What's the difference between great oven spring and a blowout?
I'm a new(ish) baker of sourdough breads. My sour cherry pies and birthday cakes of all stripes are beauties, but this new adventure of baking breads is often a crap-shoot for me. My bread baking began last summer; I've loved getting my hands dirty and my starter(s) are healthy and active. If anyone can help me out and diagnose a few of my recurring bread questions, I'd be ever-grateful.
Today I baked 2 loaves of Vermont Sourdough with increased whole grain from Hamelman's "Bread". I didn't know about the errata sheet 'til after the bake…Anyway,I'm pleased, I think it came out well, the taste is good, there are cracks in the crust and medium-sized holes inside. Here's some pix:
My slashing on the boule was intended to look like a sand-dollar...but the middle blew apart. I still think the way it opened up looks nice. Is that a blow-out? Or just exuberant oven-spring? Should I have proofed it longer? Slashed it deeper? Due to time constraints, I proofed it yesterday for an hour and 45, then into the fridge, and baked it straight out of the fridge this morning (Susan from Wild Yeast gave that general timing as an alternative). Finger poke was a slow rebound, with a little indent left….I seem to err on either side of the proofing spectrum, haven't got it 'just right' as yet.
Here's a Pane Siciliano that had these big bubbles I couldn't seem to degas them all during shaping.
I LOVE durum breads! The taste of this bread was terrific. Does it look like over-proofing? Wishy-washy shaping? Or too long on the bulk fermentation? How can you tell when the bulk fermentation is done? There were soooo many big bubbles when I was trying to shape…very challenging!
I've learned so much from the creative and experienced bakers on this site. Any helpful words would be awesome!
Cheers!
Cherie
Comments
inside and out. A blowout will happen on the side or bottom where there is no scoring, Your breads look great and they have to taste as good as they look. Well done and happy baking
I've been looking at your awesome breads for some time - that sprouted multigrain you recently posted is inspiring! I love how you (and Lucy) have enough experience to make up your own formulas and procedures - I aspire to that…someday. Love the sunsets too!
;-)
One thing about bread making is that over the thousands of years and millions and millions of bread bakers over that time - there isn't much new in bread making to discover - some unknown baker, probably more, most likely did it long, long ago. Sprouted grain bread isn't new either but it is less eplored adn remembered. Some baker's grain got wet in the rain and starter sprouting and he had to bake with it or starve:-)
Even though you only sprout grain till it chits , about a day instead of 4-5 days when making malt, you use so much of it in a recipe it is like dumping a lot of diastatic malt and sugar into the mi and the dough behaves much differently than regular SD. So it is fun to try to figure it out using various methods.
It does';t take long to get a handle on bread methods and what various ingredients and techniques do to the process. Keep after it and before you know it you won't even think twice about modifying any recipe you want any way you want - you will just know like Lucy! Getting there is all part of the fun. You already make great bread so the rest is easy,
Happy baking .
I'll give the sprouting a try. I have some whole wheat berries, barley and rye too. I'd like to come up with a loaf that i can reproduce for Thanksgiving. Can you recommend an easy recipe to try as a first go at using sprouted grains? I assume you'll confer with Lucy… ;-)
And YOU ARE so kind! - I'm always learning so much from your generous sharing of knowledge with everyone over so many years. It's awesome.
So here's a little quandary I've run into today. Last night I decided to do an experiment with the Tartine basic recipe, using a double cream stout in place of most of the water. i mixed, autolysed, did 3 stretch and folds over about 1.5 hrs. and put it in the fridge for the remainder of the bulk ferment.
This morning I took it out, (it smells AWESOME, I was tempted to eat a tablespoon of dough) gave it 2 more stretch and folds, shaped it….and then the phone call came. I have to go into work earlier than expected today, yikes! I put the shaped loaf back in the refrigerator around 11AM. Is it a terrible idea to retard both the bulk fermentation and the final shaped loaf? I hope I'm not going to wind up with beer soup when I get home tonight...
Is the finger-poke test reliable with a refrigerated dough? I tested a little while ago and it seemed like it would be ok for several more hours. Fingers crossed, 'cause I've got no apprentices around here to whom I can hand over the baking…Have you any experience with this? How long you think I could wait? 5:30? Would 10PM be really pushing it? The loaf is 75% hydrated, 90% AP, 5% each WW and Whole rye.
Thanks!!
Cherie
in the fridge, your shaped and then retarded loaf should do just fine. i have done the same thing with a 22 hr bulk retard and a following 12 hour final shaped proof in the fridge but that was with a small levain amount of 10%. Even though your levain is larger i bet it will be fine since the hpurs are much less
When it gets to 85% proof just take it out of the fridge to warm up and 45 minuets later start the preheat of the oven. bet it turns out great and that the taste is much better too. I love beer in bread and have been saving a porter for something special for the holidays.
happy baking.
There are posters here for 10 years and I have only been posting for a little less than 3 but I'll bet no one has posted so many dfferent bakes regardless - which is probably a bad thing :-)
good! I baked around 11PM, so the shaped loaves had a 14 hr final proof in the fridge…great to know that's an option. I wasn't confident enough to judge what 85% proof feels/looks like, so i just preheated the oven and baked straight from the fridge. My slashes completely disappeared in the bake…so I guess a little warm-up time would've been better…next time. Here's some pix
Happiness is a warm loaf!
Your oven spring and lovely breads put a smile on my face. Enjoy!
Baking bread puts a smile on my face! Even shopping for (what I once considered odd ingredients) stuff like barley malt syrup, nigella seeds and extra fancy durum flour makes me giddy! I'm hooked…