Experimenting with reducing the amount of starter used...

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Wartface
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Experimenting with reducing the amount of starter used...

Chef Jacob made a comment to me a while ago that the less yeast/starter you use the longer it will take for your dough to rise and proof but that it would produce a better loaf. I learn to bake sourdough using 500 grams of bread flour, 200 grams of starter, 300 grams of water and 12 grams of salt. A 66.6 hydration loaf.

This week I decided to make a loaf with just 100 grams of starter, I added 50 grams of flour and 50 grams of water to keep the formula the same and that worked out just as Jacob said it would. It took twice as long but the bread was excellent.

Last night I decided I would cut the starter by half again and see what happened... Here's the deals of that dough. Baking log... Sourdough bread... 3/11/2015 I'm trying a low starter content to create a slower rise and a better finished product. The ambient temperature of the room is 70 degrees. The temp of the dough after the original mix was 80 degrees.

Formula:

  • Bread flour: 575 grams + 25 grams from starter = 600 grams = 100%.
  • Water: 395 grams + 25 grams from starter = 420 grams = 70% hydration.
  • Starter: 50 grams of 100% hydration.
  • 12.5 grams of bread flour + 12.5 grams of WW flour.
  • Salt: 12 grams = 2% of flour - will add the salt on the first stretch and fold.

Mixed water and starter and then added the bread flour at 10:40pm.

Note... 1:31am, very little rise. Going to bed.

Up out of bed at 7:00am. The dough had raised to a little over double in size. I hope that's not a problem.

I did a stretch and fold at 7:15am and added the salt. Another stretch and fold at 7:30 Another stretch and fold at 7:45 Final shaping with a few tension tugs at 8:00

It is now in final proofing... I will watch it and do the poke test when I think it is ready to bake. I'll take a picture of it after I bake it.