Hi, I am new to this forum, although I have been reading the excellent posts for several months. I have been baking bread for several months, with relatively great results. I am slowly learning and perfecting my technique and finished loaves. I've mostly baked no knead, fairly high hydration AP flour breads (Master recipe from Bread in 5 and some other similar online recipes). Started a new sourdough starter a few weeks ago, which is active and super thriving, and had pretty good results with Emilie Raffa's High Hydration Sourdough this week. Baking in a pre-heated cast iron DO and first loaf had good oven spring and crumb, but bottom was burned, so I used a cooler oven for 2nd loaf (yes, I have measured the temp of the oven at various settings and know exactly how warm it is, no matter what the setting says) and it looked beautiful, had excellent open crumb, tasted great, but the crust was so thick it was almost tooth breaking, so I think I just left it in oven too long (based on readings on this site!!), so will experiment with that over next hundred loaves or so and check temp of the bread itself near the end. :-) Any other ideas??
Now the real question: Yesterday I tried a recipe from this site (https://www.theperfectloaf.com/high-hydration-sourdough-bread/). Dough at each stage was beautiful. I did a few more stretch and folds than the author, but everything seemed perfect. Shaped and placed loaves in bannetons in fridge late last night, expecting an early morning bake. Loaves seemed well shaped with good and tight skin, and looked and smelled great. Woke up this morning and each loaf was HUGE. I mean, exploding out of the banneton and completely spent. I was really looking forward to the long proof time to improve flavor, but, but, but... It's like the dough that ate Seattle in under 8 hours.
Any ideas on this I should try before I move forward? I am thinking of doing the bulk fermentation in the fridge, instead of the proof next time, but worried the same thing might happen. Plus a giant bowl in the refrigerator is going to be a problem. Obviously my starter is a hearty girl, but I am not kidding, this was crazy. Wish I would've taken a photo before the loaves went to the compost pile.
Great to be here with all you experienced bakers. Looking forward to being part of this community. Not sure which forum to post this in (opted for sourdough), so feedback on that would be helpful for the future. Happy baking, Rebecca
but just reshape the loaves and let them rise again, then bake.
As to your thick crust, try adding 10 g of yogurt per loaf in your recipe. You don’t need to change anything else. I found it made a huge difference in the crust. My friends use to complain about it but since I have been doing that, not a word.
Oh and I also keep my bread in a plastic ziplock bag once it has completely cooled. Many people don’t care to keep it like that because it does make for a soft crust. I just toast it if I want it crunchy.
I just reread your post! Compost pile? No!!!! ?
is probably too warm. Set it so that it is at 37 F. My loaves barely rise at that temp. I don’t worry about it. I bake right out of the fridge and get great oven spring if I haven’t loaded my loaves down with too many additions.
Like Danni said frig too warm. The coldest part of any refrigerator is on the lower shelf. Cold air sinks.
Dan
Just checked the fridge temp and it's high, about 47. Could that be the problem? Still seems that dough rose way more than it might have.
I am lowing the temp. for the sake of my dough and everything else in the fridge, including my raw milk!
But what about my question and refrigerating for the proof vs the bulk rise? Any feedback on that? Which is more effective at improving the flavor and staying in control of the process?
with those temps. I have read that fridge temps should be 40F or lower so you have been lucky, especially with raw milk!
It is hard to answer your question because it ultimately depends on your schedule. I always retard my final proof but the bulk totally depends on whether I am home or not.
The reason behind the final proof being done in the fridge is mostly because I don’t have to play a guessing game of trying to time the oven preheat with the dough ready to bake. I either hear the oven too early or too late if I proof at room temp. This way, I get up in the morning, preheat the oven for 45 minutes to an hour and then bake the loaves right out of the fridge.
I think that it doesn’t matter which fridge session it is to produce the best flavour, it is the time from when the Levain hits the dough to baking time that matters. The longer you can stretch this without degrading the dough, the better the bread will taste. I think! ?
Other benefits of the cold proof is that scoring is much more easy. And you can get really nice blisters on the crust. And (a biggie) you don’t have to judge the timing hfinger polk) for the final proof. The only drawback, that I can think of, is the cold proof takes up more refrigerator space since the doughs are shaped and placed in bannetons. In a retarded bulk ferment all of the dough is in n a single container,
Dan
Fridge is definitely dying so I am replacing it as soon as I decide what I want. It was actually 50F when I checked it again right after your first responses. I can't believe I hadn't noticed it being so warm, but I had just checked it a few months ago, and it was well within normal range. Now I have it cranked as high as it will go and it's barely holding at 39F!!! Happily, at that temp, I might be able to get another loaf or two in before it retires.
One question about the cold proof: do you let the loaf come fully to room temp (what temp to aim for?) or throw it in the DO even if it is still a bit cold? I've seen people swear to both in blogs and forums.
Thanks again to all!!
a year or so ago. My loaves overproofed and I couldn’t figure out why, then discovered that my fridge was way too warm. I wasn’t able to drop the temperature at all and had to do some baking without the cold proof.
I don’t let my loaves warm up at all. They go straight from the fridge into the hot pots. If you score, you will see it is much easier to do on cold dough. I proof seam side down, and flip them to bake. The dough tears naturally along weak points and they end up with a very organic look.