Why did the crust of my first sourdough turn out this way?
Hi all! With your tutelage I was able to make a surprisingly great sourdough! I did the King Arthur No Knead sourdough but forgot to put it in the fridge. I always do no knead breads with commercial yeast and never put them in the fridge so maybe thats why I forgot. Anyway, this morning I was amazed to find the dough almost overflowed out of the bowl! That's never happened to me with my regular no knead.
I cooked it in my dutch oven and to my surprise it rose really well, maybe even better than my normal no knead bread. The only thing that looks different is the crust, but Im wondering if thats normal for sourdough (I dont think so) or if its because I read that you should put a little hot water in the dutch oven to create steam, which I've never done before now. The crust is smoother with no cracks. Did the water I added to the dutch oven cause it? Here are some pictures! You can see that part of it is indented because it stuck to the banneton, which I'm not really great at utilizing. :)
The crust and crumb look look amazing for your first sourdough!
However, you forgot one crucial step: Scoring the dough when you put it into the oven creates a strategic valve to release gases in a controlled way. You have a more even rise, no disfiguring outbursts and get an even better crust.
After loading the bread into your Dutch Oven, take a sharp edge (a razor blade for example) and cut along the loaf in a 30-45° angle about 2 cm deep, a little off center. There are enough scoring guides out there if you need visual reference :)