white sourdough loses rise
I have been making sourdoughs for about six months. My whole wheat seems ok on it's own, but I am having trouble finding a white recipe that keeps it's rise without baking it "in" something, like a loaf pan (an embarrassing look for sourdough). Lately, I have been using the sourdough lady's recipe for 100% hydration basic sourdough. I don't have bannetons, so I let it rise in a colander with a t-towel coated in flour. It rose beautifully, but when I gently transferred it to the baking surface, it immediately deflated to about half. The oven rise helped, but still not a cute, round perfectly domed boule'. Tastes great, by the way! More flour?
As to oven rise, when I baked it in an old ceramic bowl, it looked like a giant pie. I did it in a dutch oven and it never rose much in the oven. I am not big on a lot of steaming due to my glass door, but I spray it very wet before putting it in the oven. How about those aluminum foil covered bricks? I do not have a roaster big enough to cover the breads as she does, and tried foil, but that failed to bring a proper rise. I do not want to have to murder my starters, but after nursing these breads along, I expected to pick up on this better by now. Andrea