The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Help with rise?

tallchick's picture
tallchick

Help with rise?

My starter is 3 weeks old and very strong; I decided to try my hand at making my first loaf  of sourdough since I have so much time on my hands this weekend.  I did not get much of a rise, I used the 1 2 3 Method from Flo (found on this site).  The crust was crunchy and chewy, the taste was mildly sour (I can't wait for it to develope more). 

 Any pointers on how to get a better rise??? And I certainly welcome any feedback from all the wonderful people here.........

Have a safe holiday everyone!!!!

Lisa

Postal Grunt's picture
Postal Grunt

I'll say from the start that I'm a fan of Flo's 1-2-3 formula for sourdough loaves. On the rare occasions that I follow procedure perfectly, I get a great looking loaf. Much of the time, shaping my loaves is less than perfect and I get the deserved result. Without knowing more about your loaf, I have to guess that you need practice in shaping loaves, something that is hard to get if you're not baking frequently. Twice a week isn't adequate for me.

There are lots of videos on shaping loaves available. You can find quite a few on Youtube and the King Arthur Flour website has some excellent clips available a well. Mark, from the Back Home Bakery in Kalispell has posted video segments here. He knows how the bend the dough to his will. They're very good instructional videos. Use the search function at the top of the page and type in shaping, you'll get better answers there.

Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven

and S & F's  (stretch & folds) as the way to go.       Nice looking crumb you got going there!

lumos's picture
lumos

You've got really lovely crumb there, shiny and lots of large holes!

As for rise, as well as shaping, I'd suggest pre-heating baking stone/cast iron pot/pyrex casserole very, very well which would give you good oven spring.

tallchick's picture
tallchick

For the feedback,  I will have to practice practice practice my shaping;  I will admit that I felt that I did not do enough S&F  ( 4x over a 3 hr period) and was a bit confused with when to use my starter (ie: just as it reaches double or before feeding it) so this loaf was made with what I was going to discard.  Then I went ahead and made another batch with my starter as it reached double (it will triple in less than 3 hrs after feeding) and I did several strech and folds over 2.5 hrs and placed in in the fridge overnight.  I now have it out and will bake these in a few hours. 

I did not preheat my oven and stone long enough last night, but I did use steam etc........  I will make sure to really preheat the oven properly this time!!!  Thank you again for all the help!!!!

Lisa

lumos's picture
lumos

I would think 4 x S & F is usually enough, but again it may depend on how you S & F. You'd have to stretch until just before the dough starts tearing or it won't gain enough strength. Also I've found if I S & F too many times, I would get uniform crumb rather than airy crumb with randomly sized big holes which I prefer. In another bread-related forum I sometimes visit, one of the members there (a professional artisan baker) said you shouldn't knead/S&F too much if you want airy crumb with big holes because when gluten strand is too strong, it would prevent it breaking to make a big hole, ending up with uniform crumb, just like  Pullman or sandwich loaf.

But, yes, pre-heating an oven and stone/casserole is definitely an essential thing to do if you want decent overn spring.  Also I spray the surface of dough with water just before loading into the oven, as well as steaming the oven itself, of course. It gives lovely sheen/shine on your crust, though I must add your crust looks good, too! :)