March 7, 2015 - 10:02pm
Hamelman's whole wheat levain take 2
Made some changes from last week's attemp by retarding the dough for 15 hours and out in room temp for 1 hour. baked with steam for first 15 minutes and without for the remaining 25 minutes at 230.
think i got better oven spring compared to last week. But still on the quest for that elusive bloom!
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Good gluten formation is very important. For ages oven spring evaded me. Just couldn't understand it as I was following the recipes down the "T". Did recommended stretch and folds with rests. Used strong Canadian bread flour etc. The photos from the book I was following looked different. When the author shaped his dough it look better formed then my dough which had less structure. Pointed this out to a fellow TFLer (my mentor) and he said that obviously some more gluten formation has gone on for the purpose of the illustration. When bakers make bread one has to go by feel as much as going by the recipe as many factors can effect the final loaf and even gluten formation. From different flours to humidity and so on. He suggested that just because a recipe says 4x stretch and fold it does not mean that's all your dough needs. Perhaps you might need to do more! So upon his recommendation when I first formed the dough I gave the gluten formation a head start by giving it a good old fashioned kneading for 10 - 15min until the dough came together and had some structure. Then I went back to the recipe and continued with the recommended stretch and folds. Voila! great oven spring.
Your bread looks good but you haven't given us a crumb shot nor a perspective of how much it has risen. Nice crust.
Thats how the crumb looks.
thanks for sharing in detail your experience...will definitely help me with the oven spring. I guess what you're saying applies because the recipe calls for mixing by machine first followed 2 x S&F which what I did 4 x S&F wouldn't cut it for the gluten development. Having said that I did have a dough which kept its shape rather well after 15 hours of retarding.
my main concern is heat loss from the oven and lack of steam plus I don't have a baking stone. But I still agree with u on the gluten development. Will try out the hand kneading first as you have highlighted.
Cheers
Yes, that makes sense. If I understand you correctly you skipped the machine and did 4x stretch and folds instead which as you said might not cut it. In which case a good 15min kneading when you first form the dough will help a lot!
How high is the hydration? The reason is, if it's very high then a free standing loaf will not get the same oven spring as a loaf done in a dutch oven or a la cloche but with good gluten formation you can get closer. A retarded loaf will keep its shape better when taken out of the banneton because the dough is very cold and therefore stiffer but doesn't mean good gluten formation. If the gluten is not formed properly and has been retarded it will hold its shape till you put it in the oven.
My oven is not the best of ovens either. Its a small electric one and I have also had a lot of trouble. What I now do is bake the bread on a tray covered in tin foil. I preheat the oven on full (230 c) and with both top and bottom elements on including the fan. I also heat up the steam tray.
Then when it comes to putting the dough in the oven I pour a cup of water into the steam tray right before the dough goes in. Then straight after the dough has gone in I turn the fan and top element off. Only keeping the bottom element on and turn it down to 190 Celsius so it doesn't burn (its a very small oven, if yours is larger then turn down to 220 Celsius, mine holds the heat well). The reason for this is because the fan and top element dries the dough out and it crusts too quickly therefore stopping oven spring. This way all the heat is coming from the bottom for good oven spring while keep the top moist. Then for the last 10 minutes I put the fan and top element on to finish it off for a good crust.
Hope this makes sense.