Oven Spring and Slashing
Hello! Sorry if I make a lot of silly mistakes, I'm new here (although I have been lurking for a while :P)
I've been experimenting a great deal with oven spring recently, and I think I'm starting to get some results, but I'm a bit confused by a loaf that is in the oven right now...
It's a 70% hydration white loaf (with 15g honey per 500g white flour) and I'll do my best to describe the baking process.
I mixed it up last night and left it for first prove for two hours or so, then shaped, put it into a tin, and retarded it in the fridge over night. My oven was heating (at 250 centigrade) for an hour before I put it in, and I slashed it with a freshly sharpened Sabatier. As soon as I put it in I turned the oven down to about 215 (it's a fan oven) and added some water to the oven.
I came back 20 minutes later to take it out the tin (I do this for all my loaf tin breads halfway through baking) and found that although there had been some oven spring, the slash hadn't 'expanded' at all (e.g. instead of fresh crust bursting out, it was just an ugly scar on the top of the loaf).
Does anyone have any idea why this might be?
What kind of leavening agent were you using (SD starter, baker's yeast etc) and how much of it did you put in per 500g flour?
It sounds as though the bread dough had not fully risen during the refrigerator retarding period.
Ford
El Panadero, I'm using 7g of instant yeast per 500g.
Thanks, Ford. I'm still struggling to work out when a loaf's fully proved!
Any chance the yeast is old, not very active?
I switched to fresh yeast years ago. The results are far better imo as is the taste. I can buy fresh yeast at my local supermarket for just 70pence for a whopping 200g of the stuff. Enough to last many many weeks.
I don't think so; I buy it in from Shipton Mill (one of the UK's top suppliers for retail and trade) about every two months and keep it under an airtight seal...
I've experimented with fresh yeast but my entire family complains of the smell when they go into the fridge... it's very irritating!
I find fan ovens really hard to bake in, the drying effect of the the fan can cause the crust to set too quickly, before spring can occur, even with added steam. Can you turn the fan off on your oven?
If I'm baking at home I only ever do the covered baking method, so in a pot or under a cloche, I've never found adding steam to an oven particularly effective. Have you tried covered baking? Although this is tricky with a tin loaf.
Thanks! This is really interesting!
Sadly, I don't think I can, it's a really old oven that's a bit limited (one setting, for some reason, turns on the fan but not the heating element...)
I'll experiment with covered baking though - a tin loaf would be really tricky, but I'll have a crack at it with a cloche and let you know how I get on!
I am not using the fan option on my Oven anymore and find I get much better Oven spring and a nicer overall colour and result.
My first thought in a situation like this is proof time - I generally get better oven spring if my loaf is very slightly under-proofed. But I'm also thinking that you may be steaming too long. I very rarely steam for more than 10 minutes - usually closer to 6 and never more than 15. After that you get to a stage of diminishing returns where the crust can't set properly; and I find that the really exciting oven spring mostly takes place after the steam pan or cloche is removed.
Wow! I hadn't realised the oven spring occurred so late in the bake...
To be honest, I just chuck some water on the floor of the oven and so I assume the fan extracts it pretty quickly. I'm going to have to experiment now, though!
The underproving thing makes perfect sense - I'm just still learning to gauge when a loaf is proved or underproved!
Oven spring does begin during steaming, but there's a sort of magical sweet spot that happens right after steam is removed. The steam keeps the crust soft and pliable while the yeasts are having their last hurrah, but it also affects the surface temperature and chemistry in ways that I don't claim to understand... what I do know is that I've often seen a slack dough, that had done most of its proofing expansion in a lateral sort of direction, make a sudden beautiful leap upward after the steam pan is removed and the final setting of the crust begins - gases making their last break for freedom. Mind you, every oven is different - mine doesn't have a fan, so I can't speak to how that would affect things.
Wow, this is really interesting!
If I'm honest, I'm completely unknowledgeable of the chemical aspects of baking, so I'm with you there!
But what you're saying definitely makes sense! I'm going to need to try using a steam pan now!
Thanks for all your help!
I had been using a similar method, shaping and retarding overnight and baking in the morning direct from the fridge, they didn't rise much in the fridge, even after 14 hours, and I didn't get much oven spring either. Just today I baked three loaves, I mixed and bulk-fermented yesterday for a total of about 4 hours, then retarded in the fridge overnight, about 8 hours, took them out in the morning and shaped them and let them proof for 3.5 hours. They rose very nicely in that time, slightly less than 100% (double in volume) and the oven spring was great.
Give it a try, it might work for you too. Good luck!
Thanks! That's really helpful - one of the variables I've been wondering about is whether the lower temperature of the bread straight from the fridge would affect the spring, but I'll definitely give it a try with this method. Thanks again!