No Oven Spring
Hi from Sri Lanka. Please help troubleshoot my latest loaves. :)
Been tinkering with Sourdough for a bit. Hit a snag the other day and couldn't figure out what the cause was. It looked like i wasn't getting much oven spring. even though it had a kind of open crumb. the loaf was very flat, the scores weren't filled out, just flopped onto the sides.
Temperatures outside about 25-26C (about 77F)
50:50 All purpose/Wholewheat flour, 76% Hydration, 2% Salt
Activated starter from fridge overnight,
Made 100% hydrated Wholewheat levain, fermented outside for 12 hours
autolysed without salt for 30 min.
added salt, remaining water,
[stretched & folded 5-6 times then sat/rested/fermented for 45 min] x 4 times
after the last 45min rest, portioned, preshaped, sat for 15min, shaped finally, placed in bannettons in bags, in fridge to retard/proof.
baked 3 loaves straight from fridge: one at 12hours proof, one at 14 hours and one at 15 hours.
all loaves were pretty flat, tasty, but very little oven spring.
strange thing was that my last batch had great spring, bursting out of the scores with joy. But that was a very different process, (although that was only 69% hydration, so it was definitely a lot more solid) where i did all the same steps up to the last stretch and fold, 3 day fermentation in the fridge, let it come to room temp for an hour, portioned, shaped then proofed for 1-2 hours and baked. it had amazing flavours, and smelled quite alcoholic, and even though the crumb didnt have any honeycomb structure (not even as much as this) it was much softer, and tonnes of oven spring:
Few theories:
perhaps the gluten relaxed too much in the 12-16 hour proofing in the fridge and it lost shape after hitting the oven?
Or perhaps i should have shaped soon after the last stretch and fold, not waiting for the yeast to eat up everything and then shape?
much love,
Harean
I would say it's probably the hydration coupled with environmental conditions. Whole wheat has a little more trouble getting great oven spring with high hydration when baked unsupported in an oven ; tends to spread out quite a bit.
Though it lacks oven spring, the loaf you've posted looks absolutely delicious and I'd eat it up in a heartbeat whether it sprung or not. The crumb looks like it has great structure and if it tastes good, don't worry too much about the oven spring.
Thank you! Yeah, the lower hydrated loaf had more oven spring. Will try with less than 50% whole wheat and see how the results work out.
As a follow up question about the way i need to think about fermentation and kneading: every stretch and fold must bring more sugars within proximity and access of the yeasts, so is it right to think that after the last stretch and fold, effectively we have a just the sugars that are nearby and accessible to fuel the final proofing, and therefore a countdown (temperature dependent faster when warm, slower in the fridge) to act?
-so by letting the dough have a lot of time to rise after the last stretch and fold, before the shaping and fridge retarded proof, i'm basically letting it deplete all the sugars? (i just read what i wrote and realised i asked: how much time is should i keep between the last stretch and fold and the shaping?)