Dense crumb
Did a bake today, two loaves' worth. Both came out tasting quite good, and the rise was among the best I've had yet. But the crumb was quite dense, enough so that it almost felt undercooked to eat (with a little butter on it, the taste was excellent).
See photos.
Recipe:
Leaven: 33g starter, 205g water, 165g flour; fermented overnight, around 11 hours.
Dough: leaven + 1020g flour, 415g water*, 2 tsp salt
*It was very humid today, so this represents a roughly 25% decrease in hydration for this recipe, which normally calls for 555. The dough ended quite wet.
Mixed dough ingredients with leaven; autolyse 30 minutes. Kneaded vigorously for ten minutes. Bulk ferment for around 6 hours in fairly warm back room, with folds every hour for the first three hours until the dough became too prone to breakage. Bulk ferment ended with probably just under a doubling of the dough.
Shaped into boules. Proofed in banneton baskets for another two hours in warm back room. Baked at 500 degrees on a pizza stone with a cast-iron casserole over top of loaf.
of your loaves when they come out of the oven? I bake all my loaves to at least 205 F. You may have also cut your loaf a bit too soon which would seem like the loaf wasn't baked long enough. You need to cool your loaf a couple of hours which allows the moisture within the loaf to redistribute.
And also maybe try a shorter bulk ferment (I'm in England and my kitchens normaly between 18-23 and I'll normally only bulk ferment for 2-3 hours, with SnF's every 15 mins for the first hour then every half hour after. My final proof is therefore longer (the way i see it, the gluten is breaking down gradually the minute you autolyse, so by having that long bulk ferment you may not be giving the final shaped loaf long enough to essentially sit and essentially create those nice air pockets? But I'm pretty much a novice so maybe better off listening to others!
Yeah it's late I should go to bed