Denver sourdough, starter, sponge, dough, baked loaf

Starter that has been fed a few times over days in irregular increments. Its last cycle peaked in activity then fell back.

The bulk of the starter is poured off into a bowl to begin a new sponge for a new loaf of bread. A scant 1/4 cup or so reserved to be fed again for the next sponge to become the next loaf.

The machine holds most of the starter, the levain, to make a new sponge to ferment by adding enough water and flour to form a loaf.

The starter is fed again, refreshed with new water and flour, and set aside to double.

Flour and water is added to the machine to mix the new starter in, to work the wet sponge into stringy gluten molecules as much as it can. Mostly whole wheat will require extra kneading. The gluten is there, but so are the shredded pulverized powdered husks.

The difference between crumbly texture and sticky smooth texture. This is about as stringy as whole wheat sponge gets. Not very stringy. 

The new sponge set aside for the next loaf. It will rise in the bowl with its sourdough starter. It must ferment for a few days.

Black beans processed to thick black bean polenta to provide fast food for old sponge that is already fermented for a few, three, days. The sponge is fermented, started out cold from being inside the refrigerator. 

It could have been baked right in its pan. It already rose in the shape of a loaf as far as it could. It would not achieve much oven-rise because it was already stretched to its maximum.

Black bean paste applied in layers along with salt. The layering repeated. The dough continuously stretched and folded. Eventually a new loaf is formed with black bean paste and salt worked in between layers, much the same way as butter is worked between pastry layers.

During the period of a few hours that the black bean bread dough proofed in its tin, the new sponge also proofed inside its bowl. The refreshed starter proofed also inside its jar. 

The starter  is fed again to keep it going, and the new sponge in its bowl is refrigerated to slow its proof and allow a period a few days to ferment for the next loaf. 

The new dough in its pan is baked into a new loaf. 

So, three loaves of bread are represented in the next photos below, the starter in the jar for two loaves from now, the sponge in a bowl for the next loaf a few days from now after it ferments, and the new loaf ready to be baked right now.

Levain refreshed, dough

At first I was like,

And then I was like,

Yesterday the levain was shown near the beginning of a peak of activity, but its peak is not very peaky because the batch is not doubled, it is merely fed and kept alive. 

Cruel, I know, but it makes the difference between keeping a Russian wolfhound for a pet or a Chihuahua. I live in a downtown apartment not a bakery. There are other things going on around here so there are compromises made, shortcuts taken, an individual style that developed that makes all this fit.

The dough was kneaded half heartedly to bring it together and to initiate the gluten unraveling. I do not want the yeast to grow if I can keep it back for awhile so that the bacteria has a chance to outgrow it, that's how I visualize what is happening in there. Salt is added to assist the retardation and so I don't forget it later. If it does grow while cold I hope not much so that it still has that power reserved when things warm up again. I intend to help it with warmth when the fermentation period is finished. 

So yesterday was the near the beginning of a peak and this is the same levain shown yesterday having already peaked and sitting there waiting to be fed. 

Waiting. Waiting. Waiting. Like I said before I am an irresponsible pet owner, poor thing almost died, then finally fed again. And this time really doubled like it deserves to be. Except it's been divided into two parts and taken two entirely different roads.

So presently, if levain were pet dogs, I have a chihuahua and a Russian wolfhound.

If only I would show the thing at peak activity, wouldn't that then show everything? 

That's the same thing I thought when shown pictures of cell division. They never caught the process at the precise moment that the words given to each phase described. The process is a beautiful sequence and the words describe each peak but the photos are showing the part in between the peaks and so not accurately described at all, they didn't come close to matching. 

The levain grows and peaks in activity when fed then falls back and settles. If fed at the peak, and doubled at feeding, then the peaks go: 

peak peak PEAK PEAK PEAK  

So now the levain is knocked back to being a chihuahua and the bulk is sent off to becoming bread. This is in anticipation of running out of bread within a few days.