Bottom BLOW OUT
I am a new member on this site, I have ben reading and learning from all the post here for about 3 months but I have a specific question. Why is the bottom blowing out of my bread. It only seems to happen on my sourdough boules, I am using the recipe for basic sourdough out of the BBA (well more or less). I am using the s&f method every .5 an hour for about 3hrs then proving in a bowl for about 2hrs. I am scoring the bread about 1/4" deep the bread goes directly on a sheet pan into a 500F oven and using a steaming technique I get good oven spring. I am dusting the pan with a healthy amount of cornmeal so it does not appear to be sticking to the pan but the bottom 1/3 of the bread rips and separates from the rest of the loaf and the very bottom.
Are your scores opening up well?
I had trouble with bottom blowouts, and scores not opening up well at all. The top looked overproofed, but the bottom said underproofed! In this case, I wasn't developing the dough adequately, so the top was just sealing up instead of stretching out nicely under the oven spring, which then had nowhere to go but out the bottom.
If you're getting good opening in the scoring, I'd guess you're just underproofed, so there's just too darn much oven spring for the scores to deal with.
No the scores are not opening up that well, they look plenty deep and large until the oven spring then the top of the loaf is flush. Would it help to cut them deeper or ferment the dough longer.
If they look like the classic 'overproofed' score, where it just sort of "melts" in to what looks more like a scar than a score, then you might be having the same trouble I was!
My solution was to knead more, to work the dough more up front. You could probably get more dough development with a longer fermentation, as you suggest. If it's not windowpaning properly when you shape loaves, you probably need to develop the dough more!
will contribute to dough development. Pick one, two, or all three! I'd start with "knead or mix until it windowpanes properly before the bulk ferment" just because it's the easiest to control, and you can just work the dough until -- by golly -- it's Developed Enough. Then you'll know whether or not that was your problem!
Thanks for your advice, I am going to give it a shot tomorrow.