Hi everyone,
I baked a loaf recently and noticed some big holes in the crumb, especially one large bubble around the center cut. It doesn’t seem to be channeling. Otherwise, it tastes good with tender inside and thin crust.
Formula:
- 20% levain
- 80% hydration
- 10% whole wheat
Process:
- Bulk: 3.5 hrs
- Proof: 3 hrs
I’m wondering if this looks under-fermented? Or could it be shaping/handling? Any feedback would be really appreciated.
Thanks!
It's probably in the shaping. Otherwise the slice looks good.
TomP
Could be a lot of things - except the holes are big. As usual - change 1 thing at a time till you get what you want. Enjoy!
Probably overhydrated and underfermented. Looks like what Trevor J. Wilson in Open Crumb Mastery calls the fool's crumb.
I would agree with sparkfan usually, but, because the taste and texture and crust are described as good and also look good in the photo, I am more inclined to side with TomP.
I have had this with well fermented doughs because of not squashing out the bubbles enough at the end of bulk fermentation and the shaping creating folds in which air as well gas from the fermentation would get trapped and cause big gaps in the loaf like pictured. Different shaping for the same recipe has led me to great variation in crumb in my latest bakes when I've been experimenting with all that.
We don't know how the shaping was performed, but you can see a flow of dough around the big bubble, as if that side of it had been rolled around the bubble. Also, the surface of the bubble looks shiny as if it were gelatinized. I've seen that appearance myself in well-fermented loaves.
Because of the shiny / gelatinized surface of the bubble I thought at the beginning also that the dough is well fermented. OTOH some parts of the crumb, specially on the right hand side of the image, look pretty dense with very small alveoli. That's why I tend to lean towards (slightly) underfermented.
Difficult to say. A bigger picture would be for sure helpful.
Thank you guys for the comments!
Crumb looks good and the crust is thin and nicely caramelised. Doesn't look under or over fermented. Think it's more to do with shaping and knocking out the larger bubbles.