Hello all!
I'm fairly new to baking bread and baked my first sourdough loaf last week. Today I'm baking my second loaf. Both times I've done this they have deflated slightly as I've scored them so that I've felt that I've needed to get them in the oven quickly. I'm wondering if I'm doing something wrong? I've done the 'poke' test so I don't think I've been over-proofing them but I'm wondering if it's something else or whether it's to be expected that they will deflate slightly?
Many thanks for your expert support ????!
Chris
Hey Chris! Are you doing a final proof in the fridge? This has helped me considerably--I do the final proof in the fridge, for at least 3-4 hours, which helps develop flavor, makes scoring easier and seems to improve oven spring. I've read about some folks popping their room temp dough in the freezer for 30 minutes with reportedly good results too, although I have not tried this method yet. It could also be related to not enough gluten development (slap and fold and/or stretch and folds, or good old fashioned kneading early on), or not forming enough surface tension on the dough when shaping. There are other factors (starter not strong enough, starter too acidic, etc.), but if you think you have a happy, active and strong starter, try to focus on using the fridge, forming a good gluten structure and making sure you are shaping correctly...that all should help.
Hey Chris, I think you can expect that anyone’s dough will slightly flatten when it is scored. The dough should have good structure built up during bulk fermentation with your slap and folds, lamination, stretch and folds or coil folds, whatever you use to build strength and structure. If you’ve built enough structure in your dough, then the next factor is shaping. Have you built enough tension in the dough so it can hold its shape well during final proof. If there isn’t enough tension then it won’t hold its shape. Oh another factor of course is how well fermented the dough is, if it is over fermented then yes it won’t hold its shape and will ooze when it comes out of the banneton.
A long cold retard after shaping is a great way to build flavour and also it helps the dough hold its shape when taking out of the banneton and scored. Most here will cold retard for 12-18 hours, a real long time. Of course like everything else with bread baking the temperature makes a big difference, if your fridge temperature is 3ºF or a bit less, fermentation will grind to a halt and you shouldn’t expect much if any volume increase in your dough. anything above 3ºF you may continue to get some fermentation albeit much more slowly than room temperature and it would be possible to over ferment your dough if you leave it in the fridge too long.
Benny
Hi Benny, sorry to intercept you , but you said ''if your fridge temperature is 3ºF or a bit less, fermentation will grind to a halt and you shouldn’t expect much if any volume increase in your dough'' I like to put my dough directly into the oven from the fridge but if there isn't much volume increase is it ok to do that still? Or do i have to let it sit at room temp and let it grow a bit. Thanks
cc
I guess Benny means 3°C
It will still be fermenting until it hets under 4°C. But depending on the dough massa and temp this can be still increase a lot. Also if you open and close the fridge a lot the temp wil increase. Adding warm new food will also increase the temp.
Oops sorry for the typo, I meant 3ºC not ºF.
Yes you would bake straight out of the fridge even without any apparent increase in volume. Out of the banneton, score then into the oven cold. The gases in the dough would be cold, 3ºC, then exposed to the super hot oven, can you imagine how that gas will rapidly expand with that sudden change in temperature? This is one of the reasons oven spring is so good when baking straight out of the fridge.
Benny
Thanks Benny. Lol. I didn't even notice the F when i read and cut and pasted your comment. I assumed it was c. It's much easier to score and transfer when the dough is nice and cold and doesn't spread as quickly, resulting in less panic for me.