October 14, 2020 - 6:05pm
How can I get my sourdough to rise up instead of out?
I have tried working on my shaping which has helped, I've even tried to lower hydration and that didn't seem to do much. I cant figure it out. Here's a picture of my most recent crumb. By all means, it seems alright. But I see people posting crumbs that almost have no slope, the appear to be almost perfectly round and only rise upward. What am I doing wrong? I cook in a dutch oven. I use okay flour, not great. Its high gluten, 14.2%. I mostly do the king arthur no knead recipe with 3-4 stretch and folds. It's a pretty standard recipe. Thank you!
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First, I think your bread looks just fine. That said, if you want more loft, you might think hard about your bulk ferment timing. After two years of futzing around, it seems that I get my best oven spring if I retard (refrigerate) my dough after only a 25-30% volume increase. It keeps rising for quite a while in the fridge depending on the total dough mass ( I usually mix 2-6 loafs worth at a time).
After 12 hours or up to 5 days of refrigeration, I pre-shape, rest for 10-15 minutes, then final shape, proof for another 45 minutes or so, and bake. I don’t have much experience with baking immediately after bulk with no retard, but would encourage you to experiment with reducing bulk fermentation to south of the 50% increase benchmark.
Good luck,
Phil
Thanks phil! So you like to shape after you refrigerate instead of baking right out of the fridge? I also sometimes wonder if the shape of my dough is the issue. I think it seems like batards turn out more round and boules dont round out as much.