Help with chewy/gooy crumb with baguettes
Hi,
I've been trying my hand at baguettes. Since I started the bread has had a gooy/chewy crumb. It doesn't have a light and fluffy crumb as I would have hoped. I've considered that perhaps my bread is over-proved, but I don't think that I am proving it long so it's unclear how that would happen.
I bulk fermented on the counter for 2hrs. After mixing the levain and salt with the autolyse, I did 3 strech and folds at 30 minutes. Then I let it rest for 30 min and put in the fridge over night (about 17 hrs). I took the dough out, preshaped, let it rest for 30 min, then shaped into baguettes. I left the baguettes proof for 1 hour before baking.
For steam, I splashed water onto a cast iron right after putting the bread into my home oven.
Any advice would be great!!
Details
Levain build @ 8:20 am
24g starter
24g central milling craft artisan white
24g h2o
Dough mix: Autolyse @1:30 for 40 min without levain
476g Central Milling craft artisan white
50g bob's whole wheat
376g h2o
11g salt
72g levain
Total dough mix:
500g Central Milling artisan white
50g Bob's whole wheat
400g h20
11g salt
24g starter
Just for the sake of completeness (if nothing else), what were the temperature and the total baking time? Also - was that cast iron pre-heated?
The cast iron was pre-heated. After steaming, I baked at 475 for about 15 minutes. Then I took the cast iron out and baked for another 30. Also, I am baking on a baking steel.
Thanks
Was it light and fluffy after final proof? In gonna guess not. I'd imagine dough was still cool during final proof, so it didn't proof enough.
No it was not light and fluffy. Should I let it sit out of the fridge longer or extend the pre-shape resting?
It'll be easier to shape when cool. Problem is the yeast and other bacteria aren't awake when it's cool. Best to start the proofing time after the dough comes up too room temp.
Try leaving the bulk dough at around 78F for an hour before shaping. That is my procedure which works well. Dense crumb is usually underproofed or poor gluten development.
Thank you for the advice. I tried again, and this time with much greater success. After mixing the dough, I let the warm bulk fermentation go for an extra hour. I also doubled the amount of levain I used. I then put the dough in fridge overnight for an extended cold bulk fermentation. The result was great, much better crumb and oven spring!
My next goal is to thin the crust a little, as this crust was a bit thick.
Thank you!
Glad I could help. The crumb looks spot on.