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I've been making "Half Moon Bay" sourdough bread for a couple years. Unfortunately it's not as sour as I would like, or expect from "San Francisco" sour dough w
by sgtnoodle 5y ago
I've been making "Half Moon Bay" sourdough bread for a couple years. Unfortunately it's not as sour as I would like, or expect from "San Francisco" sour dough which isn't too far away. My assumption is it's due to the microbes in my kitchen, but maybe professional bakers use additives that I don't know about?
- ch4s3 5y agoThe sourness is often just a factor of cold proof time. The bacteria pick up in activity as the yeasts slow down.
- sgtnoodle 5y agoThat's true, but in my experience it's relatively minor. I can maximize the sourness of my bread with various process tweaks, but it still remains relatively subtle.
- awild 5y agoI wish I knew the source to this, but an acquaintance owns a yeast lab and he's said that there's a study looking into the biodiversity and source of sourdough. They found that over time the origin of the feeding material is a much greater contribution than the original culture. Ie, over time the flour you use will cause a drift in your culture and be the factor of the quality of your sourdough. For sourdough I've had good results with active starters that I retarded overnight. You can probably also cause biases in the fermenting dough by creating a dough that's higher in simple sugars (LAB/LAY is much more fast acting and prefers glucose), maybe an autolyse does that for you.
- sgtnoodle 5y agoInteresting. Maybe I'll try mixing in a few grams of sugar in the loaf I plan on making today.