Under Cooked bottom and quick 2nd prove
Hi All, I have only been baking bread for a few months and have now made 4 sourdough loafs using Dan Lepard's starter and method.
I have 2 problems that I am not sure how to solve
1) I am cooking my loaves in a UK Fan oven on a metal tray with a pan of hot water in the bottom of the oven, but each time the top of the bread is cook, the bottom looks pale and under cooked. Today I turn the loaf over to finish cooking the bottom. The oven temp was at 200 C (about 400 F). Can you suggest how I can correct this? Do I need a baking stone?
2) The basic sourdough recipe from Dan's book, it suggests that the bread should prove for up to 4.5 hours or until it doubles, my bread only takes 2-2.5 hours before it doubles, the bread does taste lovely, but is this ok, would it be better if it proves slower? If so, how do I get a slower prove?