sourdough - second rise ??
Greetings -
After a couple of years' hiatus, it appears that I'm (getting) back on the sourdough treadmill.
(The sourdough starter in question is my home-grown, Brookline-based starter.)
Today's loaf is shown below (behind the remnants of last week's undercooked (but wonderful toasted) loaf):
After filling the pan about half full, I got (I think) a reasonable (single) rise,
which took 3-4 hours (which took it to the top of the pan), and another inch
or so with the oven spring (a 500 degree F oven, reduced immediately to 400,
for 35-40 minutes):
Here's the crumb:
It tastes delicious.
My question - should I be trying a second rise? My experience has been that the dough
starts to get awfully 'fragile' after 3 hours, starting to disintegrate. I'm wondering --
if I flipped it halfway through, might I get more uniform crumb? (One can see from the
image above that the top half of the loaf is 'airier' than the bottom half).
Or is that more trouble than it's worth?
And any thoughts on how might I avoid that dip in the middle at the sides of the loaf?
Insight welcome.
Thanks,
- Richard