Is Sourdough more heat sensitive?
Hello,
I have recently started making all my bread with wild yeast starter instead of commercial yeast. I prefer sourdough in every way, except that I can't seem to dial in a baking time/temp that produces the rich, brown-red crust that results from 'pushing' the baking time of a commercial yeast loaf.
I tried member TX Farmer's sourdough baguette recipe from a post she calls "Everything I Know in One Bread" or something like that. (As an aside, this recipe produced the best tasting bread I've ever eaten. The hole structure is unreal, and the glossy, sour crumb is addictive.) I cooked them at 460, like the recipe says, after preheating the stone for an hour at that temp. I use a hotel pan over the stone to trap steam in, instead of steaming the oven. I take the pan off after 10 minutes. I got good oven spring, but the bottom was too done already. I turned the oven down, but the bottoms started blackening, so I took them out. The top of the baguettes had only begun to spot with red- brown, and some of those spots were turning black.
I tried San Joaquin Sourdough from member DM Snyder (which also produced an amazing bread. I've never made a batard of that size that had no pockets of density, and the flavor is the essence of sourdough), and had similar results. This time I was wary, and preheated the stone to 400 for an hour, then kicked it up to 450 for the bake. The loaf was bigger, so I left the hotel pan on for 12 minutes, and when I pulled it, I had great oven spring, but the bottom of the loaf was very dark. I left it in for 4 minutes to darken a little, but had to pull it as black was beginning to form on the bottom. The crust was very light, with pale brown spots all over, but nothing dark brown or brown-red.
Last, I made a loaf based on the SD Sourdough recipe in Reinhart's BBA, but with more hydration. This time, I preheated and cooked at 400, and had the rack in the upper half of the oven. The loaf came out a lot better, as I was able to cook it longer without the bottom burning, but it still wasn't as dark as I would have hoped for.
I'm sorry I don't have pictures.
My question is: Is sourdough more sensitive to burning, and if so, why?
Has anyone worked out a time/temp/oven position scheme that results in a nice crust without much burning? I notice many of the sourdough loaf pics on this site look a little burnt to a lot burnt. Is that just the way it is with sourdough?
Either way, I love sourdough, and I'm willing to deal with slightly burnt crust or slightly underdone crust, but I miss the way my ciabatta loaves could cook so dark without getting burnt, and the crust came out so crackly. I want that plus sourdough, but maybe that's too much to ask.
Any help is appreciated. Thanks in advance!
Sounds like over proofed dough. Pale crust (grayish) with spots of brown is a sure sign, but pics would be most helpful along with proofing times and temps.
From your description is sounds to me like your oven's lower heating element is flash-heating the stone. In other words, when the oven temperature drops below the setpoint the lower element, either electric or gas, is turning on and overheating the stone in the process of reheating the oven to the setpoint. This is what I would try.
Some ovens let you control which elements turn on and when, so you might be able to switch to the top element or to both elements. Move the bread to a higher rack level in the oven, away from the bottom element. Use parchment paper between the bread loaf and the stone. Put a second stone on a lower rack, below the stone that holds the bread, and let it dissipate the heat instead of your baking stone.
Another thing that I think is pertinent is knowing the actual temperature of your baking chamber. You can now buy an electronic infrared temperature gun for about $20 on Amazon. I have one and it works wonders. No more guessing.
Best of luck and please keep us posted.
Jim
Thanks guys.
I don't think it was overproofed dough. I'll try the stone below my stone. That sounds like a good solution.
so that you know if the setting is accurate. I agree with Jim's suggestion. I bake a variant of the San Joaquin SD and have never experienced a failure other than a bad slash. I bake at 460F for 15 minutes with steam (towel method) and then remove the steam for another 15 minutes at 420F. with the oven convection setting on. I use a baking steel and pre-heat the oven to 500F for 30-40 minutes before the dough goes in. Steel heats up very fast so a half hour is about all that's needed. The extra time is if the final proof is a little slow because of the room temperature.
It's a KitchenAid electric oven and the baking steel is in the middle of the oven.
Interesting, Alan G. And what is the towel method?
scratch that, I found it.
AlanG reminded me of something I ran into when I moved to a place with a smaller oven. Is there at least 4 inches or so of space around your stone? With the smaller oven I only had a couple inches clearance around the stone/steel/pan of that. That caused a big heat buildup under the loaf and burnt bottoms. I ended up putting a tray of water under the pan for about the first half of the bake. I got steam and a more even bake, until I got a smaller pan.