Secret to a Consistent and Active Levain
The single most important discovery for me as a baker the past year has been the double-fed sourdough. Up until this time, both Stinky (wheat) and Sourpuss (rye) received single feedings that would ripen overnight and be incorporated in the next morning's mixes. Of course there were many considerations and deliberations and decisions to be made: the changing temperature of the room overnight, the temperature of the water, the amount of lead time before the final dough mix, the mother:flour:water ratio, and so on, and so on. Although I was generally satisfied with the product, there was more variation than desired. And an underlying feeling of uncertainty of how loaves would turn out persisted and nagged at my conscience. There must be a better way!
As it turns out, there is a better way. Many of the principles outlined in my video for the Detmolder Two-Stage Feeding Method (Detmolder Zweistufenfuehrung) used for a rye sourdough culture can be applied to a wheat sourdough culture with incredible results. There are some slight differences, though, so I will walk you through an example below.
TWO-STAGE LEVAIN FEEDING SCHEMA
Need: 800g of levain at 100% hydration (equal parts water and flour)
Feed #1: 20g mother + 200g flour + 200g water, Target Temp: 70-75F, Time: 12+ hours
Feed #2: 400g Feed #1 + 200g flour + 200g water, Target Temp 90F, Time: 3-4 hours
NOTES
- Amount of needed levain (100% hydration) is divided by 4 to determine how much flour and water for each feeding
- Feed #1 is cooler and longer; Feed #2 is hotter and shorter
- Water Temp = Target Temp + (Target Temp - Ambient Temp)
- Use mixer with whisk attachment! This incorporates oxygen, which promotes duplication of yeast
- Cover loosely, allowing sourdough to have some exposure to oxygen
- For those of you wanting more open cell structure in your wheat-based loaves, you can autolyze your dough at the same time as Feed #2. See my video on autolyze.
I look forward to your comments, questions, and sharing of results!
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Comments
Hi, your feed #1 looks like a big feed for the temperature - 1:10/72F/12hrs; is your levain well fermented at the end of it?
I usually do 1:6/75F/10hrs, but I guess everyone's is different!
I like your morning booster levain - very popular these days and as recommended by Jennifer Latham.
Lance
Yes, the levain is ripe at end of Feed #1. During warmer and more humid weather, I may even increase the ratio up to 1:15:15.
With rye sourdoughs it is not uncommon to feed 1:20:20, i.e. mother = 5%.
Lance, if you ever need to run the numbers please feel free to use my calculator, it's a good rough guide IMO.
Inocalc | Italian Baking (wordpress.com)
1:10 @ 75F for 12hrs works as does your 1:6 @ 75F for 10hrs.
Michael
PS. On the second tab you can select and set temperature to °F to input directly.
Thanks Michael - that's a useful calculator.
Lance
Brotkraft, could you comment on volumes of starter? My 2-4 loaves per week may need 600g starter, (100 % flour at 600g, water 68-74%, TA225 usually @ 150g) I presume everything will scale down. But maybe, (actually, certainly!), there are things I do not know. Thanks.
BTW, hello to all here. Lurking in the background since last November. Hello Benito, idaveindy, DanAyo, Mini Oven, FloydM, and many others. You have been great help.
Albacore, can you clear up my confusion, you wrote "1:10", 12 hours, 75F. I am unclear from Brotkraft's numbers, where or what is 1:10. Thanks.
Albacore. I was looking at the numbers on the video spreadsheet. Look! There they are at the top of the screen. Doh!
Brotkraft, again, I was looking at the spread sheet. Your example here, where needed is 800g answers my questions. More dough!
I noticed that your levain is 125% hydration (TA225). in that case, each feeding would receive the following:
Needed 800g TA225
Mother=10% =18g
Flour=800/225*100/2=178g
Water=800/225*125/2=222g
Hi Stephen, what dough temperature do you aim for when you mix the autolyse?
And looking at your video, it looks like you take the dough out of the mixer for the period of the autolyse. Isn't this pretty messy as presumably the dough is not very cohesive at this point? And presumably you take it out to store it somewhere warm, or is it to free up the mixer?
Lastly what would be your typical mixing regime in the spiral mixer after the autolyse?
Lance
Hi Lance,
Than you for your questions. The target temp of the autolyze dough is around 70F. The target temp of the final dough (autolyze dough + sourdough) is 80f.
Yes, I transfer the autolyze dough to oiled bins in order to free up the bowl for subsequent mixes. It is not too messy. It has about the same level of tackiness as rye dough. I simply wet my hands and plastic scraper with water to prevent the dough from sticking.
Re mixing regime. Mix levain and autolyze together on first speed until homogenous. Add salt on first speed for one more minute. Mix on second speed until desired gluten development (usually this is about 50% shorter than if there were no autolyze at all).
Hope this helps!