The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

is scoring my only issue here?

daisyhead's picture
daisyhead

is scoring my only issue here?

hi there! i've been baking sourdough for about a week with my month old starter and i'm quickly becoming obsessed!

i baked this loaf today and had some trouble with scoring and this happened - a big balloon with a huge hole in the top! is scoring my only problem here or is something else askew?

thanks!

daisyhead's picture
daisyhead
IPlayWithFood's picture
IPlayWithFood

From the looks of the tight crumb I'd say underproofing, but usually underproofed breads don't balloon out/up at the sides like that so I'm a bit confused! Did you bake it on a stone/tray?

daisyhead's picture
daisyhead

hey! i had it on a pizza stone which was well heated.

i am super new to this but it seemed very well proofed to me. when i poked it the indent would slowly fill in but never fully and there were visible bubbles under the surface :/ 

it was quite flat and wide when i first put it in but then shot up and became narrow and high. also the photo doesn't show it, but it cracked around the base - i assume from all the pressure.

Lechem's picture
Lechem (not verified)

When under proofed but I'd say this was more of a shaping issue with a tad under proofing hence the cracking around the base. 

Sylvaneer's picture
Sylvaneer

This seems like a shaping issue to me as well.  I do believe in treating the dough gently during shaping, but in my experience, when I have big honking bubbles in the shaped dough, it will lead to big voids under the surface of the bread when baking, similar to your loaf.  This is not the same as the so-called open crumb.

daisyhead's picture
daisyhead

right! i saw on another thread someone suggested deliberately popping any big holes when shaping, however these big ones developed during proofing.. what do i do about that? like the loaf was a nice little ball when i put it in the proofing basket but when i got it out to bake i could see big bubbles on the sides around the folds of the tea towel.

could someone explain what is actually happening in the bread to me? why is all the gas concentrating to these big holes? i read if its over proofed the structure of the bread is so relaxed and there's so much gas that it breaks through the strands and makes big holes...

help. so new. so excited.