Sharing results from another bread experiment! Today I tested the effect of an additional hour of bulk fermentation on my 80% hydration sourdough recipe, which is 350g King Arthur Bread Flour, 280g water, and 70g Levain. The batches were mixed separately, with a 5.5 hour autolyse, either 6.5 or 7.5 hour bulk fermentation, 1 hour counter proof, and 8.5 hour fridge proof.
The results are really interesting! I achieved my best open crumb ever with the shorter fermentation time (batch A in picture 1), which was shaped at 4.35 pH and after 6.5 hours of bulk fermentation. Both batches look great though. There are signs of over fermentation in batch B (7.5 hour bulk) in picture 2, with the alveoli distribution being more dense. One hour makes a big difference!
All the times, temperatures, and pH measurements are on the sticky note. I decided not to use the aliquot jar for volume measurements because I’ve seen pH measurements are just more reliable for me (see previous post), and saves me a step!
What signs of over fermentation do you look for in the crumb?
by protozoicmeme
7 Comments
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These are incredible. Wow
Excellent work!
what is levain and what is autolyse?
That is what I dream to create
Okay I’m commenting again because my first comment was hasty, these loaves are literally a dream, how do you measure PH? Is there a specific tool you use?
I have a question and I don’t mean this in a bad way at all! How do you eat bread with crumb this open? You can’t really spread butter or put sauce on it so no sandwich, is it mainly used for soups and stews?