HELP! Sourdough too close-crumbed, overnight fridge proofing retardation
Hi all, I just made 2 loaves of sourdough and while they look like they had good oven-spring and have height and scoring definition, the dough itself is very close textured with no random holes :((, I created the dough yesterday night, bulk fermented at RT then popped it in bannetons in the fridge for a retardation for the final proof for about 8 hours. I baked them and they looked great but when I cut into them, I found a very close textured pretty disappointing loaf... Please offer advice on what I'm doing wrong!!!
here's the recipe I use, it's from Zingerman's Bakehouse:
580g Water
145g Levain (at about a 53% Hydration)
72g Whole wheat flour
865g AP Flour
23g Salt
After kneading ingredients together I bulk ferment at RT for 4 hours total folding every hour
After all 4 hours of fermentation I separate and pre-shape the dough
I let the pre-shaped rounds bench rest at RT for 45 mins
I shape my loaves, one into a boule and other a batard and pop them into 1/2 ap flour and 1/2 rice floured bannetons
I cover the bannetons with floured tea towels and stick in plastic bags and put them into a 34dF fridge for 7 hours
After 7 hours of the final proof I removed the bannetons from the fridge and let sit at room temperature for an hour, then I baked with steam and for 45 min at 450dF
here was one of the final loaves.
please give recipe details? LIke amount of flour (what kind), water, hydration %age, etc. and how you mixed the dough.... as much detail as possible. Thanks
hester
put the dough in the fridge. Can you describe how much the dough had risen before you retarded it?
As Hester said, more details on the recipe would help!
Hope the loaves tasted good anyway!
Ru
Hi all, thanks for your willingness to help, here's the recipe I use, it's from Zingerman's Bakehouse:
580g Water
145g Levain (at about a 53% Hydration)
72g Whole wheat flour
865g AP Flour
23g Salt
After kneading ingredients together I bulk ferment at RT for 4 hours total folding every hour
After all 4 hours of fermentation I separate and pre-shape the dough
I let the pre-shaped rounds bench rest at RT for 45 mins
I shape my loaves, one into a boule and other a batard and pop them into 1/2 ap flour and 1/2 rice floured bannetons
I cover the bannetons with floured tea towels and stick in plastic bags and put them into a 34dF fridge for 7 hours
After 7 hours of the final proof I removed the bannetons from the fridge and let sit at room temperature for an hour, then I baked with steam
I baked the loaves for 45 minutes at 450dF
The crumb doesn't look too bad, i get you hydration at only just over 60 percent (61.8?) so that is pretty low. The flour shouldn't be an issue as you are only using a little stoneground which can inhibit the crumb from being more open. The spring looks good and your technique is, well a technique which has delivered a good loaf. I would say up the hydration by 15% and work with that. See what happens from there.
hey aaron, that hydration is what I got, I should up the hydration, thanks for your help! I'm making a loaf tomorrow, we'll see how it goes, I might try one at the 61% hydration and one higher to compare, thanks again for your help!
Happy Baking!
78% hydration may be a better place to go to next time. This one came out pretty nice and you don't want stuff falling though the holes onto your shirt. I think if you could master 78%, more difficult than you think, then you would be in Forkish range and not many can do that!
Happy baking