavor and why we make bread.
Folks are into food for yeast but the food is more nimportant for the LAb in my book. Yeast bead hav-s very little flavor and what flavors it has are also found in SD breads. It is the metabolism of the LAB that makes SD bread so superior to yeast bread when it comes to complex and deep flavors. For great tasting bread you want to restricts the reproduction of yeast and increase the reproduction of LAB/. MOre yeast means that the bread will ferment and proof faster and when the dough is fully bulk fermented and proofed it has to be baked or the bread will nit spring and bloom properly. If the yeast activity is restricted then the LAB have more time to produce the great flavors associated with SD bread.
LAB outnumber yeast 10 to 1 in a normal SD culture and they out reproduce yeast at every temperature from 36 F to 94 F. But some SD cultures can be made to have 100 to 1 LAB to yeast ratios. So the LAB are increased and the yeast are restricted in the later. Guess which one produces more acid and better tasting SD bread for us sour loving bread heads?
Bran is only 20% starch, it is tough and can cut gluten strands making whole grain breads flatter than white ones that are 70% starch or more. There is less starch to break down into sugars and it takes longer ti do it. That is why I make bran levains and then retard them for 24 - 48 hours. The water works a long time to soften the bran and the acid of the levain works a long time to break down and soften the bran even further, So with an autolyse of the dough flour and water the wee beasties have a lot of food to eat but the bran that should cut gluten strands has been softened dramatically so the whole grain breads I make are no longer as dense an the crumb is light and airy than they otherwise would be.
Sprouting grain is another level of breadtology science as well and I try to get 25- 50% sprouted grains in my bread too.
Bread making is just science and mot mush else other than keeping the hands busy for a couple of minutes. The rest of the hours and hours is doing nothing but waiting and waiting some more.
HappySD baking
So here are the the loafs I made yesterday using the Tartine method:
1.
2.
They're not really good looking but the taste is great! The difference between the loafs is that the first one proofed at room temperature and the other in the fridge.
The bread is made from 500g high extraction wheat flour (whole wheat minus the bran), 250g whole wheat, 250g white AP, 150g levain, 850g water (85%), 25 salt (2,5%).
7h of overnight autolyse then bulk rise for 3,5h with folds every 30mins. Pre-shapre, bench rest 30mins, shape, proof.
For cooking I've been using my regular metal tray since the baking stone is yet to arrive. I've covered the dough with a stainless steel bowl for the first 30 mins and then it baked uncovered.
1. I had a little accident while transferring the dough to the cooking tray so it looks like it went through hell :D
Anyway the first one fermented at room temperature and I think it over fermented a bit, I'm still struggling to find out when the dough is ready. For some reason it looks like my every bread so far is ready after 1-2 hours of proofing, but since I'm never sure if it proofed enough I leave it for at least 3-4 hours and then in over-proofs :) The crumb is very soft but it has fewer bubble than the second loaf. The crust is nice and thin and crunchy. The taste is somehow complex I can definitely sense the whole wheat but no acidity whatsoever. I didn't add any steam/water in the oven while baking and that might have influenced low, practically no oven spring.
2. The second one retarded for 7,5h in the fridge, and by the poke test it seemed enough proofed. I've added a small tray with water in the oven and I think it helped with the oven spring. It's pretty much the same as the first loaf besides the bubbles in the crumb which are bigger. The taste is probably a bit more complex but it's hardly noticable, probably due to the longer fermentation.
Anyone has an idea on why the bubbles are mainly on the top of the loaf? Under-proofed?
I wanted to bake the bread on a flat cooking tray in order to see if it would rise in the oven (look at this magic @ 1:55 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tefH_iPQKA4) but I think the following modifications should be made:
- Baking stone instead of the cooking tray
- More steam inside the oven
- Anything else?
Any feedback is highly appreciated!
but first wish to clarify exactly which recipe you're following.
It's the first basic bread from the Tartine book no.3 - White-wheat blend (Ode to bourbon) which uses the Master method partly described above. If you wish I can post the photo of the Ode to Bourbon recipe
Just list the recipe ingredients word for word from the book? I think you've made a mistake.
