Thoughts on two potential sourdough schedules:
I'm trying to fit a baking schedule into my already packed week.
My goals:
1. Minimize the risk of overproofing as best as possible while I'm at work
2. Bake in the evenings or before work
3. Yield a bread that has a huge oven spring and a mild, complex, slightly sour flavor.
Might be too good to be true.
So far, my attempts have consistently been either underproofed or overproofed because I'm not able to tend to it during work, except some days during my lunch break.
Here are two slightly different options. I'm wondering if the bread experts here can help predict what kind of bread this will produce, and what changes I should make.
Day 1: Around 8pm (normal feeding schedule of my starter), mix the leaven. (Using a tartine starter-- 50/50 WW and AP, 100% hydration). Also, mix the dough sans salt and bit of water for extended autolyse at room temperature.
Day 2: Around 6am (making it 10 hours after initial mixing), test the leaven. If it passes, mix it, the salt and water into the autolysed dough. Start for the bulk rise, turning ever half and hour until 8am. Set in the fridge.
Day 2: Around 5:30pm, either:
a) shape, bench rest and bake
b) shape, set for final rise of 2-4 hours. Bake.
Note: I can tend to the bread at lunch time basically every day. The only caveat with that is that the time can be anywhere from 11:30 am to 1:00pm, so there's not a lot of room for consistency.
Note: I'm still trying to figure out what the point of the final rest is. If anyone has a quick answer for me, I might be able to time things out better.
Thanks, bread experts!
17 Comments
I guess we can conclude that 8 hours bulk rise with only a few turns isn't enough time or turns to thoroughly develop structure and rise.
I baked a loaf yesterday that ended up sort of well, and I wonder if there's a correlation because they look really similar (oven spring looks the same). I mixed the leaven in the morning and it passed the float test at 11:30pm (*whew*). I let it autolyse for 15 minutes and then set it for a bulk rise in the fridge until I woke up at 6:30. I did a few turns while I was getting ready for work, and at 8 I left. I got back home at 11:30 for lunch, and I did the cutting, bench rest and shaping, and then by 12:30 it started its final rise in room temperature. I only had time to bake one loaf when I got home at 5:30, and it was nice, but the one I baked at 10:00pm that night was so much better (higher oven spring). That's partly because I did a better job scoring it, but I think that longer fermentation time contributed. I wish I knew more about the science of it so I could figure out how it all works together!
So I guess from my experience and from yours, my initial plan really didn't give it enough time to develop.
My question about it all is-- how does doing the stretch-and-folds contribute to the oven spring? Could the fact that I'm not able to do all the stretch and folds the recipe calls for be the reason I'm getting good, but not great, oven spring?
And yes, those rings are from the banneton. ;o) P.S. My bread has deep, complex flavor!
The boules turned out well, but I've made better. I didn’t get as much oven spring as I like, but then that sometimes happen when I follow the instructions as drafted, without refrigerating.
When I took the dough out of the refrigerator shortly after 5 PM yesterday, it had not risen much, although some small pockets of trapped gasses were visible. Concerned that the dough was so cold, I let it sit for 30 minutes while I went out for a walk, before dividing and shaping the dough. In retrospect, I'm wondering if I should have divided it right then and there, which would have warmed it up a bit sooner. The dough also seemed wetter then usual. It felt rather slack, which suggests that the internal structure was a bit weak.
I noticed that again, when I turn the shaped dough balls into the Lodge Combo top. My lame did not cut smoothly through the surface, dragging and catching as I tried to slash the boules, which may also have contributed to the lack of oven spring. I often have that problem, despite using fresh blades in the fancy lame I bought via the Food52 e-commerce platform. Still trying to troubleshoot that . . . .
;o)
I haven't tested this carefully, but it seemed to work fine with moderate variations in leaven amount (i.e. 2/3 of original, or 1.25x to speed it up). I've done it mostly to compensate for leaven that seemed a little overgrown or undergrown to me.
New thought-- I have a dough right now that's in a bulk ferment in the fridge, and I'm a work. I plan to go home at lunch to shape it and set it for the final rise. It's a very high-hydration dough (mostly because I accidentally added slightly too much water). Can I do the final rise in the fridge too? I plan on taking lunch from about 12:30 to 1:30, and I want to bake (ideally) around 5:45. I don't want to over-proof it, and I'm worried that a 4 hour fermentation might get dangerously close to over-proofing. But I'm not sure. Would the fridge work, or would that require a lot more time?
(I hope that makes sense)
(Also thank you for being my unofficial bread mentor-- you've answered a few of my food52 hotline questions!)
I didn't mean that I would handle the dough or manipulate it much; I just plan to touch it gently, leaving my hands on the dough for a bit longer than I otherwise would, to try to warm it up just a bit.
I've got my dough in the fridge for the first rise right now. The flour and water only dough following the overnight autolyse was so stretchy, when I added the leaven early this morning!
I heard recently about one popular bread book author whose gospel includes baking proofed dough straight from the fridge. There are so many ways, it seems, to do it! ;o)
Finally, when refrigerating, make sure the container holding the dough is tightly covered. A lot of air blows around inside the fridge, which can dry out the surface of the dough, which in turn could affect the internal structure of the dough. ;o)
I'm intensely interested in the other answers to this, as I too make the Tartine breads, but have been searching for more flexible timetables. ;o)
I would not add the salt + water until the second turn, as you need to give the yeast in the leaven a chance to work its magic on the flour a bit before adding the salt.
Also, I recommend making sure that (i) all of the water used is fairly cool; and (ii) your 6AM to 8AM day 2 environment is also cool. Once the yeast starts working, it will continue at a good pace, even in the fridge. Believe me, I know. I've been playing with different schedules myself and found myself baking between 10:20 PM and midnight recently when I realized at about 9:30 that the dough I'd tucked into the fridge for an overnight rest had risen far more than I expected. I would have dreadfully over-proofed those boules had I not fired up the oven and stayed up later than usual, to bake them.
Let us know what happens! ;o)