Little oven spring and soft crust
I tried a recipe in a sourdough book today with a bit more advanced techniques than I've used before. First time making a levain, retarding in fridge and putting a cold dough straight in the oven.
The bread didn't get too much oven spring, which was kind of expected since many of the pictures of the loaves made by the authors, illebrod at Instagram, also stay somewhat flat.
The crust was not crispy at all, but came out soft and chewy. Is this a result of the dough going straight from fridge to oven? I wonder if it should've had more time in the oven. I let it sit for 20 minutes under the lid and 20 minutes without lid. At that point the internal temperature was around 96 C/205 F, so I took it out. Would it have helped on the crust to leave it in longer? Would this be an issue if the temperature was already at 205? This is my first time retarding in the fridge and I've used 40-45 minutes for room temperature loaves, so 40 minutes straight from the fridge might have been too short.
Any chance I might have overproofed it? I'm not very good at telling based on how the dough behaves and feels.
Here's the recipe I used. Room temperature was 25-28 C and fridge temperature around 4 C. All the steps seemed to go somewhat well.
Feed starter twice the day before making levain. I fed it 4 hours before making the levain and used it right after the starter had peaked.
Make levain. 40 g starter, 30 g flour (50/50 wheat and fine whole spelt), 30 g water (30º C). Let stand in room temperature for 2-4 hours.
Add 375-423 g water (30º C) and levain to a bowl, mix. I used 375 g of water.
Add 150 g fine whole spelt and 350 g sifted wheat, mix with hand. Put lid on and leave for 1 hour.
Sprinkle salt over dough, pinch in with thumb and pointer. Do until dough tightens and it becomes harder to pinch. Leave for 30 minutes.
Do S&F until dough has tightened. Cover for 30 minutes.
Repeat S&F two more times at 30 minute intervals.
Let dough sit until it increases 30% (30-90 minutes). I put the dough in a bowl with measurements on and it rose 30% after about an hour. I then proceeded with the next task.
Put dough on the board. Fold dough over itself from various angles, then all the way around so fold is underneath..
Push around with dough scraper to make it firm and thick edges.
Sprinkle a little flour over the dough and let it rest for 15-25 minutes, until it sags out a little.
Put 50/50 flour and rice flour in proofing bowl. I used a round banneton.
Sprinkle flour on dough and board, flip dough over onto floured board. Fold left side to the middle, then right, bottom and top to make a square. Stretch one corner at the time and fold to middle. Flip dough over, if it’s still a bit sloppy, tighten with dough scraper.
Put in rising bowl with seam up.
If dough rose more than 30%, let it rise for 1 hour. If not, 1.5-2 hours, which is usually fine. Put dough in fridge uncovered. I let it sit for 1 hour 20 minutes and checked on it now and then.
Alternatively, put dough straight into fridge and let warm and rise before baking.
Leave in fridge for 12-36 hours. Mine sat for about 24 hours.
Pre-heat oven for 1 hour and:
Put dough straight from fridge to oven if it proofed before retardation.
Let the dough warm up and proof before putting it in the oven if it didn't proof before retardation.
Score 3-5 mm deep. Slightly deeper if underproofed.
Bake at 240º C for 20 minutes under a lid and at 230º C for 20 minutes or until golden.
Looks like a UFO. :)
Crumb has got holes, but I was expecting a bit larger ones.
Your crumb looks quite nice. Try backing in a dutch oven to improve your crust.
This looks like a perfect case of baking the crust on top at the very beginning in the oven. It hardened, then the yeast became active, rising the bottom of the loaf.
This happens to me in the top half of my oven because the loaf is exposed directly to heating element. The element does not set the temperature it goes to when on, so it always goes full speed until the temperature controller switches it of.
To prevent it (limit it, really), I put an empty tray just below the heating element it does some screening end the heat is not hitting the loaf directly.
Someone here at TFL uses teracota tiles, I think. I see them in some of the pictures.
I used a cast iron pot (Le Creuset) which was preheated for one hour and placed at the bottom tray. Lid was on the first 20 minutes, then off for 20. Would it help in this situation to put a tray below the upper element? Would it make a difference when the lid was on? I used 240/230 C and over/under heat.
Probably not. In that case could it be that the temperature is simply to high, and it's the lid emitting the heat?
I don't know. I don't have enough experience to figure it out, but thank you for the suggestions. :)
Made another attempt using the same formula and workflow, but this time it didn't proof as long before retarding. Instead i took it out an hour before baking. Didn't rise much at all, so another UFO. I'm thinking under proofed or over proofed.
I'll keep trying and look at other recipes. I've made many good loaves with easier workflows and the same ingredients, so there must be something in how I do it.
Tomorrow we're leaving for my parents place and two weeks of vacation. I'll be baking there and see what I can do. The forecast says rain, so I'll probably have lots of time indoors to bake and read up recipes. I got some bookmarked and want to try making the levain with Dab's NMNF starter. Just gotta find a recipe for the rest of the bread. I also want to coax more sour out of the loaves.
Hey, I bake a lot out of this same book. It's a great book and i'm getting good results (usually) I had similar loafs to what you are getting but then I bought a thermapen to monitor my water and dough temps properly pre and post auto and then on each fold. It's improved my results in a great way so i would recommend this. Also to note your slashing maybe doesn't look deep enough, i say maybe as if the loaf doesn't spring quite as it should then what we see post bake can be misconstrued. I too notice that the crumb isn't usually as open as i'd always of wanted but I tried different stoneground white flour and had much better results. Enjoy!