Oh I get it, it's the white whole-wheat flour, I've put the regular white flour... I've never heard of white ww flour before so I did a quick research and it's sort of an albino version of the ww flour (The term “white flour” has often been used to mean “refined flour,” so “whole white wheat flour” sounds like a contradiction in terms. But it is simply WHOLE flour – including the bran, germ and endosperm – made from WHITE wheat. https://wholegrainscouncil.org/whole-grains-101/whats-whole-grain-refined-grain/whole-white-wheat-faq)
I'm not even sure if this flour exists in Italy, where I currently live.
Great I'm even happier now, this means I don't have to use the white flour, which I really don't like, next time I make this bread :D Thanks
Plus I'm not sure but did the recipe have wheatgerm in it? I've seen it on a website but not sure if the book asks for it.
High extraction wheat is half way between whole wheat and bread flour so if you don't have it then mix whole wheat and bread flour 50:50.
If you don't have white whole wheat then use normal whole-wheat flour.
This and everything Dabrownman has said should help you get that perfect loaf.
but I didn't find it, so I had to skip it for now :)
Luckily I have the high-extraction flour here and searching on the web I've just find out that it's possibile to order also the white ww flour, but since it's almost identical to the normal ww when it comes to nutritive values (the main difference is the taste, but I really love the ww flavour) I might use the ww flour as you suggested.
Thank you guys all of this info has been really really useful for me!
And if you miss it out but don't drop the hydration accordingly it'll make the dough more slack. This and using bread flour instead of wholegrain would have made your dough overly hydrated and compromised the oven spring.
So either miss it out and drop the hydration or keep the hydration and use the equivalent in flour.
It's not the easiest of recipes but with these changes I think you'll find a lot more success. If you have two different types of wholegrain wheat that are available to you then you can use both. Won't be the same as white wheat but atleast you'll get variety of different flavours in there.
Looking forward to more bakes.
P.s. why not try ordering a bag of white whole wheat and try it? You might like it!
over proofing or both. Since the crumb has some holes I would say more over proofing than over fermenting. But this is typical of a new SD baler so no worries.
Do 2 hours of some kind f gluten development on 30 minute intervals. Let the dough rest for 2 hours and then shape and and pre-shape and place in in a rice floured basket and it final proof about 1.5 to 2 hours max but forget the clock and watch the dough to make sure it doesn't proof mire than 90%. New bakers have a hard time realizing what 90% proof is since their baskets are concave and they think it should be twice as high when it really only needs to be 1 inch higher.
Mini Oven had me shoe my dough when it went into the basket and when I thought it was ready for the oven. She took one look at the pictures and said mu dough was 125 -150% proofed not 90% Ever since then no problems.. So post a picture if when you think it is proofed and a picture of what it looked like when it hit the basket and we will tell you how close you really are. But from you loaves baked here I can tell you you are way over proofed - just like I was.
No worries you are very close to great bread.
By over fermentation you mean the bulk fermentation aka the first rise?
Ok I'll try like that, but I find it strange that it needs only that little time since in my apartment it's usually around 28-30°C, I mean it's not that hot. Maybe it's the high humidity (I live in Milan). Anyway I'll definitely try as you suggested.
So it should be only around 1 inch taller? Wow, then you're gonna like the 2 videos :D -> https://goo.gl/photos/CQALygxc2akNgDaJ6 Btw on the second video you can see that after the poke test the dough returns slowly so for me that was a sign that it was well proofed. Then again it's true that many times the indent remained, as can be seen in the video, meaning it actually over-proofed...
In the video you can see the dough made for another bread I made but generally the dough is usually more or less this tall before I put it in the oven. I think the Tartine loafs weren't this tall after the proofing though, but I can't recall exactly. I'll definitely take some photos next time.
Thanks for the encouraging words, I can't wait to make another batch :)
From my perspective, 28-30 deg C is ridiculously hot! That extra 5-7 deg C above what most recipe writers have as their working temperature makes a surprisingly large difference in the amount of time for fermentation and proofing. You might find this post and associated table useful as a very general guideline for timing in various temperatures:
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/5381/sourdough-rise-time-table (make sure that you read through the comments for better instructions on using the table)
http://www.wraithnj.com/breadpics/rise_time_table/bread_model_bwraith.htm
As you can see from this, a standard 75% hydration dough with 2% salt and using 20% pre-fermented flour has a total max time from mix to bake of 6.35 hours at the more common 23.9 deg C --- and only 4.81 hours at your 29.4 deg C. That's almost 2 hours less total time for all of your mixing, gluten development, pre-shaping, shaping, and final proofing.
