First Bake - Diagnosis?
Hey all,
I got a lot of help from here with getting my starter going before. Now I finally tried baking a loaf for the first time and was just wondering if I could get some thoughts on the crumb here?
I was following The Perfect Loaf's Beginner Sourdough recipe. Overall I found the crumb to be kind of "gummy". My suspicion is that I should have let the bulk ferment go on for longer. The recipe indicated 4 hours but I don't think my dough had many bubbles after that time period.
Also, I folded 3 times during the bulk ferment at 15, 15 and then a 30 minute interval. On the last fold, I just started doing extra folds and I'm not sure if that might have thrown the loaf off.
I still don't have a banneton which probably affected the shape of my bread, and I was baking with a cast iron pan covered with a steel pot, so I think that might have affected the amount of rise I got.
My main concern is the crumb. Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks.
The outside of your bread looks great! The blisters are super nice.
I think you are correct in assuming the dough needed more fermentation.
How is your starter. Please tell is all you can about your starter. We need to be sure it is active.
Dan
Thank you for your response
Right now I am feeding my starter at a ratio of 1:5:5, 30g starter, 150g flour (25% rye and 75% bread flour) and water. Sometimes I feed it a little bit less water than flour.
It doesn't rise as much as I'd like it to, at most it will barely triple in height. For this bake, the levain peaked after it double in height, I'm guessing because I fed it 1:2:2 according to the recipe. I used the levain about an hour after it peaked, and it did pass the float test at that time.
Edit: Ratio corrected
Next time I will probably give it more time to proof than the recipe indicated. Thanks.
Your starter seems active. Try to wait until your doughs rises by 50% before ending the Bulk Ferment. A clear sided container will make observing the dough rise easier, if you have one.
Dan
Agree with bread looking under fermented. How old is your starter? How long after a 1:5:5 feed does it take to peak? Might be a good idea to give your starter a feed according to the ratio of starter within the final dough and see how long it takes to peak. Will give you a good idea of how fast it'll raise the dough.
I need to keep better track of my starter's peak times. I think I'll start writing it in a notebook so I can keep track. Thanks.