Read Classic Sourdoughs Online
Authors: Jean Wood,Ed Wood
Classic Sourdoughs (6 page)
“Washing” a Culture
During the first step of activation, the amount of flour added to the culture is almost three times the amount in the dried culture. It is at this point that contamination by nonsourdough organisms present in most flour sometimes, though rarely, occurs. Contamination is more likely when the initial activating temperature is not high enough, causing slow acidification by the lactobacilli. Evidence of contamination usually appears in the first 24 hours: the culture may produce sufficient bubbles and foam to suggest that the culture is activating prematurely, and it may give off an unpleasant odor. Contamination can usually be corrected by “washing” the culture to dilute the contaminating organisms (as well as the good ones) and starting the 90°F (32°C) proof again, giving the lactobacilli another opportunity to acidify the culture.
To “wash” a culture, mix thoroughly and discard all but about 1 cup (240 ml) of the culture. Then fill the jar almost to the top with warm (75° to 85°F/24° to 29°C)
water while stirring vigorously. Again discard all but about 1 cup (240 ml). Now feed it ⅔ cup (90 g) of flour and enough water to maintain the consistency of thick pancake batter. Proof at 90°F (32°C) for 24 hours. There should be a marked reduction in activity as contamination is reduced. After 24 hours, feed ⅔ cup (90 g) of flour and enough water (about ½ cup/120 ml) to maintain the consistency. Reduce the proofing temperature to about 70°F (21°C) and continue discarding and feeding as above every 12 hours at this lower temperature. When normal fermentation takes over and the culture becomes fully active, the layer of foam and bubbles will reach almost to the jar top 2 to 4 hours after the last feeding. The culture is then ready to use or refrigerate. If the culture does not begin to revive in 2 to 3 days, the washing process should be repeated.
One of the most critical factors for success with sourdoughs is the fully active culture. For well over a hundred years, commercial sourdough bakers rebuilt their cultures several times each day. Some still do. However, many home bakers bake less than once a week, and their refrigerated cultures are always partially dormant, depending on how long they have been in the refrigerator. But the lactobacilli always remain somewhat active, and the culture becomes increasingly acidic the longer it rests. When a refrigerated culture is warmed and fed flour and water, the organisms begin to reactivate, but the activity of the wild yeast is often inhibited by the increased acidity of the culture.
To reduce a culture’s acidity, when you take it out of the refrigerator, fill the culture jar with warm water while stirring vigorously. Leave slightly more than 1 cup (240 ml) in the jar and discard the excess. (If you will be baking more than one loaf and so anticipate needing more than one jar of culture, use the excess to build additional culture in the following steps.)
Feed the culture in the jar ⅔ cup (90 g) of flour and sufficient water to restore the consistency of thick pancake batter. The jar should now be slightly more than half full (we are assuming a 1-quart/1 liter jar).
Proof at 70° to 75°F (21° to 24°C). If the culture has been in the refrigerator for less than 2 weeks, it is only mildly dormant and will usually become fully active in approximately 2 to 4 hours when proofed at room temperature. If it does not respond well, an additional feeding may be necessary. As soon as it forms foam and bubbles
that increase the total volume by about 2 inches (5 cm) in a quart (liter) jar within 2 to 4 hours of the last feeding, it is fully active and ready for use in the culture proof (see below). If the culture has been refrigerated for more than 2 weeks, this procedure may have to be repeated.
Proofing Terminology
Many bakers and authors refer to their sourdough cultures as “starters,” since a small amount of pure culture is always retained to “start” the next batch. We use the two terms—starter and culture—interchangeably.
Throughout this book, we use the term “proof.” According to
Webster’s
, it means “to test the activeness of yeast.” Early bakers used the term because they were “proving” the dough—making sure it would rise. In current usage, it refers to the process of yeast fermenting flour and water to produce dough and later to make the dough rise.
Warming and feeding for an hour or two is usually not enough to prepare a refrigerated culture for use in a sourdough. The creation of a “culture proof” allows you to infuse your culture with a massive inoculum of sourdough organisms, optimizing flavor and leavening.
