The Fresh Loaf

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Open crumb

Megs233's picture
Megs233

Open crumb

Hello

I wonder if anyone can advise on how to get a more open, even crumb throughout my bread? As you can see from the pic my breads tend to get a nice open crumb at the top but are more dense at the bottom.

Does anyone have any ideas on why this is and what I could try to make it more consistent? I didn't cover the bread whilst baking. It was a poolish recipe, about 65% hydration, and I used the stretch and fold technique, about 5 times at 30-45 min intervals.

Thank you in advance,

Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven

of being too gentle with the dough during the final folding and shaping if a finer crumb was desired. For a more open crumb,  I think 5 stretches and folds might be too many with 65% hydration.  Try just one or two shortening the bulk rise.  Try to keep the rising dough at an even temperature, cover the whole covered dough and banneton with a fluffy dry towel to insulate it.  If the dough was degassed well before shaping,  then I would suspect the bottom of the banneton might have been warmer during the final rise/proof.  It also looks like the loaf spent a while in the banneton, perhaps too long as the dough skin is tight, like it could have dried out too much from the banneton.   The score did not open much, set rather early for it looks like the dough was expanding near the bottom right edge during oven spring.  A deeper score may have released gas from the large bubbles but then again, the lower crumb looks too worked for a more open crumb.  I would knead the dough more and in the beginning and work the dough less cutting back on the stretching and folding.

tgrayson's picture
tgrayson

Evenness of crumb is probably a shaping issue more than anything.

As for a more open crumb, less gluten development is better. At 65% hydration, 5 S&F's seem like a lot. I usually find the dough is ready after three, even at higher hydrations.

CristinaMTK's picture
CristinaMTK

You can maybe flip it and 'proof' for 10 minutes longer before going into the oven. It will shift the gas to go in the opposite direction before baking. I used to do this with ciabatta. I would proof, flip, proof 10 more minutes and bake. Nice even open crumb through out. Hope this helps

Megs233's picture
Megs233

Thank you so much everyone for this, all really interesting and useful points which I'll take on board for my next attempt. 

I'm just slightly confused by 'less gluten development results in a more open crumb'. Can someone explain this to me a little further? In my inexperienced naivety I would have thought more stretching/gluten development would help create more air and therefore space in the crumb, leading to lots of nice big holes, which is what I'm aiming for? But have I got that completely the wrong way around?

thank you

tgrayson's picture
tgrayson

The problem with strong gluten is that it doesn't stretch very far...I presume this is what keeps the holes relatively small. This is why when you want a fine crumb for sandwiches, you mix the dough until it passes the windowpane test.

 

tgrayson's picture
tgrayson

Oh, and I guess I should point out that you should let the dough tell you how many S&Fs you need; if you really have to fight the dough to make it stretch, then you're done. Maybe past done. Doing the 5th S&F with a 65% hydration dough must be pretty difficult.

If the last S&F is really easy and the dough sags a lot during the final rest, you might need another S&F.