May 19, 2009 - 5:10pm
Baking catastrophe! Can you diagnose?
This is a rosemary olive oil sourdough. I've made it before with no problems, but not this time, despite doing the same thing I've always done to make it. Here are the symptoms:
1) The most inconsequential oven spring ever.
2) loaf barely browned in the oven after 40 minutes of baking & reaching 205F internally
3) Scoring produced only a slightly spread-open, flattened area with slightly lighter coloring
4) kinda feels like a brick in your hand.
Question #1: Could all this be attributed to a weak starter?
Question #2: What should I do with this? I'm sure there are breads that are supposed to be similar to this- maybe bread sticks? Tasty croutons?