Just not getting any "oven spring"
Hi,
I've been doing quite a bit of baking from Peter Reinhart's "Whole Grains" book. I made the Whole Wheat Hearth Bread last night and have been experimenting with additions to the bread - last night's addition was sun-dried tomatoes and basil.
The breads do well - the crumb is good and the taste is great. They are fairly easy to handle - I'm getting the "windowpane". My problems are that I'm not very good at slashing - I read about not slashing too deeply but if I don't they just seem to fill in. There is little to no oven spring. So, the bread's good but I'm just not happy with it.
All the breads that I'm baking begin with some type of pre-ferment and like I said, I love the taste and texture of them - just not happy with the look, I guess.
Any suggestions?