February 20, 2010 - 9:44am
Flat Loaves
I just recently started baking bread and I'm having trouble with flat loaves. The bread recently baked was San Francisco Sourdough from Peter Reinharts book Artisan Breads Every Day. The dough rose fine overnight in the refridgerator and when it was proofed. I was careful not to deflate it during forming or handling but the loaves are 2 1/2" high and 10" round after baking. The bread does have a nice crumb large irregular holes and a great taste. Thanks for any help
Ed
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Hi Ed!
Just a suggestion, did you stretch and fold the dough during the bulk rise? This really improves the surface tension of the dough, helping it to hold it's shape and rise up and not just out. I noticed a big improvement in the shape of my loaves at high hydrations using stretching and folding... I've found I can pretty much predict whether they will rise nicely before they bake based on how much the spread after shaping. Another suggestion, I bake on a preheated stone under a preheated metal roasting dish, instead of steaming the oven, and this not only gives a fantastic crust, but I'm sure it improves my oven spring too.
bakinbuff
There's an entire forum dedicated to recipes from this book: http://breadtechnique.com/Forum/index.php Maybe you can find some help there.
I haven't tried the SF sourdough from this book yet, but I did have a similar problem with the pain au levain.
Best of luck!
Paul