oven temps?
Hi again,
I posted a couple days ago when I was having trouble getting my 1st seed culture to come together.. Well, I finally got it to hold its rise and made the barm (starter- I'm using BBA). Today I took it out of the fridge and made a loaf.. It turned out very, very dense and never did get to 205 degrees.. in fact the crust is almost impossible up cut through without a chisel and the very middle is pretty raw..
Am I correct to think that the starter will become stronger as it gets older? When it was rising (both when the barm was trying to double, and when the bread was trying to 'almost double' today) I felt it was more relaxing and spreading than rising in all directions..
More importantly, I'm having trouble with my super, super cheap oven getting up to 500 degrees- only got to about 425, 450- and when I opened the door to put the bread in it went down to about 375 and never got back to 450 as it was supposed to (in the hour I spent baking it). BBA put the bake time at 20-30 min total, but I was not even gone at 1 hr.
Can anyone advise me how long I should expect to bake a 1 1/2 lb boule at 350?
I may try some rolls tomorrow, or another loaf using a longer rise time and less-interrupted bake at 350. I made a second bach of firm starter today..
Thanks in advance for any help..