The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Diagnose my crumb!

OceanG's picture
OceanG

Diagnose my crumb!

I’m very new to sourbread. This is just my second attempt as baking it. Which is the preferred crumb? I can’t tell if it’s under-proofed or over-proofed or something else? Same dough, same fermentation times and proofing time, left was stretch and folds with Pyrex bowl bake, right was coil fold with Dutch Oven. Thanks!

Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven

criteria to evaluate bread crumb

and pulled up many helpful links, among them this one

https://www.thekitchn.com/bake-your-own-bread-how-to-determine-when-its-a-good-loaf-195406

?

OceanG's picture
OceanG

Thanks for this!

not.a.crumb.left's picture
not.a.crumb.left

and you should have seen my loaves at that stage...They both look great with good signs of fermentation as a start...

Preferred crumb is a very personal matter although many now try to achieve the holy grail of the 'open crumb'...

Trevor Wilson's 'Open crumb mastery' pdf book has a great section of analysing different types of crumbs and was a real eye opener for me... 

I like both of your loaves.... Trevor says open crumb is 80% fermentation and shaping if I remember correctly...

Both loaves are well fermented and the first one looks more open...now as you say they were the same dough, same fermentation and proofing time..

I think the difference in crumb could have to do with the different folding technique used and the timing of the folding... folding creates structure and that will have an impact on your crumb...

Coil folds are very strong folds and particularly done towards the end of bulk can affect crumb a lot...and create an enormous amount of tension. So this might have caused the difference and or shaping...

So for a more wild and open crumb I often leave my dough alone at least for the last hour or even more of the bulk fermenation  assuming that I have gluten development and enough structure. Then I try to gentle shape but still create enough tension so that the loaf does not collapse/spread too much  later coming out of the basket.

Happy baking...I would have been very happy to make any of the two loaves at the start of my baking journey....

Kat

 

OceanG's picture
OceanG

Thanks for the wonderful information and the encouragement! I’m actually about to pull another one out of the oven. I have too much bread but it’s exciting trying to get it ‘right’!

not.a.crumb.left's picture
not.a.crumb.left

Your friends and neighbors will always love the bread coming their way...