Losing Elasticity During Bulk Fermentation
I'm new to sourdough baking; I have been baking OK yeasted breads, with a high percentage of whole grains and correspondingly high hydration,since before the pandemic; they are OK, sometimes pretty good.
Now I am trying to use a 100% rye starter, Nearly all the breads collapse into very tasty frisbees. I have been reducing the whole grains and hydration, and using high gluten flour and various mixing/folding techniques to try to build enough strength to hold shape.
Yesterday's bread (Hamelman's pain au levain with whole wheat; just 25% WW) seemed to start OK. The levain I mixed the night before looked a lot like a yeasted poolish, I did a 60 minute autolyse on the remaining flours. The final dough, mixed with Rubaud's method, had nice elasticity and seemed to hold shape. But with every fold (first at 30 min intervals and then 1 hr) the dough gradually turned into batter. The bulk fermentation went much longer than the expected 2 1/2 hrs, even though I had the temp right and fermented the dough in the oven at the Proofer setting (high 70's F).
Ultimately, instead of trying to shape the dough, I poured it into a loaf pan, proofed that, and got a decent oven spring and open crumb Loaf Pan Pain au Levain with 25% WW
My hunch is that the starter was not as active as it should be, and that slowed the bulk fermentation down. During the long bulk fermentation the bacteria got ahead of the yeast and chewed up the gluten, making the dough more and more slack despite the folds (lamination, stretch-and-fold, coil folds).
Does that seem plausible?
Could I fix this with measures like this:
- Pull the starter out of the fridge a day earlier and feed it 1:10:10 as recommended by "The Rye Baker". Someone here in another thread said that those big feedings favored yeast and did not show any activity for 12 hrs.. Maybe do just one feeding 24 hrs before elaborating the levain?
- Use a higher % of starter in the levain in order to speed up bulk fermentation?
Thanks
Hi Louis,
The pan loaf came out great, despite it not going according to plan. That crumb looks good.
In my limited experience, I went through many failures before I finally got good oven spring. I believe your hunch is good. I have never used an all-rye starter, but I know that when I used rye in the early stages of my starter maintenance, it showed plenty of rise/fall activity but would not leaven a dough correctly. It had no issues creating bubbles in the dough, but would run out of steam early quickly in the process. And as you described, my dough would turn into a wet mess rapidly, within 2-3 hours usually. If fixed my issue by putting my starter on a "strengthening regime". You can read about it in the following posts:
Sourdough in a cold temperature
FINALLY! Oven spring!
This thread, posted by Abe is insightful also: You've Just Made Your First Starter & Your Dough Turns To Mush
Hope this helps!