Young levain vs mature levain effect (experiment)
I wanted to know the effect of the maturity of the levain on the gluten structure since I’ve been hearing conflicting theories. I thus made three identical loaves with different maturities of levains (12 hours, 6 hours and 3 hours). I thought I’d post here since the results were interesting to me. Please feel free to discuss further if you have experience something like this, thoughts, comments, etc.
The loaves are made with 100% high extraction flour of the variety Ølands wheat (a Scandinavian heritage variety with a soft gluten structure, much like spelt) as this is a flour I’m currently experimenting with. They are 76% hydrated (taking the hydration of the levain into account) and made with 30% levain. The levain is 100% whole wheat, also Ølands wheat. Method in details below results for those who are interested.
Results:
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The bread made with the young levain was more acetic (like pulling your mouth together a bit), whereas the one made with the mature levain was much more rounded out. Furthermore, the bread made with the mature levain had a much more deep and interesting taste whereas the one made with the young levain was more simple and bland in the taste (same amount of salt btw). The 6 hour levain was somewhere in the middle, expectedly, although it did seem that it had a little more of an unpleasant bitterness, than both the others (like raw flour bitterness).
So I guess the conclusion is that the more mature the levain the more deep and complex flavour and less acidity, however also damaging the gluten structure. Personally i prefer a less sour bread when there is more whole wheat while i guess such a young levain bread would be nice of a sour-tasting whiter bread.
Full method:
439 g flour
318 g water (30 C) (72,5%)
11 g salt (2,5%)
132 g levain (30%)
Autolyse 25 mins with salt (have found that too long autolyse, and without salt diminish the elasticity with this particular flour)
Mix in levain and preform slap and fold until gluten is well developed (about 4-5 mins). Bulk ferment at 25 C.
Stretch and fold after 30 mins, 1 hour and 1,5 hours.
The 12 h levain dough finished first (after 4 hours) and i preshaped and shaped the dough.
The 6 h was done after 4,5 hours and the 3 h was done after 5 hours.
Retard in the fridge for about 18 hours and baked one by one in the order 12h-6h-3h.
I’m interested if anyone has had similar experiences working with different maturities of levains or has comments to the results. If so please share them.
PS. this is my first post on here. I’ve been baking for some months now and looking forward to discussing more.