Sometimes I need to bake a loaf or loaves of bread as soon as possible with my sourdough starter. For example my few tablespoons of starter needs to become bread within the next three hours when dinner is served. I'm happy to enrich it with sugar, salt, fat, eggs, etc as required, so a really developed sourdough flavour (while fine) is not necessary. I would still like most of the other aspects of good sourdough, such as enough gluten development to hold a nice airy rise.
In other words, I am not interested in cultivating the lactic acid bacteria in the sourdough, only the yeast, but without negatively affecting other characteristics of the loaf.
Assuming I always start with a few tablespoons of starter, what methods and conditions would I set up to increase the yeast/CO2 production in the least possible time?
My thoughts so far relate partly to bread in general and partly to just sourdough:
- maintain a firmer, more frequently fed starter?
- drier dough hydration to reduce baking time and possibly kneading time to allow more rise time? (would this have other effects?)
- rise at a very warm temperature – 25 degrees celsius? (but would this accelerate acid production and gluten breakdown too?)
- add salt last?
- add fats last?
- several brief kneads during the first rise?
- longer final rise after shaping?
- bake from a cold oven instead of a preheated one to allow a slightly underproofed loaf to rise as much as possible before gluten structure sets? (what other effects would I anticipate?)
- shape baguettes or rolls instead of loaves to reduce baking time and allow more rise time?
Best Answer
Shorten the intervals for feeding, prove in a warm environment, use a high LA starter to begin with, (mine started life as a mix of live yoghurt, wheat flour& an apple from my garden). Highly acidic stable leavenings can be faster... Mine doubles in size in 2hrs.