September 14, 2014 - 10:26am
Oven spring?
This is jMonkey's very simple San Francisco Sourdough (which I have made at least a dozen times). I followed the formula provided but I used bread flour and adjusted the water up by 20-25 grams. I baked in a DO with a spritz of water (carefully applied) prior to putting the pre-heated lid on the pre-heated bottom.
Apart from a very poor job of scoring what factor(s) caused that out of control oven spring? (Poor thing looks a bit misshapen!)
I wanted to try the bread flour but next time will likely make a 50% bread flour and 50% something else.
Thx in advance.
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I think your loaf is a thing of beauty
Thank you. I appreciate your comment.
Hard to be sure without full details, but in my experience exaggerated oven spring is often a result of underproofing. If this is unusual for you, i.e. if you're not doing anything different from your usual MO, it may be attributable to seasonal environmental changes, depending on where you are. I recently had a couple of side-loaf blowouts from more extreme underproofing; I hadn't done anything very different, so it made no sense to me until, DUH, I made the connection to the change in weather. In the past week or so the average ambient temperature in my kitchen has dropped by something between 10 and 20 degrees F - pretty dramatic - and humidity is reduced quite a bit too. So the same loaf in the same spot is going to take longer to reach the same level of proof. I'm now re-evaluating all my proofing locations and noting temperatures everywhere. I actually do try to make a point of underproofing certain loaves very slightly, because I love the exuberant oven spring it gives them... but I recognize there can be too much of a good thing. I can see where you'd think that about your loaf, though frankly I think it looks great and I bet it tastes great too; would love to see a crumb shot!
The does look as if it was underproofed. By the was, you say that your scoring is bad, but although you haven't got an ear, this is a great example of how scoring allows you to control the oven spring, as seen by the upward raise you got there.
By the way, I actually like this shape :)
If you typically used AP flour and was trying bread flour this time, higher protein in the bread flour could be to blame. Proofing, loaf forming and scoring are the other possabilities.
Almost certainly underproofed, based on the height, as well as the shape of the bottom.
Looks llike a great oven spring to me.
I guess if you had scored it a bit * better * than the top would be not as out of controle/ish.
I love it though.
Thanks Petra. Your loaves are always beautiful.
Thanks to all for taking the time to comment. Underproofed seems to be the common critique and probably wasn't my first pick. So I'm very glad I took the time to post. Proofing to the optimum point is proving to be the most difficult aspect of bread baking to learn. It is very tasty loaf despite the fact that it is bread flour. The starter is what provides the taste. (Thx to dmSnyder for sharing his starter formula.) The crust is good. No matter how good or bad I think my home made loaf is, I still find that it's better than anything offered in the average grocery store.
Now a farmer's market is a different matter....