My latest sourdough
I decided yesterday to try making a loaf with a higher hydration as it was mentioned before that the recipe I was following was only 62% hydration and could do with being a bit higher.
So I made up the dough yesterday afternoon, kneaded it for a bit, put it in a bowl and over a few hours just did a few stretch and folds, although the dough seemed to stay quite sticky compared to my previous recipe.
I left the dough in a banneton in the fridge overnight and then left it out on the worktop for about 3hrs this morning before baking it. This is when it all started to fall apart a bit as the dough would not come out of the banneton, despite me having used a fair amount of rye flour in it last night. I've not had any problems before but I am guessing the higher hydration makes the dough stickier and more likely to stick to the banneton.
I did eventually get the dough into the oven but by then I had got so stressed with it all that I forgot to put water in the roasting tin in the oven and only at the last minute did I remember to spray the top of the loaf with water.
Think I also left it too long before I covered the top with foil as it looks a bit overbaked but I'm surprised that I got anything out of today's baking! Now I have sliced the loaf and had a close look I can see that the bottom bit of the loaf is denser and the top has some big holes. I am assuming big holes are better? Is the closer crumb at the bottom down to me having problems getting the dough out of the banneton or something else? Sorry to ask so many question but still learning about sourdough bread.
Here is what my loaf today looks like
Lyn