Flying Crust Yet Again...
Please Help me with my flying crust problem!
I've posted on this before when I was using the sourdough recipe from Richard Bertinet's book CRUST. I always had flying crusts and concluded that my home wasn't cool enough for the super-slow rising time, thus over-proofing. Now I'm not so sure that was the problem and here's why...
I used the sourdough recipe from The Bread Baker's Apprentice by Peter Reinhart and got a flying crust. But the giant cavern wasn't at the top, it was smack in the middle. The rest of the bread seemed dense with few holes and then there was the cavern in the middle with dense crumb on the top and bottom! It was delicious, but ugly and a bit dense.
So can anyone help me diagnose why? Here are the factors. First, it's been super hot today and I may have let it rise a bit too long? He says 3-4 hours and I let it rise 4. The air conditioning is on in our house so it's not super hot.
Also, the dough was pretty hydrated. I misted it with oil, so I'm relatively certain it didn't dry out. I also covered it with a damp cloth.
Another factor, I'm not sure if this makes a difference...is that I put it in my linen-lined baskets. I put plenty of flour to try to keep it from sticking, but it still stuck some, so I had to turn over the baskets super fast on top of the peel and kind of slam them down so the dough would drop out of the baskets in one piece.
The things I think I should try:
--1, proof it less time
--2, don't slam it ;-) Maybe put an abundance of flour in the baskets, or do a batard or something and put it on a sheet tray rather than a basket
--3, try to get the dough a little drier, not so hydrated
Can any of you experts give me any advice so I don't keep having the problem? What do you think's causing it and what of these solutions do you think are best???