Poor bloom on loaves
Hi everyone,
I've been a (semi) long time browser of the forum and this my first post. Normally in the past I could search for my problem and find an answer. A few weeks ago i read the write ups on scoring bread and high hydration loaves which were both immensely helpful. Two weeks ago I applied the info and got really great blooms and ears on almost all of my loaves I baked that day.
With my most recent bake earlier this week it seems like I took one step forward and two back. My loaves reverted to their former state of being with barely any bloom and no ear to speak of. I tried doing exactly what i did last time with a shallow score not exceeding 1/4 of an inch at a 30 degree angle to the dough.
Here's a picture to illustrate what the bread looks like post bake. The difference between the first loaf and the second are that I increased the hydration from 75% to 79%, the cold final proof at 39 degrees went from 12 hours to 15 and two of them were covered in sesame seeds. I've seen plenty of seeded loaves that have formed ears so I'm not sure it was that. Before going in the oven I checked them all with the finger poke test and they all seemed to be sufficiently prooved with the dough springing back slowly leaving a small dent on the loaf. I steam the oven consistently the same every time I bake. I use a pan with hot water and a towel to pre- steam the oven then throw boiling water in a preheated cast iron pan with lava rocks in it followed with a few spritzes of water on the walls before closing the oven door.
Has anyone experienced this issue and been able to solve it, or know what might be causing it? Thanks so much for everyone that contributes to this site, its been incredibly helpful in advancing my bread making skills!
That's assuming everything else is unchanged. Keep in mind that, the higher the hydration, the shallower the scoring should be to prevent the ear from collapsing and sealing the bloom.
Looking at the color of the bloom, you can see it either occurred early and stopped prematurely or was good until an ear collapsed and covered the later-developing part of the bloom. I hope that makes sense to you. If you have an oven window and can watch the oven spring and bloom, you might gain useful information about the problem.
Happy baking!
David
I would concur with David that the loaves may be a little overproofed. However, looking at the colour and the looks of the slash, I would suggest there was also too much top heat too early in the bake. When you spray water on the sides of the oven after loading bread you lower the temperature of the oven quite dramatically, which will often cause the top element to come on to get the temperature back up. If this happens, the crust on the top of the loaf will set before it has time to spring. If you can, also load the dough lower down in the oven. You can also pre-heat the oven to a higher temperature then turn it down to your baking temperature after loading the bread; this might stop the top element from coming on. What do you bake the bread on? Stones?
Thanks for the responses guys! Next time I bake I'll try and keep the proofing time lower to determine if that's a cause of the lowered expansion. It makes sense but I never thought that spritzing would have that much of an effect on the oven's temperature. I bake on a baking steel that's on a rack in the middle of the oven. Unfortunately with the items I steam the oven with that's as low as it'll go.
like Jordan my scores slightly open then it remain like a scar without the bloom.
After taking out the dough from the fridge ( retard bulk fermentation x about 18 hours ) I shaped it and put it in a banneton and left it at ambiant temp ( 22 C ) x about 3 hours ....my poke test seems to be o.k. ( even a bit before as the print did leave a discreet dent ) ...I have a doubt that the cause of it would be over proofing ! Do you ?Then I Bake it at 475 F x 15 minutes then to 450 F 15 more minutes .N.B. This is a bread made with 500g of flour and 85% hydration .
thank you to clarify this enigmatic Bread !