very new, many questions, starting with scoring
Hi, I'm very new at sourdough. Given the endless possibilities I'm just going to start somewhere. Please let me know what sounds off.
Where I'm at: I made a loaf that ended up with a real nice crispy thin crust and a nice soft crumb (the picture shows it) that isn't quite right but tasted wonderful. (It's the last part that will keep me going). The problem is the dough never quite looked like what I've seen in numerous videos. Not real silky and smooth. When I scored the dough the blade stuck more than cut. It was part cut and part torn. I had a round dough and tried to cut a star in it. The first cut was okay but the second didn't work so well. The result was that where the cuts came together the spring was really good but where they didn't the skin of the dough kept the spring from happening. It was kind of a lopsided looking loaf, but still tasted wonderful! The main question here is what does it take to make it easy to score. I suspect all the problems I'm having are related to the dough not being firm enough.
Details of what I did: It turned out to be a 65% hydration dough (I thought I was going to do 70% but miscalculated). I mixed just the flours and water and let them sit for 2 hours, added the salt and around 25-30% starter. Folded it as best I could. (I suspect 65% hydration is too low for stretch and fold?) Let it ferment for 3 or so hours. folded a few more times Formed it. Put it in the fridge overnight. Pulled it out, let it finish rising, and this might have gone too long because it was easily doubled in size, and then placed it in a preheated dutch oven, tried to score it, and then baked it. One thing about placing the dough in the hot dutch oven was that it was not graceful (that pot is hot!) and it smashed down one side. The dough was much softer than I thought it should be.
One thing to note is my house is at 68F and it's very dry (I live at 5000 ft) and to ferment or proof I have an old reptile heating pad that I put a bowl on and then put towels on top of that to make a sort of heat box. The dough always feels cool and I don't think it will rise unless I put it on this heater.
Anyway, if you can make sense of what I said and have any suggestions, I'm interested. Thanks!