Not much oven rise
Hi everyone,
New here and new to breadmaking which my wife and I began to do in the sleepless days following the birth of our son 6 weeks ago! I tried to bake Ken Forkish's overnight country blonde using my levain and got mixed results.
First the dough was quite wet and difficult to handle. I ended up having to add quite a bit more flour during the shaping stage just to be able to form it for proofing.
I also noticed the fermentation might have happened on overdrive. We live in a tropical climate and I ferment the doughs at room temperature which might be 24 or 25c. I fermented this dough overnight and it at least tripled in size. Proofing also may have been too long.
When I tried to score it (I'm not sure I like Forkish's technique of using the folds as scores) the dough deflated significantly, and didn't really spring back in the oven.
The taste is pretty good but a little denser than I would like, the crust is a bit too thick and just a little disappointing overall.
Anyone have any idea what might have gone wrong with this? I find it really difficult to work with wet dough (this was hydrated at 78%), and I'm guessing that is why in part it ended up being a bit flat?Perhaps because we live in a tropical humid environment I should hold back a bit of water when I mix the dough? And maybe cut down fermentation by 25% or something?
Any advice would be welcome. I am really enjoying breadmaking and am keen to learn whatever I can!
Comments
I think that Forkish's breads were not meant to be fermented at very warm temperatures. I recall it was much cooler in his bakery. Maybe cut back on the fermentation time, overnight is really too long. An old advice here is watch the dough not the clock there are more experts here that can tell you when is the dough properly fermented.
temperature is was too long. Your dough was probably over proofed.
I usually bulk ferment for about 4-5hours ( i do my S&F during the first two hours at 30 min intervals) and then i leave it until i see nice looking bubbles around the edge of the dough and its about doubled in size. Then it goes into the fridge for a 16-24 hour shaped proof. I bake straight from the fridge.
As for your thick crust, how are you steaming your oven?
As for working with wet dough, all i use is a slightly wet bench scraper and wet left hand (or right if you're a leftie :)).
I don't put flour or oil or water on the surface. it helps to have some resistance so that you can actually stretch the dough without it just lifting right off the surface.
Hope that helps.