Does increased hydration affect bulk fermentation?
I made my usual bake like this:
- 263 g Levain (nice and active)
- 355 g Fine Manitoba Flour
- 388 g Fine Whole Wheat Flour
- 524 g Water
- 18 g Salt
Bulkferment with 4 S&F for exactly 3 hours (after mixing the Levain, flour and water), Proofed in the fridge for 10 hours and straight from the fridge and in to the hot oven along with an Alu Pan and a towel that was covered with boiling water.
I used Manitoba flour before and found out that this flour is very strong and absorbs much more water than my normal bread flour. So this time I adjusted my hydration from the usual 70 to 75%. Since I only had some leftover of Manitoba, I mixed it with my usual fine whole (or at least very hight % of the grain) wheat.
I know I followed my normal procedures and keept the temperatures very close, so I figure it must be the Manitoba flour and/or the higher hydration that has affected this bake with less ovenspring. If thats the case, I would love to know if increased hydration can speed up bulk fermentation and therefore overproof the breads, resulting in less ovenspring?
Or did something else sneak in and caused less ovenspring?
Will speed up fermentation. But I don't think it over fermented here. Higher hydration doughs will struggle more with height then lower hydration doughs unless they are supported. I think that bursting out at the side could be to do with final proofing and/or shaping. Your starter is 35% and you bulk fermented for 3 hours. I think that sounds fine. The increased hydration is 5% which isn't going to speed it up so much it'll throw it off course drastically. 10 hours in the fridge... Did it come out over proofed? Had it collapsed somewhat?
your mix at 75% hydration is a bit less than i would use - but this isn't the problem If the blowouts didn't happen i would say it would look a bit over proofed but since the blowouts are large and in the same place, i think it is a shaping problem . and instead of busting though the score, it took an easier way out the side. You might try scoring a bit deeper too.
I bet the crumb still looked good!
Im really impressed... by both of you! I didnt even show a picture of the crumb. (I havent cut it when I posted)
Once I cut a piece of the bread, I found out that the crumb was actually pretty good, so you both guessed correctly on that one.
The blowouts though, are caused because the breads were to close to eachother and touched. So I think its a combination of high hydration doughs dont rise as well as low hydration and the breads used more energy on the blowouts than to rise up.
But I did expect a little more rising power from the Manitoba flour, since it has such a high protein content.
is always a bad thing :-) A more open crumb will result from higher hydration so long as the gluten is developed well enough and the dough isn't over proofed. Each flour combination has its hydration limits... and finding them when developing the gluten is the part of the fun of making bread.
Happy baking
I still have a looong way to know what the hydration limits for the different mixtures of flour is. That would require a lot of experiments and I dont have time (energy) for those. I struggle enough fighting not to overproof my breads. Letting one more factor in would be overkill :-)
What is Manitoba flour and what are the characteristics of it?
I can only tell you my experience with it. It originated in a town by the same name in Canada. It contain high amount of protein and gluten. I made a bead only of Manitoba with my normal 70% hydration. Right away I could tell that the flour absorbed more water than my normal flour. The dough was very strong and proofed extremely very well. Later I found out that people use it with anything from 80 to 90 and even higher % hydration, because of its strength. It is also more expensive than my regular flour.