Start with a fully active culture (see opposite page). Stir it vigorously and put half in another jar. To each jar, add ⅔ cup (90 g) of flour and enough water to maintain the thick pancake-batter consistency (about ½ cup/120 ml). Proof for 8 to 12 hours.
We like to proof at 65° to 70°F (18° to 21°C) for the first 2 to 3 hours, followed by 6 to 10 hours at 80° to 85°F (26° to 29°C). This results in a good concentration of both yeast and bacteria, producing good flavor, leavening, and sourness.
If you choose to proof at a higher temperature of 85° to 90°F (29° to 32°C), the culture will become moderately acidic and the yeast inhibited. This may cause the culture to appear flat and inactive at the end of the proof, but it is now ready for use in the dough proof with a good concentration of lactobacilli. The flavor and sourness of this culture will be good, the leavening moderate to poor. In contrast, when the proofing temperature is between 65° and 70°F (18° and 21°C), the flavor and leavening will be excellent but the sourness mild.
You will need to experiment to discover what works best for your environment and your tastes. For example, when Jean would bake in Hawaii she learned that in warm kitchens above 80°F (26°C) where it is not possible to achieve 65° to 70°F (18° to 21°C) for part of the proofing time, it may be necessary to reduce the length of time of both the culture proof and the dough proof.
If the dough seems quite active when the loaves are formed, but they either do not rise or they retract when baked, it is probably because the dough is acidic, and during the loaf proof this acidity reaches the point where the yeast is inhibited. An unusually sour loaf will verify that this is what happened; by trial and error, the right balance in a warm environment can be achieved. If you are using a proofing box during the culture proof, another solution is to turn off the lightbulb and put blue ice in the proofing box. This works quite well to maintain lower temperatures.
Dough Consistency
The amounts of flour and water listed in the various proofs and recipes are specified primarily as guidelines for the beginner: don’t get unnecessarily hung up on the math. Dough consistency is best judged based on the baker’s past experience. The basic sourdough recipe (
this page
), for example, provides just the right consistency (ratio of flour to water) for our environment, but you may have to experiment a bit.
When kneading, if the dough is too dry or stiff, add more water. If it is too thin, add more flour. When a perfectly formed loaf of dough becomes a flattened pancake just before or during baking, the consistency was too thin and more flour was needed. Sourdoughs kneaded by hand are much more tolerant than sourdoughs in machines: proper dough consistency in baking machines is essential for proper kneading.
You can control the texture of the finished product by changing the amount of water in the dough until an open crumb is achieved, as the crumb depends largely on the consistency (wetness) of the dough. Increasing the water in a recipe by small increments means the crumb will be more open with larger holes, but don’t add too much: a very wet dough may not rise as well.
After the culture has been fully activated and proofed, it’s time to make and proof the dough. Take the amount of culture specified in the recipe from the culture proof and knead it together with the additional ingredients in the recipe (see below), either by hand or, if the volume is not too large, in a bread machine (see
this page
for kneading in a bread machine.) To store the rest of your culture for another time, feed the remaining culture a cup (140 g) of flour and ¾ cup (180 ml) of water, proof for an hour or two, and refrigerate.
After kneading the dough, proof it overnight (for 8 to 12 hours) at room temperature in a large bowl (or in the machine pan taken out of the machine) covered with plastic wrap and secured by a rubber band. The volume will greatly increase; it should rise to the top of the machine pan. This fermentation, or dough proof, increases the number of organisms in the dough and allows the flavor to develop.
After the proof, use a spatula to gently ease the dough from the container to a floured board, and allow it to rest for 30 minutes to relax the gluten. During the 30-minute rest, the dough mass should retain, with only modest changes, the irregular shape it assumed when it was transferred to the board. If it spreads out, with marked flattening, it is probably necessary to knead in additional flour before moving on to the next step of shaping the dough.
Kneading 101
There has probably been more written about kneading than about any other aspect of bread making. We’ll add just a few observations: it is hard to do it wrong; it is hard to do too much; and it takes a little experience to become comfortable doing it and to know when to quit. Most of us enjoy kneading. It’s one of those mind-releasing exercises that contributes to the overall satisfaction of making bread. And it is certainly easier to work stiff dough with your hands than it is with a large spoon.
