January 14, 2011 - 8:18pm
Good oven spring but then some "oven shrinkage"
Like others I have been trying to perfect my baguettes, I use the KA recipe although my last attempt got good oven spring (I was even worried they'd touch each other on the 3 baguette pan) but after complete baking (before cooling) they had shrunk down quite a bit. Consequently the crumb was tighter than I'd prefer. I thought maybe I'd overproofed them but wouldn't that result in a poor oven spring? Also in the spirit of full disclosure, I didn't do a very good job in scoring the loafs, but I don't want to open that whole scoring discussion right now (unless you feel that was an issue). Does anybody have an idea what would cause that spring than shrinkage?