Kat at King Arthur

February 2, 2021 at 9:56am

In reply to by JohnD (not verified)

Good question, John! The biggest thing you can do to help give your sourdough bread more of a tang isn't related to your starter at all, it's a cold and slow overnight rise in the fridge for your dough. This will have a much larger impact on the eventual flavor of your bread than fiddling with your starter. But if you do want to play with giving your starter a more sour flavor, you need to find ways to give the bacteria in it (which give bread its flavor) a little advantage over the yeast (which give bread its rise). Using your starter when it's just past it's peak, rather than just before can help with this. Also, a stiff starter (where the ratio of water to flour is lower than 1:1) can also help with this flavor, but this also means you'd need to do some math anytime you bake a recipe that calls for a liquid starter. For some folks, this is worth it! But for others, the convenience factor of a liquid starter is more important. Whichever method you choose to pursue, happy baking! 

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