Help Needed!
Good morning everyone. I've been following this site for a while now and have been baking out of Ken Forkish's FWSY cookbook.
I baked his Pain de Campagne this morning (hybrid levain & instant yeast). It is a proof in the fridge overnight recipe. Both loaves "looked" great coming out of the fridge. I think they passed the finger-dent test but I am a little unsure about the test.
I am having trouble moving the loaves between the basket and the dutch oven. They always seems to fall/deflate. I'm guessing this is over proofed but unsure. I am following the timeline in the recipie to a "tee".
The picture attached shows how the loaves slumped in the dutch oven and pressed up against the sides. I also don't get the large natural seams that I have seen other posters get.
I'm unsure of what I'm doing wrong. Thoughts welcome.
The bread tastes fantastic so no issues there.
Thanks for your help. (Thanks Abe for helping me post this in the right area).
Abe as per your request here is a crumb shot. My question to you is how can you tell from the crumb shot if the loaf is over proofed?
Thanks!
You've got a good even crumb and clearly good oven spring. An over proofed dough will be sunken or the crumb will be uneven with big gaping holes at the top where the rest of the dough didn't rise enough to meet the crust.
I think a certain amount of deflation with high hydration dough is to be expected when taken out of the banneton where it is supported. So not so much deflation but more like spreading. The oven spring then kicks in and it'll rise to its full potential. I like this bread. Looks delicious!
Other issues to be careful of is the dough not coming out of the banneton properly so you might tear it as supposed to over proofed. This is where flouring the banneton well comes into play and also being careful to not shake the banneton too hard so the dough rips if some part has become stuck. Allow gravity to do all the work and tap it. But I don't see anything like that happening here.
Excellent bake.
Bon Appetite.
From what I can see, from the sides of the breads, your dough spread a lot to fill the Dutch Oven. Looks like it might need slightly less hydration. I'm assuming you live in the UK and using European flour. Our flours need less hydration then North American flours and when following some high hydration recipes it can't handle it. I think 70% hydration is almost the upper limit for our bread flour and slightly more for wholegrain. You might wish to keep this in mind when following recipes. I generally find 5% lower hydration and our flours handle it much better.
That's some yummy looking bread! A couple of thoughts. What size is your dutch oven? It looks like your loaf might be a little too big for the DO. Might try a smaller loaf and see if that works better. Also, what I like to do is tip the proofed dough onto a piece of parchment and use the parchment as a sling to place in the DO. That way it decreases the amount of deflation from plopping the dough into the pot. I find crumpling the parchment first helps prevent big folds that can put dents in your bread.
Thanks. Food for thought.
I'm in Canada. The dutch oven is a 4 qrt Lodge Cast Iron (recommended in the FWSY book).
I will work on being gentler when moving the dough from banneton to counter to dutch oven as I think that is what my issue may be. When I tip the banneton upside down I give the edge of the banneton a bang on the counter to get the dough to "pop" out. I use rice flour in my banneton so maybe I will use a bit more of it to promote the release of the dough.
I wash the banneton out after every use. Should I be leaving it "seasoned" with flour?
Thanks again.
Giving the banneton a tap on the bottom is fine. I used to get tearing if I shook it. Some gentle tap to encourage it is fine. No need to wash it out every time. Allow the banneton to dry and then shake off excess flour and/or use a brush. Then store in sealed bag so as not to get bugs. Fine to wash every now and again but every time there's no need as it will begin to rot.
I wouldnt change the hydration, Id just put them in a touch earlier. All our loaves slump slightly when we tip them out of the bannetons its very normal for slacker /wetter doughs to do that, dont stress. If you do them slightly earlier, like say 85 - 90% - proof, they'll recover better :) By the way, they look totally fine to me. Using wetter doughs you not going to get quite the same height unless you use a tin... texture and flavour is more important that height I reckon :)
I am a total beginner of artisan bread so keep that in mind. I am also using Ken Forkish's book but instead of using a 4 quart dutch oven, I am using a 5 quart. I find that my loaves are filling it nicely and this morning, the oven spring caused the loaf to almost hit the lid (overnight white). So as suggested, you might want to try making a smaller loaf or getting a bigger dutch oven. And my loaves, just like you, do flatten out when I roll them out of their basket onto the counter. Rolling seems to be more gentle to me than Ken's method of flipping the banneton over and twacking it on the counter. I am not fortunate enough to own bannetons so I use a floured sack cloth tea towel. I don't wash the tea towels but give them a good shake and let them dry overnight before storing in a zip lock bag. So I would second the suggestion of just giving them a good shake and storing them in a bag without washing them.
Here are my loaves from this morning.
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