Regarding citric acid: The last two loaves I made (1.2 kg) had a teaspoon of citric acid each. While that amount didn’t add much tang, it DID seriously foul up the bread. In both cases, the dough came together nicely right away (I knead with a KitchenAid and dough hook), then became very tacky as the kneading progressed, sticking a lot to the bottom of the bowl. It seemed like maybe a 75% hydration dough. I assumed that I had measured wrong the first time, so I added over a half a cup of flour to "adjust" the hydration. When it happened the second time, I figured that the citric acid was the culprit. Again, I added about a half cup of flour to reduce the tackiness. Neither loaf exhibited any oven spring and both had very dense crumbs. Seems like citric acid, at least at the rate I used it, ain't a very good idea. Still on deck is a loaf that I'll add some vinegar to.
Today, I confirmed my suspicions by making a loaf without citric acid and all came out well--beautiful oven spring. Haven’t tasted it yet, but I also did something different to hopefully help with sourness, which was to leave Vinnie, my starter, at room temp for a few days instead of in the fridge.
Also, Vinnie passed the float test yesterday afternoon, but not this AM. Because of time constraints, I did room temp rises instead of refrigerating the dough and, despite the inability to float, the loaf rose like a champ both times and had nice thin bubbles on its surface during the tension pulls. I am hopeful that the longer (to a point) the starter sits past its peak, the more sourness is developed. I am disappointed that the fridge seems to be a bad idea, because it was nice to not feed Vinnie every day.
FWIW, I use a 65% hydration rate which I feel is approximately equivalent in tackiness to Chef Jacob’s 70% hydration sourdough boule where he uses 20% WW (I use all BF except in my starter which is 100% hydration and 50/50 BF/WW).
Today, I confirmed my suspicions by making a loaf without citric acid and all came out well--beautiful oven spring. Haven’t tasted it yet, but I also did something different to hopefully help with sourness, which was to leave Vinnie, my starter, at room temp for a few days instead of in the fridge.
Also, Vinnie passed the float test yesterday afternoon, but not this AM. Because of time constraints, I did room temp rises instead of refrigerating the dough and, despite the inability to float, the loaf rose like a champ both times and had nice thin bubbles on its surface during the tension pulls. I am hopeful that the longer (to a point) the starter sits past its peak, the more sourness is developed. I am disappointed that the fridge seems to be a bad idea, because it was nice to not feed Vinnie every day.
FWIW, I use a 65% hydration rate which I feel is approximately equivalent in tackiness to Chef Jacob’s 70% hydration sourdough boule where he uses 20% WW (I use all BF except in my starter which is 100% hydration and 50/50 BF/WW).
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