third time makin sourdough and experimenting with comparing bread flour from all-purpose (king arthur). Every time has had similar results where it feels sour enough but bland otherwise :/ . maybe a silly question but is there a way to increase the bread’s flavor but not the sourness? also curious about feedback
recipe for each loaf: 500 g flour, 150 g starter at full rise, 10g salt all mixed together. let it sit for an hour and then 5 sets of stretch n pulls. left overnight and shaped (divided dough into thirds for each loaf) in the morning. left in fridge for 24 hours and then baked 20 min covered 20 min uncovered at 450 deg!
by edgycringecomp
43 Comments
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Not sure if what you are asking is possible; but I would try with some whole wheat / rye flour. I usually do about 20% WW / 80% BF in my bakes when I do a combo of flours. However, if you use either of these flours in your bake, they will absorb more water than just BF alone, so you might have to compensate a bit. In my case, I add anywhere from 5% to 10% water when I use either in a bake, depending on the humidity in my house.
Like the other commenter mentioned. Rye flours are great! Or you could even use rye and whole wheat jsut in your starter and see if that adds to it
Salt
Try a stiff starter. I’ve read it can give a more mild sour flavor, doesn’t mean *less* flavor, though.
Different grains.
Things like einhorn will be a different taste….but the trade off is almost to gluten from it
I typically replace 50 g of my bread flour with whole wheat flour
More salt
Try 2.5-3% salt (12.5-15 g) and adding whole grain in the 10-30% of total flour range. Which whole grain is up to you, but I’m fond of hard white wheat like Stargazer from Barton Springs. If you want BOLD wheat flavor try hard red wheat like Expresso from Cairnspring. Spelt, rye, emmer, khorasan are all good choices l.
Maldon Sea Salt.
Use 10g less water, and replace with 10 g olive oil. You could also increase salt. When i use olive oil, I knead it in after the autolyze step and then go into stretches and folds
add some rosemary and parmesan during the stretch and folds.
I like to substitute 50g of the flour with whole wheat or rye flour, add 20g wheat germ, and use Himalayan pink salt or some other salt that’s not as typical and has flavor.
Heyo– the best thing you can do for the flavor, beyond the acidity, is to use higher quality flours. I see comments mentioning whole wheat and rye flours, which will help, but you can increase the quality of your bread flour as well to get better flavor profiles. If you’re in the US, you might try ordering flour from somewhere like Janie’s Mill- they have a high protein unsifted bread flour that is really great.
Salt
Flour has a massive impact on flavor profile.
Malt. Malt, especially roasted malt makes that classic bread flavor. And more salt like the others said.
No fridge makes it less sour, increase salt, good pinch or two of brown sugar
Spelt flour.
Also, if you make your own yogurt use some of the whey from straining it in place of the water.
Switch up your flour types. Different flours give off different flavors. Different mills also grow different drains. If you’re just using All Purpose flour the flavor will always be more bland than it could be.
Dry malt powder. 28g or so.
[Diastatic Malt Powder](https://shop.kingarthurbaking.com/items/diastatic-malt-powder) is the best answer. But also switching grains shifts the blandness into something much more refined. Some bakeries switch to different gold flours with different tasting profiles so you can start with that in mind. Experiment and have fun baking!
Experiment with different flours. I get my flour freshly ground from an urban mill and I’ve experimented by adding spelt, eincorn, buckwheat and others to the mix. Definitely affects the flavor.
Salt, flour mixes, additions, toppings, length of bake…experiment! Unless you’re baking for paying customers it’s about finding what you like best, and learning how to bake better along the way.
Adding various flours to replace part of the white flour: whole wheat, einkorn, spelt, buckwheat, rye, fine semolina, masa harina, sorghum are some I add in for flavor changes in a loaf.
Adding whole grain or seed soakers: millet, teff, buckwheat, oats, sunflower seeds, muesli, hot grain cereal mixes, hemp hearts as some examples.
Chain Baker has good instructions on how to use grain soakers or porridges in your bread.
You will need to careful how much AP flour you swap out for flours with less gluten forming capability (I use bread flour as a base).
Swapping some mill flours in like Kirkland organic AP (Central Milling flour) or bread or AP direct from local mills. There are different flavors in some flours.
Make sure your salt is well incorporated with the flour – whisking them together before adding to wet mix. Or if added later reserving some water to dissolve the salt in and dimpling/pinching to make sure it gets well mixed in.
You might prefer a gram or two more salt in your bread.
Salt and whole grain flours
Also consider herbs/seeds like thyme or fennel.
Add some wholewheat flour and maybe other flours such as spelt and rye.
Try a mixture of different flours! My favourite combo is white bf, whole wheat flour, rye, and spelt. Gives it a nice rich and robust flavour.
Id say use at least 30% spelt, emmer or einkorn.
Flour…not type but brand. Use what the great bread makers are using like cairnspring. Total game changer. Use 85% Trailblazer and 15% expresso whole wheat. Will change your bread game. You will go from making a bread that tastes like good basic sourdough to what real artisan sourdough tastes like. Trust me it’s going to change your world 🙂
Whole grain flours.
Whole wheat flour, wheat germ, and or other grains. You can add up to 20% of other flours without needing to modify the recipe and still get similar results.
You can easily double the amount of salt here. And you can add grain and seeds – roasted pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds and sesame all come to mind. Just fold them in and sprinkle some on top before baking.
Different grains. Try rye, extremely flavourful. Spelt is also amazing
Use the freshest flour you can find. I bake bread professionally and in the beginning, I always thought that all flour is the same, but I couldn’t have been more wrong. If you make two loaves separately – one with plain run-of-the-mill store flour and another with flour milled yourself ll notice a huge difference.
Also – sea salt vs iodized. Huge difference as well, especially if you spritz the loaves and sprinkle with salt before baking. I prefer fine sea salt added just at the end of the mixing process, whether by hand or mechanically.
And if you’re using white flour, try adding whole wheat flour to your mix – you’ll need to adjust the hydration accordingly. White bleached flour has a somewhat bland flavor compared to flours and blends that use more of the wheatberry.
10% rye flour.
Longer, colder fermentations produce flavors other than sourness, thinking particularly about alcohol.
Out side of salt and add ins, the flour you use impacts flavor. Try adding some rye
Try 12.5 g salt.
Autolyse. Combing just flour and water allows flavor development that is impeded when salt, yeast, etc. are added.
Long cold fermentation is another way to develop flavor. You can find recipes that incorporates both methods or add the steps to your existing recipe.
use less starter
Using beer or tea in place of water in the dough does beautiful things to sourdough bread.