March 16, 2021 - 3:39pm
Oven Spring Improved
I picked up a good tip from this video https://youtu.be/BUtn4HKAiBs. He found that lowering the baking temp would slow the crust development and allow more oven spring.
I had been using baking temps from the recipe sources, like Hamelman;'s Bread, et al. But I had also been using convection in order to keep the temp more even throughout the oven.
I lowered the preheat and baking temps by 25℉ (baking at 450℉ instead of 475) and got a better grigne 80% WW multigrain @ 90% hydration
Multigrain is rye, with a scallion and olive garnish.
I'd ;still like to get a more open crumb, but I am reasonably pleased with the results of the scoting.
Formula in Bread Formulas under the 80% WW multigrain.
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It's funny but i was thinking all these recipes that ask you to put the loaf into a hot hot oven, wouldn't the crust form too quickly and prevent it from expanding to its fullest potential.
Oven spring is a complex thing to rely mainly on the baking temperature. Open crumb means perfect fermentation. Trevor J Willson explains this in 300+ pages in his amazing Open Crumb Mastery book. I baked bread at different temperatures and so far I didn't see a huge difference. Steam does make a difference, but the success of an open crumb bread is still based on proper bulk fermentation.
This bread was a no-knead formula. It bulk fermented in the fridge for 3 days, roughly doubled in size, and the fermented dough had lots of nice little holes. I'm pretty sure that bulk fermentation wasn't a problem, and that the lower baking temp did help.
I did the best I could to build dough strength, with shaping and tension pulls but I'm never sure if it has adequate strength.
I have a 75% hydration formula with 90% apf and 10% ww. I do 4 sets of stretch and folds but the crumb is still not as open as I like. The original formula is supposed to be 100% bread flour so I guess that explains why my crumb is tighter. But the focaccia formula from the same book is 75% hydration , 100% apf , no S and f and the crumb turned out more open than my loaf. But I suppose I can’t compare bc my loaf was 10% ww. I didn’t think 4 sets of S and f in the first 2.5 hrs of bulk fermentation would affect the crumb so much when you are going for a 8-10 hr bulk ferment.
Sorry I can’t delete my comment. I was mistaken. My 10% ww loaf was 73% hydration so I can’t compare it to the focaccia which was 75%
With 90% hydration, time is needed to get the water out of the loaf. High temperature, 475 F and higher, will result in burning before the crumb is finished cooking. Lowering temperature for a high hydration dough makes sense, and likely has the side benefit of better oven spring.
The downside with lower baking temperature and lower hydration formulae (65% hydration) is thick crust that forms with excessive time in the oven. It's a balancing act between time, temperature, hydration and loaf surface area to volume ratio.
A thick crust would be OK with all the stew/soup recipes that say serve with crusty bread.
That's great louiscohen, everyone has their own take. If you bake primarily for crusty thick crust to use in stews and soups, you are on the right track. If you ever decide to seek a thinner crust, you can refer to this thread.
FWIW my “rules” for spring.
Other ways doubtless work and your mileage may vary.
0) Starter activity - two feeds over the 24h before baking - maybe make sure first feed has a little rye, whole meal or other such bug-rich flour. I go 20+20+20 then 60+60+60, use 160. It will be very active, strong and not *too* acidic.
1) Do not over-ferment or over-prove. Total pre-oven rise ~+70% (1.7x mixed ingredients).
2) Hot oven - setting : full whack degrees. Lower temp will help (3) but the ideal is (2) *and* (3)
3) Crust delay. Cook from fridge, in a (hot) pot and spray the loaf with a plant sprayer (water!) before it goes in.
4) Big slashes, otherwise the spring will tear the bread.
Very active starter + right ferment + delayed crust + heat + generous slash = balloon.
Overall rise: Over +200% (I.e. 3x volume of ingredients)
Hope this helps someone.
Hi there I do everything you're listing but worried about the big slash. Do you mean deep? When i do that my loaf spreads too much.
Semi circle cut with curved razor blade held horizontally so as to make an almost tangential undercut, like a flap cut, thus encouraging a “spring ear” of theatrical proportions, so I can send gloaty wind-up pix to my mate at work.
How long do you proof in the fridge typically? Overnight, more or less, like a retarded bulk fermentation?
I would like to try it sometime but the fridge is full of food and leftovers from the at-home cooking during COVID - all the stuff that goes in sandwiches on the home-baked bread.
Yes, overnight, typically precariously balanced across a cheese box and a pot of yoghurt.
The fridge rise is never super-impressive, my 500g (of flour) loaf is about 0.75l as raw ingredients, 1.3l before baking and 2.2l after baking.
Remembering that everyone’s ovens are different, I’ve settled on preheating with dutch oven loaded inside at 500ºF for 50-60 mins. Load dough after scoring and brushing on water, placing lid on dutch oven, immediately drop temperature to 450ºF and bake for 20 mins, then drop temperature to 420ºF with lid on bake another 10 mins. Remove dutch oven, take bread out of the dutch oven and complete the bake with bread on rack for 15-20 mins depending on the hydration of the dough.
I have found that the extended lid on bake provides a slightly thinner crust overall.