Skin forming when proofing using a brotform
Hi all,
Just got back from holiday and was lucky enough to find a small town bakery that was selling brotforms so got myself one as a holiday treat. Tried it out for the first time over the weekend and encountered a couple of issues that I thought people here might be able to advise about:
1. When I removed the dough from the brotform after proofing it had formed a skin around it which, apart from any other negative effects it may have had, made it difficult to score properly. I only covered the top of the brotform with a linen cloth whilst proofing so I am wondering if I put the whole thing inside a food-grade plastic bag next time if it might keep it hydrated better and prevent a skin from forming?
2. On removing the dough from the brotform to the baking tray the dough didn't hold it's shape: it started spreading outwards. It was a pain de campagne dough so it wasn't really that wet. My thoughts were that I was either too rough plopping it out of the brotform onto the tray or that perhaps I hadn't created enough surface tension when I was forming the dough into a boule.
As you can see I have my own ideas as to what caused these problems but I am interested to hear from you all to see if anyone can confirm or deny my thoughts or provide some suggestions of their own.
Thanks in advance,
Shaun