holes too big?
I have finally started achieving high-hydration doughs that I'm happy with. I'm using @fullproofbaking's approach. I'm wondering what you all think about these big holes -- while I do want some bigger holes, these seem like they're probably too big. I've been reading about the possibilities of why this is happening, and these strike me as possibilities:
1. Only using bread flour, no whole wheat or rye/other whole grain. The flour is Central Milling organic ABC+.
2. Dough temp perhaps too high (low 80s) throughout the process.
Other factors: autolyse, then add levain, then salt. Total time after levain added to shaping is about 6 hours. I perform about 5 rounds of coil folds during that process after Kristen's first fold then lamination.
Dough does its final proofing in a very cold (37F) fridge for about 14 hours.
Baking in French oven at 500 covered, then 450 uncovered.
By looking at this, can you tell at what point those big pockets are being created, i.e., which stage I should be paying more attention to?
Thanks!
when pre-shaping. Try getting rid of just a few more of the largest bubbles in your dough. It looks like you’re getting plenty of activity during proofing to still raise a good loaf, and leaving big gas bubbles in the finally shaped loaf will give you some of those big holes. It doesn’t look, to me at least, like a flour or temperature issue, but you will probably get better flavor by cooling it all down into the mid 70’s and slowing things down some.
Very nice looking loaf. Not sure I’d be all that unhappy with it myself.
OldWoodenSpoon
Thanks! Pre-shaping is not actually part of Kristen's method, but I was thinking about adding it in. I'm popping any big bubbles I find throughout the process, and patting down as she suggests during each fold in the shaping. But perhaps I should pat a little harder? I saw someone say somewhere that you can afford to be a little harder on the dough in shaping than one would think.
Not for ciabatta. Is this ciabatta? It's a Great looking ciabatta!
Nope, basic sourdough boule. But it does taste a lot like the locally made ciabatta I buy most often. :)
about how it looks. Shape, crumb, crust, with white wheat flour. You nailed it. It's ciabatta then. Super Job! :)
Haha, thanks -- I do enjoy ciabatta, so maybe I'll tackle that next...
The larger bubbles were formed while folding it up during the lamination step. Make sure to pop them as they appear sometimes during the coil folds.
I definitely tried to be aware of that during the lamination phase and popped everything that looked big enough to worry about but will keep a closer eye next time.
When patting down - starting from the middle and working out to the edges?