A warm-fermented Austrian Urkorn sourdough, tested at home

Breadtopia's latest sourdough starts from a bread by Öfferl Bakery near Vienna, described by the bakery as nutty to spicy and juicy. A friend sent the baker the recipe, and what stood out immediately was the water temperature: both the levain and the final dough are mixed with water at 42 degrees Celsius, about 107 degrees Fahrenheit, far warmer than usual for sourdough.

The author even wondered whether it was a translation error, but read the German original and found that the higher temperature is probably meant to favor certain lactobacilli that give yogurt-like, dairy flavors. To be safe, they built two overnight levains, one with 107 degree water and one with 75 degree water. By morning both had doubled, but the warm one smelled more lacto-sour while the cooler one was nutty and less sour. I find that a neat, simple demonstration of how temperature steers flavor in a ferment.

The bread also uses a scald, where some of the ingredients, here khorasan, rye, flax, buckwheat groats and sunflower seeds, are mixed with boiling water. That gelatinizes the starch so the dough can hold more water, which may explain the juicy crumb.

The adaptation is baked in a small Pullman pan, with spelt in place of einkorn and khorasan in place of emmer, and the author suggests adjusting grains and seeds to whatever you have, aiming for a loose and sticky dough. A scale and a thermometer are essential here.

I'm tempted by the idea of tuning the levain temperature on purpose rather than just following the room. If you like the sour side of sourdough, this is a good one to bookmark.

Source: Breadtopia