March 18, 2012 - 3:58pm
Scoring turns to 'tearing'.
Hi there,
I'm very new to sourdough; in fact, I've only just baked my first loaf. Thanks to lots of bits and bobs I've picked up here, the starter has been fine, and the general bread making went fine - it's probably the lightest loaf I've ever made. My question is regarding scoring, and what would cause the tearing I saw. One score was fine, but the other seemed to be a bit of a pressure outlet:
Any tips on avoiding it would be much appreciatedw although it's hardly the end of the world!
Russell.
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It's beautiful!
There's nothing wrong with your scoring. The burst area is exactly what you said: A "pressure outlet." I do not see this as a fault. However, if you really want to prevent this, you could proof your loaf just a bit more. That will reduce the pressure by reducing the amount of oven spring. Note that we are talking about very fine tuning here.
However, in my opinion, you should be quite proud of that loaf. Both crust and crumb are lovely. Either you had beginner's luck or you have real talent for sourdough baking.
David
Hi there.
Thanks for your reply. Some beginners luck indeed, although a lot of the questions people have asked on this forum allowed me to keep some schoolboy errors at bay. I mixed the loaf with a good chunk of starter, and did some kneading after 50 minutes with salt; then I did some folding once an hour for 4 hours, before letting it proof at room temperature for an hour - then it went into the fridge for about 12 hours. I floured the surface and turned it onto a pre-heated tray when baking.
There were some very big air pockets during the later folding stages, some of which I pinched out. I'm not sure that's exactly the right thing to do, but shaping the bread meant that they kept coming to the surface and bulging all over the place! The retarding in the fridge was a little surprising; I didn't expect it to rise at all, but it did to some degree. It probably takes a little while for the whole dough to lower in temperature?
Anyhow, I'm sure I'll be back soon, weeping over a flat wreck and asking what went wrong. I'm looking forward to trying some of the recipes dotted around here.
Russell.
I agree with what David said. personally, I always like a little "tear" to go with my slashing - it makes the bread look more rustic to me.
When you look at the picture of the bread, you can see how the loaf lifted up a little around the edges (at the bottom). That's a sign that it could have proofed a little longer.
Or, you can try to score just a little deeper next time...
Great-looking loaf. Was it as tasty as it looks?
Stephan
...if that's your first SD loaf, you're years ahead of most!
Much appreciated; I did wonder about the sides coming up, it didn't make much sense to me. So the proofing stage would generally be after the folding, but not include the retarding in the fridge? I was going to try keeping it in the fridge for an extra day to see how much the flavour developed. It is very tasty, and now there isn't much left.... and I'm the only one eating it!
tn gabe; most likely a fluke! :)
"Proofing" is the final rise of the formed loaves.
David
I guess that covers post-fold and the start of the retard, while it cools down; it looks like my scoring might also have been a bit too deep. Roll on experimentation and dismal failures!
Hi all,
I have been baking sourdough all summer and feel like I can consistently make a quality loaf at this point. However I am having the same issue with tearing at the score marks. Underproofed makes sense. I have been doing stretch and folds 30 minutes apart until the dough passes the window pane test. Then I put the dough in a plastic container with vertical sides where I can measure the growth. I always shape up my loaves after my dough grows by 50% then throw them in the fridge. Is that too soon? Is there another number I should be shooting for? Maybe 75%? Is it just recipe/flour dependent and therefore has to be determined by trial and error? Thanks for helping this physical scientist try to perfect a biological process
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