Shaping tips?
Hey y’all! Just made my first sourdough and this is it:
https://imgur.com/gallery/BXKs9ck
I have a few questions. The procedure I used was as follows:
350g AP Flour
175g White whole wheat flour
25g Einkorn flour
385g water
75g starter
10g salt
My starter was definitely past the peak when I used it, but I read how people still get fine oven spring using an unfed starter, so I decided to see for myself what would happen. I autolysed for 45 min, S&F for 4 sets, 30-min intervals, then bulk fermented in the fridge for 12 hours. I took it out and it had grown maybe a 1/3 in size in the fridge, but no bubbles on surface. I let it rest for 25min at room temperature and then did a final shaping and final rise for 3 hours. Then I put it into my pre-heated 500F Dutch oven for 25 min with the lid, 6 min without the lid. I'm honestly pretty fine with how the crumb turned out, maybe looking for a bit more uniformity next time, but how flat the loaf is really bothers me, and I feel like it could be because I failed at shaping. The dough felt too wet for me to handle and when it went onto the parchment paper and dutch oven, it really spread out flat like a pancake. Any tips?
Did you do any stretch and folds to strengthen the dough during the start of bulk fermenting. that might help to keep its shape better. I would also do the final proof in the fridge then go straight from the fridge to the oven, and final proof in a bowl that's smaller diameter than what i would normally use. and finally, i may skip the scoring . Dont be afraid to dust with flour generously so that you can handle the dough more easily. but not too much or you may not be able to build tension when shaping. when doing the final shaping, use the bench scraper to create tension. You can google a video on how to do that. So are you planning to keep making SD bread when your starter hasn't peaked or is unfed? Was that the reason your loaf was flatter than you wanted? When you do use an active starter does it keep its shape better?
I did 4 sets of stretch and folds 30 min space in between each and got good results. Then I did a first rise in the fridge for 12 hours. I didn't have a bench scraper, unfortunately. I'm planning on trying to use my starter at peak, but it peaked a lot quicker than expected so I wasn't ready to start when it did. This is my first SD bread so I'm not sure about if it keeps its shape better when the starter is at a different stage. I will definitely use more flour next time.