August 21, 2020 - 10:55pm
Too sticky / moist
My bread comes out too sticky / moist (in some areas more than others). Just to give you an idea, this is what my bread knife looks like slicing into it 7 hours after taking it out of the oven:
This makes it very challenging to slice...
I've been gradually reducing the heat due to my gas oven burning the bottom (even with a baking steel "shield" on the rack below). So right now I preheat at 485 F for about 1 hour, then bake 20 minutes (lid on), then lid off, reduce temp to 440 F, bake 10 minutes and finally last 10 minutes at 430 F. Here's what my loaf looks like:
Recipe is about 78% hydration. Using a mix of Central Milling's High Mountain and Whole Wheat.
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What’s the crumb looks like? Would you say it is gummy? Using any diastatic malt? What else in the formula?
Benito here uses a crumpled foil filled baking tray under the Dutch oven as a heat shield with success. Search for his posts on that.
Good question to ask, about diastatic malt. I didn't see an answer but I'd like to.
I recently started using diastatic malt again (it's been a while) at about 1% to maybe 2% but my breads are starting to be a bit more moist, and even slightly gummy. More than before using the DM. And I know too much diastatic malt can cause this. So I'm thinking of either skipping it or reducing it even further.
So I'm really interested in whether there was diastatic malt in this one.
That are around 740-800 g for 47 minutes. 25 minutes covered, and 22 minutes uncovered. Maybe try to bake your loaves an extra 5-10 minutes. The inside temp should measure 205F or more.
My loaves that are 900 g I bake in the dutch oven 20 mins at 450ºF after preheating to 500ºF. The lid off 20 + mins keeping an eye on the crust at 420ºF. If they don’t sound done at this point by tapping on the bottom and the crust is getting quite dark I’ll drop the temperature to 350-375ºF and let it continue to bake through.
maybe you put your rack a bit too low and that contributes to burning the bottom before full bake. It certainly seems like it needs more baking time.
I have the same problem. I have a suspicion my bread is slightly underproofed.
Hard to really tell in the pic, but I don't see any gluten development, no holes (not even small ones). Gummy can be a few things. What are the ingredients?
That the background behind the knife is his countertop, not bread.
Haha - I was wondering - the main reason I asked about ingredients was it kinda looked like there was a lot of "stuff"in there. Makes sense now!
This loaf is 650g. Here is the inside photo:
Awesome crumb! Was that one less sticky?
No, this one was the sticky one :)
Interestingly enough it seemed that some areas more than others...I blame my crappy gas oven. Maybe I should just bake longer? Another possible factor is I'm using roughly 80% CM's High Mountain which is 13.5% protein. I will try to mix in more lower protein flour next time.
You baked it dark enough. I will get gummy loaves if I slice too soon but by 7 hours, it usually is resolved. The only bonus is that your bread shouldn’t dry out for a few days.
Only thing that comes to mind is it may have been a smidge over (it is very well proofed/fermented, like you're on the edge - but that little over shouldn't cause it to be gummy. High protein flour wouldn't be it, I use almost 17% - hard winter wheat. Matter of fact, if you are pushing the limit, lower protein could cause more trouble. Good luck and Enjoy!
It looks great!
I used to have the same problem and solved it like this:
Lowered the rack with the baking steel to the lowest rack
Raised the rack the dutch oven is on
Preheat to 500º F
Immediately drop the temperature to 450º F when I put the dutch oven into my oven
I don't pull the loaf out of the oven until its reached 205º F in the center
Then I let it stand at least two hours
In fact I now time it so it is finished baking before I go to bed and just let the finished loaf sit on the cooling rack overnight and there is no more stickiness/gooeyness