No Oven Spring From SF Sourdough
Hi Everyone,
I made the SF Sourdough from Crust and Crumb and got very little oven spring. The recipe as many of you know call for long and refrigerated fermentation. I did not use a high gluten flour..used KAF bread flour.
Day 1- make firm starter from barm and ferment for 6-8 hours, then refrigerate overnight. Day 2 make final dough and bulk ferment for 4 hours then divide into loaves and proof for 3-4 hours then refrigerate overnight. Day 3- Take loaves out and acclimate to room temp and bake off.
I did get a decent rise in proofing but very little spring in the oven. Did I overproof? Should I have used high gluten flour?
I have been making great rye sourdoughs with fantastic spring and crumb. This is my first white sourdough experience.
I would appreciate your comment and suggestions.
Thanks!
Bill
Bill, was your bread fully risen when you took it out of the cooler? If so, bringing it to room temp could have resulted in the lack of spring.
I don't have Crust and Crumb but do have other books by Reinhart, as well as Lepard, Glazer, Leader and Hamelman. In my house, Hamelman is King of the Bread Hill because he was the only one who pointed out that the first step in proper mixing has nothing to do mixing, per se, but rather one should determine the water temperature required for that particular bread. And he tells you how to do it. So, I bake from Hamelman's Bread because what I've learned from him has made a positive difference in my breads.
His position on baking breads that have been retarded overnight is that if the bread is ready, bake it. Quoting: "If the bread is fully risen when it leaves the retarder, allowing it to come to room temperature before baking is a sure way to get flat bread. After all, when we look at things from the perspective of a hot oven of 460F or more, there is not that much difference between bread temperature of 40F and 70F." Some here at TFL disagree, but I tend to follow Hamelman and have never been disappointed.
He also notes that in the final fermentation, bread should not receive a full 100 percent proofing before baking, citing 85 to 90 percent as a good start.
Perhaps you could try skipping that three to four hour proofing before retarding them. Am guessing they will rise in the cooler and you can eyeball their progress.
Thanks so much, Lindy, for your guidance.
I believe that it was probably 90%+ risen when I took it out of the refrigerator. Given that, it sounds like your advise is right on...and the result was flat bread.
I have been meaning to get a copy of the Hamelman book due to all of the positive comments I have heard here on TFL, and your comments have reinforced that. Sounds like I can learn alot from him.
Thanks again, Lindy.
Bill
The credit goes to Jeffrey Hamelman, Bill. I'm just guessing about the overproofing based on what he has written.
I think you will enjoy Bread. I know you will learn from it.
If you try your SF SD again and cut back on the proofing time, please let us know how it turns out.
[Oopsie. I note that I omitted a word in my earlier post: "...proper mixing has nothing to do with mixing..." Where did the edit button go?]