November 17, 2013 - 6:27pm
Springing out of only one cut
Howdy! This is a Pain Au Levain from Leader's Local Breads. Fed the starter, waited till it mounded, made a sponge, waited till it mounded, made the dough, 3 hour ferment with one stretch and fold in the middle, plus an hour proof. Not as dark as it should be cause I forgot I needed more time for a miche and had to leave the house and couldn't leave the oven on. I can upload a crumb shot tomorrow morning.
So is it weird that it only sprang out of one of my two cuts?
Share
think it may have needed more time. It's beautiful even so.
josh
I'm curious, how can you tell it's underproofed?
Thanks for the answers. I wonder if it was the cuts - I cut on the right side of the dough with the lame facing towards the center, and I cut on the left side with the lame also facing toward the center. I must've switched off hands, awkwardly - I guess it's better to rotate the dough and then cut with the same hand.
This is a common flaw in under proofed bread. The energy picks a hole and goes. It chose that side and the other cut barely opened. When i check a bowl bread for its proof I like to tilt it slightly to its side and poke closer to the top of the loaf or bottom of the bowl. I feel touching the exposed dough is sometimes mis leading.
I've have my fair share of similar blow outs.
Josh
It looks like a pregnant loaf about to give birth to another one. :)
It baked with too much potential still under the crust surface. Heat and steam are powerful and force their way out. You can see the action in the crumb should you cut right through the score. Takes a cool picture of the forces at work.
So that's why I got that spring. The crumb is a bit sticky (even after cooling overnight) and somewhat dense. The holes are not only shaped like slanted teardrops but they also are pretty deep, and there's some ripping. There's not much flavor, but I feel like that should be the recipe's fault. After baking all those 2-4 days retarded pain au levains from Reinhart, I don't understand how a bread with this short a fermentation stage could have any flavor worth noting. And lo and behold, it doesn't.
(down the top center of the loaf) notice how the center portion dough was trapped inside the baked crust and then rushed toward the "bump."
Yup, longer fermentation often means more flavour!
You tipped this out of a brotform. When that's done and the loaf looks tight or not as risen as you would like, take a clean thin dish towel, get it wet and wring it out well. Carefully cover the loaf and let it rise more before scoring & baking.
one slash next time at 85% proof, retarded 12 hours, will give you one great looking loaf that explodes though one slash and tastes better too..
Nice baking
Wow, what a lot of wonderful help! I love it here! Can't wait for next weekend's bread.
-Eli