Greg wrote:
> I've been experimenting with natural leavening for a few months now,
and
> finally obtained some loaves I'm happy with.
>
> Two of my goals have been (i) to eliminate sourness, i.e. to approach
a
> French pain-au-levain rather than San Francisco sourdough, and (ii)
to
> develop a system that works effectively for occasional baking.
>
> Two of the components of my solution for which I owe thanks to
members
> of r.f.s are (i) to use a firm starter, and (ii) to use smaller
> refreshments. I apply (ii) gradually to move from "wash" to "build".
>
> My typical strategy is as follows. Weights and multiplication factors
> apply to the flour, not the total. To convert oz to g multiply by 30.
>
> 1. Start with 1 oz (at 50% hydration) in the refrigerator
> 2. Multiply by 4 using hard white flour (still at 50%)
> 3. Multiply by 3 using hard white flour (still at 50%); pull back
1 oz
> and refrigerate it
> 4. Multiply by 2 using white bread flour plus coarse salt (raising
to
> final hydration); shape and pan
> 5. Bake
>
> This gives a loaf of 22 oz (about 2 lb 4 oz/1.1 kg total pre-bake
weight).
>
> 60% seems to be the traditional final hydration for French bread:
this
> requires the final increment, which doubles the flour weight, to be
at
> 70%. Interestingly, even 63% seems to be noticeably sour compared to
> 60%; perhaps this explains the traditional figure.
>
> The starter only gets to see hard white flour, and remains at 50%.
If,
> after a long interval between loaves, the starter is excessively sour
at
> the beginning, an additional stage is introduced between 1 and 2:
>
> 1A. Reduce starter to 0.25 oz, then multiply by 4 back to 1 oz
>
> This discards only 0.75 oz of flour, and can be repeated if
necessary.
>
> There are still plenty of degrees of freedom left, e.g. fermentation
> times at each stage. I'm typically allowing half to one hour warm-up
> before refreshment, one to two hours room-temperature fermentation
after
> refreshment (and before shaping, in the last case), and 24 hours in
the
> fridge after each refreshment. Building over several days like this
> means that a two- to three-hour window anywhere within each day is
> sufficient to build, build, build and finally bake.
>
> I hope this may be of use to occasional bakers with European tastes,
and
> perhaps of interest to others. I too found all the conflicting
folklore
> somewhat overwhelming at the beginning, but feel that I'm starting to
> get a grip on it...
>
> Greg
>
> --
> To get my e-mail address, remove a dot and replace a dot with a dash.

Is this what you mean?

1 oz starter @ 50% = 1 oz bread flour, 0.5 oz water

warm up 1.5 hours

multiply by four

add 3 oz bread flour plus 1.5 oz water
(now 4 oz bread flour + 2 oz water)

24 hours in fridge

warm up 1.5 hours

multiply by three

add 8 oz bread flour and 4 oz water
(now 12 oz bread flour + 6 oz water)

save 1.5 oz starter for next time
(now 11 oz bread flour + 5.5 oz water)

24 hours in fridge

warm up 1.5 hours

add 11 oz GP flour + 8 oz water + 2 t coarse salt
(now 22 oz flour + 13.5 oz water + salt = 61.4%)


shape into loaf and bake

Do you really measure to the half ounce?