As for the "doubling" during the bulk fermentation - well, I'd suggest that you check out this post from Mini Oven and the link about info on that:
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/comment/383900#comment-383900
My understanding is that a dough that is over-fermented is one in which the yeast have exhausted the food supply, and can no longer supply the gas bubbles that raise the dough (and it is the expansion of the smaller gas bubbles in the heat that cause your oven-spring). Once a dough is over-fermented, you are basically looking at a really big levain, and your best bet is to add it to a bunch more fresh flour and start again.
A dough that is over-proofed, on the other hand, is one in which the yeast still have food left (and so can still create more bubbles), but where so much gas has been created that the skin created through proper shaping, and the gluten structure, have collapsed and can no longer sustain the rise (which means that the dough ball will collapse, and there is no strong outer shell to "spring" in the oven). That is what I see in your second video --- and I would have dumped that out on to the counter, knocked out the gas, re-shaped it to get a strong skin tension, and let it rise again while I got the oven warmed up...
I hope you find these links as useful as I have --- along with all of the great help from Lechem and dabrownman and all of the others!
Okay, I finally dug out my copy of Tartine 3 and had a look at both the recipe in question (and had a good laugh at the reference above to "Ode to Bourbon". The bourbon might have come in handy after the frustration of trying to make the bread, but I think the recipe refers to the baker Bourdon, not the whiskey) and his recommended master method.
Anyway, for those who are replying but don't have the book, here are shots from a couple of relevant pages:
So, to sum up - yes, there is supposed to be added wheat germ, and the flour blend is half high-extraction and half whole wheat (red and white). I think you should try the white whole wheat if you can find it. I mill my own (stone ground) and the soft white wheat makes a much different flour than, say, hard red spring wheat does. It's softer, fluffier and the bran is much smaller and softer. The flavour is different too - less bitter from the softer bran.
Robertson's instructions say to autolyse (with leaven but without salt) for at least 30 minutes and up to overnight for very hard wheat flours. Bulk ferment is then 3 to 4 hours at your room temperature-ish, or overnight at 13C. Given the blend of flours he is recommending, and your weather conditions, I would strongly recommend you autolyse for no more than 30 minutes and then do about a 3 hour bulk ferment. You should probably use cooler water for the dough water too. And watch it like a hawk when you do the final proof. Looking at the pictures of your dough in the banneton I'd say it had way more than doubled and likely collapsed from exhaustion either when you turned it out of the banneton or when it hit the oven.
Chad Robertson as a guest on another site does this recipe and autolyse with the levain is only for the short version. If one is doing an all night autolyse then it's without the levain. It has to be as the dough will over ferment.
and a different amount of starter due to a last minute idea and fitting it into my schedule.
1. I had no high extraction wheat so used 50:50 wholegrain and bread flour
2. No whole white wheat either so used another wholegrain that's pale in colour and delicate in flavour - khorasan (kamut).
3. Used only a teaspoon of starter and did a long bulk ferment through the night. Incorporating fridge time the next day too.
Here is an end I've sampled. A nutty flavour I put down to the kamut and wheatgerm. Slight tang reminiscent of French sourdough (well the one I've tried).
Sure looks tasty and definitely not flat as mine :D
Just thought I'd try it. Don't forget that I used more wholegrain and wheatgerm so it can handle high hydration far better. I believe the lack of oven spring with yours was due to the wrong flour and missing out the wheatgerm making it too hydrated so it spread more. Correct that and you'll get a lovely loaf. Plus shorten the autolyse or if you do a long autolyse then use cold water. And if course don't put in the leaven till you make the final dough.
Saw this and wanted to answer question 2. They autolyse without leaven, see here:
http://tartine-bread.blogspot.com/2014/01/guest-baker-chad-robertson.html