sd thoughts and help requested
hi all- long time tfl starer and only just joined!
this time last year I thought I perfected my sd loaf!
I'm in the UK so folks dont judge my low hydration too much... But here goes
I'd make a levain build at around 7am - I'd use 150g of 100% starter and 75g each of new flour and water.
I'd head to work, come home and at about 7pm id throw in 420g of strong white bread flour (about 12g protein here in the UK) and an ever changing mix of whole wheat, spelt and whole rye. Generally about 50g spelt, 20 ww and 10 rye. Sometimes id go higher with the white.
I'd also chuck in 270g water (cold from tap). Mix all together and wait 30mins. I'd then add a bit of salt (never weighed- biggish pinch) and stretch and fold in bowl for 15.
I'd then fold every 30mins about 4/5 times and then leave for another hour or so. Time wise it would normally do this bulk for 4 hours- sometimes less if I was tired and wanted to go to bed.
I'd then shape- chuck in boule and leave over night.
morning would come, itd be tipped out into preheated lidded pot in oven and baked for about an hour, lifting lid after the first 30 or so. Tempwise itd start off at 230c reducing to 220c after first 20 or so.
was getting some impressive stuff!
then summer came and I was getting flat ugly overproofed loaves. I tried dropping hydration, doing second ferment in fridge and... Ugh... Nothing worked. I lowered starter, changed the levain build to start with a table spoon of strmarter and... Nothing.
autumn came and, nope... Still not coming out the way I wanted it.
winter came and... Yup... Still nothing.
I baked this yesterday Morning... As I was thinking overproofing was the issue I let it do second rise in the fridge (maybe 9 hours till it baked). Still got way too much outward spread in the pot- and the structure looks underproofed to me.
thoughts folks? I have to get the bake to work around my working day to sustain being entirely home baked bread (which I have been for four years or so)... I also don't want to revert to normal yeasted loaf!
This loaf looks under proofed and under hydrated to me. I am in the UK too and had exactly this problem when hydrating my bread <60%. I upped my hydration to 70% and also the amount of starter which yielded more consistent results.
Also, I find when working with low hydration the dough never proofs sufficiently in the fridge.
Happy baking
so you reckon stick to the general timings/technique but up water addition to 320 or so grams??
surely 300g of starter/levain is enough?
General technique looks fine to me, I would personally up the water to 350 grams if you are happy handling the wetter dough.
Apologies, I missed your text about the starter. I usually go for 100 grams of starter for this amount of flour (20%)... although I take my starter (which has been fed 12 hours before) straight from the jar rather than building a levain.
cheers :) I may give that a go this eve for a bake tomorrow.
I'm happy enough with handling the wetter dough- but as I still don't have a dough scraper I've not got the ability to pre shape as the dough is impossible to remove from my work surface without nullifying the effects of the pre-round.
as I say I was getting absolutely phenomenal results earlier this year and it all fell away with the seasons change...