Visited a bakery in Portland last week and noticed nobody used commercial yeast

The baker told me they let their sourdough starter ferment for 72 hours and the crust had a tang I've never got at home, has anyone else tried an extended cold ferment that long?

3 comments

3 Comments

thomasshah20d ago

Hold on, 72 hours? That sounds crazy to me. I've pushed my own starter to maybe 48 hours in the fridge a couple times and the tang was almost too much for my wife. Your mileage may vary but I can't imagine letting it go that long at room temp. The crust must have been like a sour candy or something, haha. I'm kind of jealous you got to try it though, that baker sounds like they know what they're doing.

jakel3620d ago

72 hours at room temp is definitely not the same as 48 in the fridge like you did. the way I see it is that @reesea49 is right that its the whole ferment not just the starter. place I used to buy bread from did a 60 hour cold bulk ferment and the sour was way different than a room temp one. the baker you tried must have dialed in their hydration real high to keep the crust from being pure pucker city. I bet their oven spring was nuts though with that much time for the yeast to do its thing.

reesea4920d ago

72 hour starter isn't a thing, it's the whole ferment.