Hello,
This is my second loaf of bread and I keep on having this problem: my loafs are flat.
I make my bread with 300g of strong flour, 75g of white flour, 41g whole grain flour, 83 grams of sourdough starter(made with half water and half whole-wheat flour. Starter is 2 weeks old), 291g of water and 8g of salt.
I believe my problem is with shaping, I probably don't build enough tension since I don't have good enough technique. Also the other problem could be my "baneton" (bowl covered with a kitchen towel).
If you have any idea of why my loafs look like this please share it, and also I would be very welcoming of any tips regarding the handling of the dough and the shaping process.
Thank you in advance!
Edit:
I am from Spain, the flour used was:
Strong flour-Harina de Fuerza Alcampo
White flour-Harina de Trigo Gallo
Whole grain-Haeina de grano entero de trigo, Integral, con las 3 partes del trigo*,Gallo.
As for the process itself, timing and temperatures:
To start, the sourdough starter had very changing temperatures since this last week has been much warmer. During the first week(when I made my first loaf and got a pretty similar result) I kept the starter at around 22°C and fed it twice a day, during the second week I wanted to try out making the sourdough less integral and I started adding half white flour and half whole-wheat, this time it didn't rise as much and didn't have as much bubbles. I also skipped a few feedings(maybe I fed it once every two days) so that might be the reason.
For the next process, just to avoid talking about temperatures over and over, the temperatures at which I was working(handling the dough) was maybe 23°C, all waiting time(between stretches and also bulk rise) was made at around 25/26°C. I will specify temperatures when this ones are not followed. Also, for the prior loaf you can expect the same temperatures minus 3 degrees, so 20 and 22/23.
The day before I baked I fed my starter at 13:00, and waited until around 20:00 for it to grow and be active(as I said, it didn't rise as much as the starter from last week, this time it only rose about 20% while the prior week it rose 100% maybe a bit more). I added the flours, the water, and the sourdough starter, and I mixed until all four was wet. (Just to make it clearer and to give and example of the temperatures explained above, this flour mixing was done at 23°C)
After that I let it rest for 1h (and again, to give an example of what I earlier called "resting periods", this was done at 25/26°C). After letting it rest, I added the salt by almost poking the dough until I didn't feel the salt anymore. Then I did a set of stretch and folds(I couldn't tell you how many times, maybe 6 or 7, I don't think I went around it twice) by grabbing one side, stretching it and dropping it towards the opposite side of the bowl, then I let it rest for 1h.
I grabbed the dough from below,letting gravity stretch it and folded it into itself(like a soft folding technique for what I heard). I did that 4 times and then let it rest for another hour.
After the resting period I repeated the process again and let it bulk rise for 2 hours. As a quick summary, so far I have autolyse, did 1 normal stretch and fold set and other 2 softer folds (it was getting tense anyways), and then the bulk rise.
After the bulk rise I but the dough on a floured surface and stretched it to the sides making a rectangle, grabbed the left side and pull it towards the middle, did the same with the right side. Up side to de middle and bottom side to the highest side, then I let her rest in that same place, so at around 23°C or maybe lower by now, let's say 22°C for 15min, then I repeat the process and place it into my bowl with a kitchen towel and more flour. I place the bowl in a plastic bag and then to the fridge(3°C) overnight, for 8 hours.
After that I took it out of the fridge and put it in a place with direct sunlight at around 25°C, but the light very surely made it warmer. I did that for 1h and 30min until I did a "dent test" and it springed back somewhat slowly but left a dent.
After that placed the dough in a stainless steel pot that had been in the oven preheating for 10min to until it reached a temperature of 300°C(one side of the oven heating is not working, the top left side of the heating bars to me more precise so I am not sure that the temperature reached in the oven is the temperature that I set the over to be at).I attempted scoring it with out burning myself(complete failure at both of the tasks, I couldn't score it with the knife and I burned my finger :( ) put the lid on and into the oven. I baked it with the lid on for 30min, then without the lid at 250°C for another 20min.
After taking it out and going to check on the bottom I saw it was still moist, towards the center of the boule so I placed it upside down and left it in the oven, while the oven cooled down (with the oven door closed).
I then took it out, waited for the bread to cool down and rate it, and then remembered about taking the picture I shared with you earlier :).
I hope I explained everything well enough, if you have any doubts or need clarification about anything feel free to ask.
One thing I want to point out, and the same happened last time, is that when I pulled the dough out of the bowl into the pot I baked it in, it got stuck to the kitchen towel, not a lot, it was just a matter of pulling it for it to come out but it happened because the towel was wet at the bottom, I suppose because my bread had too much water content and it absorbed the flour I put in the towel. The videos I saw with my recipe the dough came it much drier and much more tense, that's why I think I might have a problem with one of the flours and very probably with my handling of the dough (and maybe not coating the bottom of the towel with enough flour, although I did flour it quite a lot)
Again, thank you!
