First real success on a stone.
I had my first real success today. I thank this site, obviously, for teaching me baker's percentage and how to use it.
I made a 70% hydration flour/yeast/salt/water bread today. Everything was weighed and I came up with the following:
300g flour (100%)
210g water (70%)
6g active dry yeast (2%)
6g salt (2%)
This gave me a loaf that is 473 grams, or just over a pound, once baked. Perfect for a meal or two of pasta.
One thing I need to work on, though, is my scoring. I did score this one, but apparently it wasn't quite enough. The bottom blew out. I think it also could've benefitted from a bit more proofing...maybe 15-20 minutes or so.
I'm going to weighing ingredients for breads now exclusively. The results are much easier to reproduce.
I'm trying to work out exactly how my starter will be added into this whole thing once I start feeding it by weight, which I'm going to start today. 20 grams of starter, 40 grams of water, 40 grams of flour, of which 5 grams will be rye.
Hi, Stephanie.
It sure sounds like you are getting there.
The cause of the bottom of your loaf blowing out probably has 3 parts: Scoring may be one, but the other two may be more important. First, wherever the blowout occurred, that was the weakest spot in the crust. If it was on the bottom of the loaf, I assume it found your seam. So, you need to work on sealing your seams when you form the loaves. Second, under-proofing results in greater oven spring and a greater likelihood you will have a blowout.
The reason I think a weak seam is the most important cause is that, if it were just your scoring, where you scored should still be the weakest point in the crust. In this case, what you get is a blowout along one or more of your cuts.
I hope this helps.
David.
P.S. Good for you, starting to weight your ingredients!
I'd thought about the seam. Today's loaf, which will be along the same lines but with a bit less salt (for garlic bread), I'll try to get the seam sealed a bit more.