October 24, 2018 - 2:00am
Uneven sourdough expansion in oven
Can someone please tell me what happened here? Am pretty new to all of this - it's a simple white loaf bulk proved for 6 hours and then shaped and proved in fridge overnight. is this the result of underproving, not scoring properly, uneven air bubbles? (Or all of the above?) It has happened with overproved loaves as well but this is extreme....! Always taste good but can't get the shape right. Seems the expansion happens at the bottom of the loaf. Also, I make on a tray without a dutch oven or cloche (but i do steam up the oven with a tray of water).
Any advice appreciated thanks for all your help!!!!
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It kind of looks like it was put to bake upside down? Also, did you score it? Scoring usually encourages it to grow the right way
Did the dough form a dry skin whilst in the fridge, was it covered with plastic to help prevent a dry skin forming and to retain any expiration of moisture and gas? The dough piece can always be brushed and washed with either plain water or as i prefer a boiled cornflour paste prior to going into the oven. This has the advantage of keeping the dough piece moist and you can also get seeds etc to stick much better too, but when it first hits the fierce heat of the oven it allows for better more even expansion before the crust is set. The fact that your expansion is down towards the base rim is that is likely to be the area of least resistance as it has not been exposed to the drying effect on the skin of the dough.
Of course a shot of the interior of the loaf will help as it will show us any signs of rupture that may have taken place internally or whether it is even. The odd shaped loaf still pops up for most of us! and as you say still tastes great.
Kind regards Derek
I am new at this, could you explain what cornflour paste is.
Thanks,
Dolores
Sure Delores, you use about half a teaspoon of cornflour add to around half a cup of water bring it to the boil, the microwave is quick but watch for it bubbling over, the starch cells rupture and it turns into a paste which can be brushed onto the loaf, especially useful for applying seeds that you want to stay stuck onto the loaf surface.
Regards Derek
I actually had the exact same problem ! Seems like your steaming is not suffiecient enough, so the dough forms a crust too early on the scored side. When then the volume increases, the inner parts starting to increase in volume and use the only weak point which is left. The seam side. I think their could be e few problems : 1. The tray on the top expands to all sides, so not enough steam from the lover tray gets through to the dough. 2. The tray youre baking on is cold, when you put it in the oven, so the seam side stays longer unbaked and weak. 3. Your tray is not generating enough steam at all.
So i solved the problem by just using dutch oven. But if you dont want to buy one you could try to adjust some things:
1. Use a pizza stone (or a cast iron pan) on a rack, so the steam can pass through to the loafs and it gets more heat from the bottom.
2. Use lavastones, they should create more steam, when you pour the water on them, because they have more surface on wich the water can steam up, than a normal tray.
3. Just use anything else to cover the dough, so you have a little self made dutch oven (i dont think this solution is the best, but i tried it a few times and it was okay, so you may give it a shot.
Hope i helped a little bit.
Have a fun bake :)
It looks to me like a shaping and a lack of scoring is your problem. You probably had a seam on the bottom which was the weak part of your loaf. If what is showing was the top, you didn't score it and give the dough a place to go when you got your oven spring. So, it took the weakest area and expanded there.