Kneading should begin when the dough becomes too stiff to handle easily with a spoon and starts to fall away from the sides of the bowl. At this point, turn it onto a floured board—or, in the phrase seen in every baking book, “a well-floured board.” With sourdoughs, which sometimes are a little sticky, we frequently use an entire cup (140 g) to cover the bread board before turning the dough out of the bowl. This extra flour is very helpful. Gather the soft dough into a loose ball and start to work it back and forth with the palm and heel of your hand. Flatten the ball and fold over the far edge to fill in the depression you just made, then push it down again. Between
pushes, rotate the dough about a quarter turn so that it all gets an equal share of kneading. As you push it back and forth, the dough will pick up flour from the board and from your hands. As it becomes sticky, work more flour into the dough, sprinkling more on the board if necessary. Continue until the dough quits picking up flour from the board and begins to stiffen perceptibly. It will develop a “rebound” feeling and a satiny sheen and smooth texture. If the dough is not stiff enough, it will droop and fall over the edge of the pan when it rises; French loaves will spread sideways, producing a flat loaf instead of a plump one. If the dough is too stiff and dry, the loaves will split as they rise, allowing the leavening gases to escape prematurely.
Can you knead too much? Probably not if you are doing it by hand. You can over-knead if you are using a power mixer. Overkneaded dough will “slacken,” and the resulting gluten will be of poor quality, letting a portion of the leavening gases escape. Moist dough can be sticky and difficult to handle, making machine kneading desirable. However, power mixers and food processors vary markedly in their ability to handle sourdoughs, which are far more tenacious than bread doughs made with commercial yeast. Follow the manufacturer’s instructions for your mixer carefully, but don’t be surprised if sourdoughs overload your equipment. We have experienced significant problems even with good, heavy-duty equipment.
After the 30-minute rest, flatten the dough slightly, retaining the contained air bubbles as much as possible. Then lift a portion from the periphery and pull it toward the center. Continue this around the dough mass, forming a rough ball. As the individual segments are pulled toward the center, a uniform surface under tension forms a “skin” of sorts around the ball. Complete the process by pinching the ends of the segments together at the center. Gently move the ball, or loaf, to the final proofing container with the seam side up if you’re proofing in a willow basket, or down if you’re placing it on a baking surface to proof. If desired, shape the loaf further; for example, into a long, narrow French loaf or a round boule.
If you are using bread pans, the recipes are designed for 8½ by 4½ by 2½-inch/1½-pound (22 by 11 by 7 cm/680 g) pans. Usually you can expect a sourdough to at least double in volume. If you use larger pans, your dough, even if it doubles in volume, may not fill the larger pan and may seem to not rise sufficiently.
After placing the shaped loaf in a bread pan or other baking container or a willow basket or, for French loaves, on a baking sheet, proof for 2 to 4 hours, until it reaches nearly to the top of the pan or doubles in bulk.
If the loaf is proofed at room temperature, the flavor and leavening will be good but the sourness mild. Proofing at higher temperatures (85° to 90°F/29° to 32°C) will produce a more sour loaf with good flavor but decreased leavening. If you proof the loaf at room temperature for the first hour and then raise the temperature to 90°F (32°C) for the second hour (and if the culture was proofed at 80° to 85°F/26° to 29°C during the last part of the culture proof), it will produce a much more sour loaf with only slightly decreased leavening.
Slashing the surface of the dough just before putting the loaf in the oven produces an attractive crust appearance and provides an escape route for expanding gases during baking. Razor blades are an ideal tool for slashing: use a blade that is sharp enough to cut through the unbaked crust without tearing it. Allow the dough surface to dry briefly so that the slash is easier to perform without dragging wet dough on the blade. Make the cuts about ⅛ to ¼ inch (3 to 6 mm) deep. The slash is rarely deeper than ½ inch (12 mm). If it is made at a 45-degree angle to the dough surface, it will form a curled ridge during baking called the “shag.” This takes practice.
