Bien Cuit loaves over proofing in the fridge
Has anyone made some of the breads from Zachary Golpers' Bien Cuit book? Are your loaves overproofing when retarding them? I have baked 3 different recipes and his proofing in the fridge times are definitely not working for me. The first loaf was so badly over proofed that I had to reshape and let proof again to rescue it. The other two were supposed to go at least 14 hours but one was over proofed at 5 hours in the fridge and the other one seemed just right at 5 hours as I got nice oven spring.
My kitchen is cool (70-72f) and I am using 60 degree water as specified so it isn't that the dough is too warm going into the fridge. My fridge is at 41f so is that the issue? I would like to be able figure out this out so that I can take advantage of the lower electricity rates during low usage times but when I can't predict how quickly my loaves will proof, it makes it difficult.
You can see the over proofed loaf on the top or left, depending on what device you are using to view this page, in the pict above.
save it if the pre-fermented flour is too large or the the bulk ferment too long or both - plus the high fridge. I don't do much of a bulk ferment anymore and try to keep the pre- fermented flour to 10-12% in the Spring - to get 18-21 hours of shaped retard but it still come out a bit over- proofed anyway...4 degrees in the fridge can speed up proofing 35%.
The loaf on the right looks great by the way.
Happy baking
on the one loaf. I caught that one in the nick of time. The other was overflowing the basket and it spread all over the place when I popped it out onto the counter. It also deflated quite badly so I was surprised that it had any oven spring at all.
The recipe for that one was rather strange. On top of 200 grams of prefermentEd flour (yeast, not sourdough) out of a total of 600, 320 g of flour was soaked overnight leaving only 80 g to add to the final mix. I also figured out that the hydration including the water that the farrow soaked in, was 90%! If I make this again, I am going to drop the hydration.
I am also dropping the temp on my fridge. I am going to aim for the same temp you have. Hopefully that will help with my planning.
is asking for super fast fridge time no matter what temp the fridge is set for -you just be ready at 4 hours no matter what with a hot oven:-)
these cookbook authors do? The over proofed loaf's recipe specified 16 hours of chilling in the fridge! The book also has a recipe for a 30 hour sourdough as well as a 60 hour! I am sure I would seriously over proofed those too if I followed the recipe. They both have 16% of the flour prefermented.
to drop your fridge temp anyway. The FDA recommends 40F or below to minimize bacterial growth. They also recommend the freezer to be kept at 0F. I have tried keeping my fridge as cold as Dabrownman, but my eggs kept freezing, so we have it set at 39F these days. Besides, it's warmer year-round in Arizona where he lives than my kitchen in Colorado, so he probably needs a couple degrees more cooling than I do. You'll have to make adjustments for the ambient temp in your kitchen, but 40F should still be the max.
--Mike
It is an all refrigerator that is kept in the basement. I measured the temperature with my instant read thermometer by dipping it in a liquid that is kept in that fridge. Now that I think of it, this liquid is in the door and I understand that items in the door tend to be warmer. I dropped the temp so hopefully, I don't wake up to a freezer rather than a fridge in the morning. Ha ha!
Hi - I have been using the Bien Cuit book and also have found that to be a problem. I have made the 60 hour sourdough a number of times, and the recipe for that instructs you to let the shaped bread rise 5 hours at room temperature, and then 30+ hours in the fridge. In my home, which is usually around 60 degrees, I have found that if I put the shaped loaves immediately in the fridge (without any time at room temperature), it will rise nicely and be ready to bake about 24 hours later. On the other hand, I just made the bialys, following the recipe to a T. The whole time they seemed to be underproofed, with no second rise after shaping, but they turned out great. I think the problem with these recipes is that they only mention how long each stage ought to be, without mention of temperature (except instructions for water temperature when mixing the dough) or how risen the dough should be at certain stages. It does make it more difficult to be successful the first time, but I have found all of the recipes I have tried to be worth it.
Another thing I have noticed about Colper's recipes is that many of them have a reasonable amount of rye in them. Rye seems to rise more easily in the fridge than wheat breads, in my experience, so fermentation times of retarded rye breads seem shorter. If you cut out the time the bread spends at room temperature and still find it overproofing, I suggest using less sourdough in the recipe.