Crumb | The Fresh Loaf

I've been making pain au levain and baguettes for several years.

Great Crust, great flavor, nobody doesn't like it,,,,except me. The crumb is too tight.

I'm not getting the open, loose, irregular crumb that I want.

I use hydrations from 75% to 80%, with greater success in the higher hydrations.

This week, I've made two batches of baguettes by following the Craftsy videos by Jeffrey Hamelman at

King Arthur.. He gets good crumb, I don't.

Got any suggestions?

Thanks,

Frustrated in Crumb

rfisher17's Blog
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Sounds like your hydration is not the issue, as you said. I have two thoughts: 1. You may be handling the dough too roughly after the bulk fermentation, which would drive trapped CO2 gas out of the dough. You want to handle the dough gently, especially during shaping, so you retain the gas, which then expands during oven spring and creates an open crumb. 2. Are you baking with sufficient steam during the first portion of the bake? Without sufficient steam the surface of the loaf heats rapidly and starts to form a crust. This reduces oven spring and the bread never reaches its full volume, which results in a dense crumb. I hope this helps. Good luck. Sjadad

It might make some difference if you're substituting ingredients that aren't quite equivalent, and/or if you're doing anything different from his method.

My flour was AP as suggested. But, very good ideas, and actually it makes sense. I did my pre shape using his suggested boule shape. Then after a 25' rest, did a letter fold 4-step technique and both hands final baguette roll out. But, on getting to my final baguette shape, I was fighting strong elasticity and likely degassed the final dough severely. I'm going to make it again but pre shape will be a log with 30' rest hoping to avoid the problem with elasticity.

PS: lots of steam. I place ~ 250ml hot water in a hot, stone filled cast iron frying pan at start of bake.

thank you for your helpful thoughts, I'll report results in a couple of days,

Bob

Today,

Dang, very nice dough, soft, handled soooo kindly, and yet, only a fair crumb. no elasticity issue thanks to a log pre shape and 30' rest, easy final shaping. I'm running out of ideas.

Bob

All APs are not created equal, so it may matter which brand you use.

Brand from Minnesota, can't recall, but high quality from what I was told. I buy 50# bags. My new bag is Honeyville farms. I'll crack it open and see if there's a difference.

thx

Bob