Next Sourdough Question, featuring under-proofing and taste issues
Many of you might remember the question I asked last week about a struggling starter. I baked with it on Saturday and it yielded an very much *unrisen* loaf.
I switched from the unbleached white flour to the Tartine method-- 50/50 whole wheat and unbleached white. Immediately the starter showed lots of activity, rising and falling beautifully and always full of bubbles.
I baked with it this morning-- here was my schedule:
Tuesday Morning (6:30amish) : mix levain, mix dough for extended autolyse. Both at room temperature.
Tuesday Evening (5:30pmish): mix levain into dough (levain was young and bubbly and smelled awesome at this point), add salt, set for bulk rise. The bulk took place in my oven. Periodically I would turn it on and immediately turn it off, so it sat somewhere in the 80 degrees (f) range. Every half hour for the first two hours I did stretch and folds, and after I did it once. The entire bulk rise was approximately 3 hours.
By that time I had to get it moved to the final rise because it was time to go to bed. I could tell through the shaping that it was underproofed. Nonetheless after the bench rest I put each boule into baskets, covered them, and set them in the fridge. This was at 10pm.
Wednesday morning (5:30am): I took the loaves out of the fridge and turned on the oven with my cast iron in it. By 6am it was ready and I baked the first loaf.
It rose only in the very middle, and not very much at all. The loaf was dense and had large holes sporadically throughout, and it was *really* sour.
The other loaf-- the one that sat out at room temperature while the first was baking-- didn't rise at all. It's a brick.
I've attached a picture of the crumb of the first loaf so you can see what I'm talking about.
My question is two-fold:
1. How can you tell *during the bulk rise* that your bread is adequately proofed? I can find loads of info on the internet about signs of under-proofing and over-proofing, but never what it looks like when it's perfect.
2. Why did my bread taste so sour? I was told that the longer, cold final fermentation would help develop a more mild, tangy flavor, but I got the opposite.
Thanks, bread experts!
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9 Comments
My suspicion with the excessive sourness was the warm temperature you were bulk fermenting at promoted the lactic bacteria to convert alcohol into acetic acid. (But I don't know this with certainty) I'd definitely try bulk fermentation at room temperature next time and see if it works better.
I've done most of my bread baking from Flour Water Salt Yeast by Ken Forkish. The 100% levain bread recipes call for overnight bulk fermentation (12-15 hours), followed by a shorter proof time (3.5-4 hours). The levain accounts for 12% of the total flour weight used for the bread. So your shorter bulk fermentation could work, but would require a larger amount levain. The book also includes some hybrid levain recipes (combo of commercial yeast and levain) which call for a shorter bulk fermentation times (5 hours) and longer proof times (12-14 hours). So depending on your bread baking schedule a hybrid dough may work better for you. They tend to have a mild, pleasant sourness.
I hope you have better luck with your next loaf!