Large holes in crumb
Hello, everyone.
I worked for a local bakery, and we specialize in naturally leavened breads that are used by many of our accounts for sandwiches. With that being said, our desired crumb still contains irregular holes, but nothing that would prevent the bread from being used as a sandwich.
For a week or two, we have been having an issue with our crumb having excessively large holes that travel through the whole loaf. I'm not sure what the issue could be.
Our mix has remained consistent, and we will go for long periods of time with no issues in the crumb, so I've ruled out overmixing.
I've been helping our shapers to form the loaves with the bare minimum of additional flour, which is what I thought was the problem originally.
Is it possible that proofing is the culprit? I'm stumped on what could be causing this issue. Thank you in advance for any help.
to shaping and then do nit get the dough properly degassed as a result. That might be a place to look.
up in my mind is the salt. Has been reduced? replaced or anything changed?
The other is room, equipment, table temperature. Weather? Drafts of cool air such that the warmer inside is fermenting faster than a cooler outside of the rising loaf?
Salt percentage hasn't changed, as well as the type of salt.
We have noticed that the holes appear more often during seasonal changes. When we make the bread, the room temperature remains the same from mix through the final shaping, we allow the bread to proof about 75% and then retard it overnight.
I'm wondering if the same person(s) are performing shape and weigh?
Large holes indicate insufficient degassing of the bulk ferment. Try "finger poking" the dough a bit more (or begin to do so) to "pop" the larger dough bubbles prior to the pull and stretch part of the shaping process (I'm assuming you perform pull and stretch as part of the shaping process)...,
Wild-Yeast
during seasonal changes? or even 50%? The longer a dough is fermented before retarding, the faster it continues to ferment during that retardation. So much so that often a 35% risen dough will fully proof in retardation overnight. Which brings us around to the temperature of the Retarder, or Refrigerator or whatever is used.
I've noticed that when outside temps drop at night, the fan for the walk-in kicks in less, the door is also opened less tripping the thermostat less often. This might mean less air circulation in the retarder and uneven cooling of the dough. Perhaps a small additional fan circulating the air in the walk-in might help or a slight drop in the temperature setting. OR the filters need cleaning. ...just a few ideas.
that during cleaning, the thermostat had never been uncoiled and positioned properly inside the walk-in. There were two, coiled up with a cable binder holding them near to the fan. They were carefully unbound, straightened and mounted properly. We also added several control thermometers around the room at different levels to check temps. Naturally lower shelves were cooler when compared to higher shelves and those closest to the fan cooled faster. This helped with where the dough stood during retardation. Dough near to the door is often warmer or takes longer to cool. Changing the size of the containers and or the amount of dough in the containers will also influence how quickly the dough cools.
Hi,
4 years later after this post, I am having the same situation at our bakery, nothing has change in the way we are doing things and that only affect our country bread, which seems very similar with the one above. The only thing is our walk-in is less crowded than before and a lot colder.
I am curious to know if you ever solve your problem.
Thank you.