No matter what I do, I can't seem to get rid of the "gumminess/stickiness" of my crumb. I bake longer: I get stickiness. I bake hotter: I get stickiness. I wait five, six hours before slicing my loaf after cooking: I get stickiness. What the heck am I doing wrong? I use my trusty levain, hydration of 78%...I can put all of the ingredients down, but I'm completely at a loss and it is SOOOOO frustrating. Any help or suggestions would be most appreciated! Thank you!
First - use less water.
Second is the starter - which is tough to tell. My bet is the starter. But At least the two may help. I should note - without detailed info help can be difficult. Enjoy!
I second the suggestion that your starter is the culprit, I don't think it's related to your hydration as 78% isn't that high. What is your feeding/storage of your starter in the days/week leading up to your final mix and bake? What is your flour?
It looks like it's under-proofed.
I agree with Tony, the crumb looks under fermented to me and that can lead to gumminess.
Benny
I was thinking it might be both under fermentation and sluggish starter.
It is easy to start worrying that a bulk ferment is getting too active (enzymatically) and mistake that for fermentation, if the starter is a little slow and the dough is getting slack and to then move to proving and baking too early.
Getting the starter well active and being more accurate with volume growth using some measuring device could be a good idea here.
All that said, the crumb doesn't look bad. I don't mind a little chewiness in a nice rustic type loaf like in the pictures.
Think the problem is minor, a little under proofed based on the crumb I see.
One more thing, try an additional tray on the shelf underneath the one your bread is on to get rid of that dark bottom!
Good luck 🤞
-Jon
I"m looking at the top crust where it tore so lovely and all the moisture in the crumb there. I agree with using less liquids in the recipe. I also think the crust bottom is too dark, maybe temp slightly too high. Lowering oven temp down a bit and baking a tad longer might solve it as you're not too eager to take it out of the oven when it starts to smell like it"s burning. Give more time for that moisture to bake out.