Unsour Sourdough
My sourdough bread does not have any sourness. I need help.
I use Carl's starter, have been for a number of years, same one. Works great except can it be the cause of unsour bread? The following is what I do, loosely based on the Tartine book.
I create a mix to feed the starter (the feed mix) with 8 parts of bread flour, 8 parts of rye flour and 4 parts whole wheat. I mix a relatively large amount of this so I have it available.
First, I'll start the process by feeding the mother starter (10 grams) with 30 grams of tap water (about 75 degrees) and 20 of the feed mix mentioned above. I let it sit at room temperature, about 73 degrees for 12-15 hours.
The second feed incorporates 10 grams of the first step output, 30 grams of tap water, same temp, and 40 grams of the feed mix. This sits for about 24 hours at room temperature.
Third, I incorporate 50 grams of the starter from the second step above, 67 grams of tap water and 67 grams of the feed mix. This sits for 8-10 hours
Fourth, the build uses 150 grams of starter, 335 grams of water, usually iced down to about 45 degrees, about 100 grams of a rye whole wheat mix (changes depending on the day and could be slightly more or less depending on my wife) and 320 grams of bread flour, 420 grams in total. All flours are KA.
This goes thru a 30-40 minute autolyse and then is folded at half hour intervals (three or four intervals depending on how the dough is doing) (2 hour max) and then again after an hour and again at two hours at which time it is shaped and put in a benneton and into the fridge for an overnight rise. I've experimented with upper and lower shelfs thinking the temperature might vary enough to make some difference.
In the morning, I preheat the oven for an hour at 475 degrees. I bake in a cast iron pot which has been preheated as well. The last 20 minutes or so I take the bread out of the fridge to warm up a bit. I've experimented with putting it in cold to letting it sit out the whole preheat hour but it doesn't seem to make much difference.
At bake time, I pop the dough in the pot, slash it, spray a little water on top, cover it and put it in the 475 oven for 25 minutes. When the time is up, I take it out of the pot and back in the oven on a tile (which has been in the oven), turning the oven off and leaving it sit in there for about a half hour.
Great rise, great crumb, great color, great taste, except it's not sour. Oh, I get the occasional loaf that has a hint of sourness on the back end (but I can't duplicate it who knows why it shows up), but I'd really like something with quite a bit more bite. Any hints or ideas would be appreciated.
BTW, I'm not looking for something over the top. Robertson says he doesn't like a really sour bread. I've been to Tartine's a couple of times and Ken's in Portland for that matter and that level of sourness would be wonderful.