January 7, 2015 - 11:25am
Direct Baking – no retarding (sourdough stiff levain)
hello bakers!
i am keen to avoid retarding my stiff levain sourdough white bread (5% WholeMeal) and bake it straight after bulk fermentation. I am doing a 2 1/2 hours first fermentation (with folds every 30min) from salting (after autolyse) to shaping and then 4 hours rest in banneton, but it seems like the dough is becoming weaker and sloppy and i am afraid it will 'melt' in the oven and loose its shape. Any help / recommendations / tips about timing, temperatures, etc?
Many thanks in advance!
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for later and keep folding to build up dough body every 30 to 45 minutes or so. When you see your dough rising more sideways than up, give it another folding. Keep the banneton rise short. As it ferments it gets more liquid so you will have to judge when you think it has enough body to go for that final rise before it turns into a blob in 30 minutes.
What's your recipe? 250°C preheat and turn down after the first 10 minutes with steam pan. Remove steam pan and let oven temp drop to 220° or even 200°C depending on the weight, the loaf will take a total of 35 to 45 minutes.
Mini Oven,
many thanks for your help. I ve followed your advice and am getting slightly better result. But i am not baking using the dutch oven technique but directly onto an oven stone (i am using a one deck professional oven). I usually heard to give the dough a fold every 1/2 hour during a 2,5h bulk fermentation, and then straight to fridge, but since i want to avoid the fridge, my dough seems to be very sloppy and doesnt get that nice 'body' that dough have when coming out of a cold fridge. I am using the Suas (Advanced Bread and Pastry) 'SF sourdough' recipe (40% stiff levain, 75% hydration). But when i cut the dough to check the activity (or when scoring the bread) i dont see that many bubbles so i have the feeling that the dough is not completely active... but still getting weaker and sloppy.. :-(
Thanks for your help and advices.
bacteria but the yeast numbers are low. Perhaps the stiff levain wasn't ready when you added it to the dough. 40% levain should lift the dough rather quickly. Tell us about the stiff levain. Where did it come from and how old is it? How does it look when you cut into it when ready?
Mini Oven,
many thanks for your email.
See above images for the bake i was speaking about.
Levain is stiff: 50% hydration, 5%rye, 95% white.
Dough is 40% Levain, 90% white, 10% wholemeal, 75% hydration..
Total proving time (from salt) was 4h45min...
any thoughts?
many thanks,
xx alex
Made a new test with slightly better results, see attached images..
Levain: 50% hydr, 5%rye 95%white
Dough: 72% hydr, 75%hite, 15% wholemeal, 10% rye
Final dough temp = 19Celsius (too cold!)
Proving time = 7h45 (!!)
Thanks, xx alex> didnt get a nice colour and scoring still sealing, which doesnt give it a nice crust.. :-(
this time but the baking heat looks uneven with a perfect bottom but shoulders are too light. Might have to raise the temp for the bake.
Temperature and humidity make a big difference in rising times. And so does your dough temperature. Use warm water and check on your dough temperature while mixing.
Same goes for starter maintenance. Starting off warm it will cool to room temp. You can control the time it takes to mature by moving it around to either cooler or warmer spots in the kitchen.
That last picture looks much improved. Did you use a little steam in the first 5 - 10 minutes?
Yes, i think you re right.. my doughs are usually too cold (21C rather than the 24C I am aiming for). Am manually spraying water / steam in the deck just after loading, using a water spray (no steamer on my deck). Settings on my oven are 200C top heat, 200C bottom, bake for about 25min with closed vent, then 10-15 with open vent.. I used to go with higher temp (235/200) but thought it was too hot and too fast (bread was baked after 25min..)
> does this help / make sense to you?
am doing another bake test tonight, any recommendations welcome :-)
xx
and release steam after 8 minutes or after initial spring. I would expect more shine with more steam. perhaps load loaves with small pans of boiling water between them, to be removed after initial spring.