The Fresh Loaf

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Help Needed – Crust/Scoring Issues with Tartine Country Bread

conquestofsourdough's picture
conquestofsourdough

Help Needed – Crust/Scoring Issues with Tartine Country Bread

Hi everyone, I've been having some issues with my loaves recently and wanted to get some more expert opinions on where I might be going wrong.

I've been baking Tartine's Country Bread for a little while now, but as I'm trying to get better at scoring it seems like my cuts always break apart at some point and the insides don't quite darken the way the rest of the exterior does. This time around, as you can see, the score down the middle broke apart and melded with one of the leaf patterns I was hoping to achieve – and the interior really didn't darken the way I hoped.

Any ideas as to what I might be doing wrong? Am I over/under-proofing, not scoring enough, or not scoring deeply enough? Could it just be that my dutch oven is too small? Or something else entirely?

Tartine Country Bread

For context, I'm following the recipe nearly exactly, giving about 3 hours worth of folds during the bulk fermentation and then proofing in the fridge overnight – my dough always seems to pass the poke test, and seems to handle my scoring pretty well before it bakes (goes into the oven at ~475º F for about 25 mins with the lid on and then another 20 mins with the lid off). 

Any advice would be much appreciated!

dmsnyder's picture
dmsnyder

Your loaves may be somewhat under-proofed, leading to overly exuberant oven spring. This is amplified by baking in a dutch oven. I am also guessing that your scoring is too deep.

To my taste, your crust is a bit light. The lighter appearance of the grigne (bloom) just means the bloom occurred relatively late in the bake, so the exposed crumb was not subject to the full effect of oven heat for as long.

David

conquestofsourdough's picture
conquestofsourdough

Thanks for the tips! I had a feeling it might have been an issue with the proofing, but I'll also see about shallower scoring next time. Your point about the grigne also makes sense, will be interested to see how darkening goes. 

Now that I think about it, it may also have to do with the fact that I've been using a small pot + lid rather than a larger dutch oven, so from the moment I put the dough in the container it's touching the walls – maybe not being able to spread out is having an effect, too. Either way, I'll be buying a proper one soon, so will be interesting to see the results. 

Julian Locke's picture
Julian Locke

A recent underproofed load I baked looked similar.

conquestofsourdough's picture
conquestofsourdough

Thanks for the tip – will have to try pushing for longer proofing times. 

DivingDancer's picture
DivingDancer

I'll agree with the "underproofed" comments above.  Underproofing tends to lead to excess expansion during baking, and a very wet/dense looking interior being exposed.  

But on the bright side, that still looks like fairly decent bread!  What does the crumb look like?

conquestofsourdough's picture
conquestofsourdough

Yeah, it seems like there are a few factors at play here, but underproofing and the depth of the cuts seem to be the main issues. That said, it definitely still came out delicious! Crumb is one of the airiest I've been able to achieve yet, and flavor is tangy without being one-note. Can't wait to give it another shot and see if I can get the scoring pattern right – as someone once said, it's easy to make bread that tastes good but damn hard to make bread that looks good.