Hi,

I've been trying out Rinhardt's whole wheat recipe for a hearth bread.  The whole process seems to work

according to plan but at the end in the oven I'm not getting much of an oven spring.  The bread in fact barely

rises.  It's flavor is ok but just doesn't have the height that I'm seeing in the photos on this site for people

who have tried his bread  or the photos in his book.  I wonder why.  I'm not having any trouble getting a rise

during fermentation.  It's just the oven spring that isn't working out.  Any ideas?  I have tried to use both

Reinhardt's hearth oven cooking method, and I have also used a cloche, without producing different results.

I'm having trouble with my rustic bread recipe.  I do three proofs and am getting great crust and crumb.  But I can't develop an ear, even following all the directions for a good score, because the bread has so much oven spring that it blows out.  The final proof is a full double in volume.  I'm using a pre-heated skillet as steam pan, and spraying the inside of the oven and loaf twice in the first 3 minutes.  Any recommendations? Here's the final product:

This loaf sprang right off the back of the baking stone.

Didn't some one already suggest a forum for "Dumb Bread Tricks?"

Happy baking!

David

Hi everyone,

I've been making reasonably nice bread with a wild culture that I've been maintaining for probably around 6 months.  It seems fairly strong and my loaves proof nice, but when I started making bread again with dry yeast, I noticed the commercial yeast tends to spring much more in the oven.  Is this just a "fact of life," or do you think I can encourage my culture to perform better in the heat?

Thanks, this is my first post after reading for months!

Chris

After doing some serious experimentations with long room-temperature rises and enjoying them, I have concluded that I do like the flavor imparted from 8-12 fridge retardations. It just gets a twang-y zippy edge I don't necessarily get from non-fridged loaves. I do fear it creates a far-too-similar flavor profile in loaves, even ones with long pre-ferments, pate fermentees, or epoxys (or the combination of those).

Back to the point: I hear it suggested to proof loaves in the fridge in airtight containers. This is not practical for me, so I generally just throw the post bulk-fermented dough into the fridge (generally overnight). It comes out the next morning, and continues to grow throughout the day.

Getting the right proof level is tough. I worry that the loaves won't spring after this rigorous procedure, but they generally blow up. So I'm starting to think I might need:

8-12 hour fridge retardation

8-12 back to room temp (house is cold in winter, likely much shorter in other months)

1 hour proof? I need new linens so I've been slacking on proofs lately with noticable results but am not sure how I should do this with the loaves coming up from cold. How many hours do you guys generally proof on regular, unretarded loaves? I find my loaves are generally under-proofed as they are likely to blow up on oven-spring.

Your input requested.

This list is great -- I'm spending a ridiculous amount of time reading the posts -- my husband thinks it's hilarious.  And I'm really enjoying my beginner's attempts at bread-making.  Quick question:  My (one lonely!) bread book advises to spray a bit of water into the oven.  But there seems to be general agreement (from what I've read so far, anywa, on this list and elsewhere) that the more moisture, the better.  So....  I've just been tossing a cup or two of water into the bottom of the oven and then slamming the door shut.  It immediately turns to steam, of course.  The results seem good...  I wonder, though, if I am going a bit overboard and risking my landlord's oven!  Thoughts?

Karen

I am preparing to give challah as Holiday house gifts in Spain, the three attemps have lacked the bulbous protuberances that I remember from Clevelands finest jewish bakeries.

What can I do to make the big bumps come out? They are theere when the bread is braided, they disappear upon baking with the oven spring

Made these crown challahs today that have an apple butter filling.  Taste wonderful, but look like they exploded.  Any suggestions on what is causing this?  Too much oven rise?  How do I avoid that?  It is a woven loaf not a pull apart bread which it looks like.

The one on the left is what it should look like.  I made all of these and do not know why some look good and others look like they exploded.

Many challahs

Sharon

www.thebraidedloaf.com 

Performed the bi-daily bake tonight and was totally suprised with the amount of oven spring. The loaf nearly blew itself apart! You can barely see the slash pattern..., I've decreased the time of the bake to around 36 minutes with the first 15 minutes under the stainless steel cloche. Find out tomorrow what the crumb looks like.

Wild-Yeast

ok, so i tried the my daily bread recipe: http://www.thefreshloaf.com/recipes/mydailybread.
here's my preferment/poolish. no picture after the 18 hr ferment.

liquidy. bubbly after 18 hours.