August 28, 2020 - 8:36pm
Gummy crumb and not the best oven spring
Hi everyone! Sorry for the long post, but I've been trying to make sourdough bread since march, and I'm still not getting it right I think. After 20+ breads, my main problem is, the crumb always stay dense/gummy/too moist, and a little gelatinous, even at lower hydratation like 60%. Dough is turning a bit flat after scoring, and oven spring could be better. Anyone know what it can be? I suspect of fermentation issues, but I'm not sure so here's the method I'm using:
- -350g white flour (Le 5 Stagioni Superiore, Italian strong flour)
- -252g water (72%)
- -8g salt (2,3%)
- -70g starter (20%) (half whole wheat half white flour, 80% hydratation, fully activated, tripling in size after 5-6h)
- True autolyse for 2h
- Mixed the starter right at the peak
- 30 min rest
- Mixed salt with 20g of remain water
- 30 min rest
- Stretch and fold
- 30 min rest
- Stretch and fold
- 30 min rest
- Coil Fold
- 30 min rest
- Coil Fold (gluten seemed very strong)
- Left the dough to rest for 3h30min (it was 18ºC I think) until it grews 25% in volume (I've put it inside a container with marks to monitor, picture attached). Dough felt very light and airy.
- Pre-shaped
- 30 min rest
- Shaped and retarded 13h in the fridge.
Where am I wrong?
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I think the last pic says it best - over fermented/proofed
Overproofed. Shaping looks loose.
would be my call judging from the big holes combined with the dense gummy crumb around them. Your starter could be the cause or too short a bulk or 2nd proof.
I find that in a overproofed dough it might spread /collapse and lack volume or the scores don‘t quite open as the dough ran out of umpfh but you still can have a beautiful well fermented lacy crumb.
Here is a good example from a post I came across today..https://www.instagram.com/p/CEgb7uoHBi8/?igshid=n7kb1ddtpik
Did you have good signs of fermentation in the dough all the way through?
Thanks for de answers!
I'm starting to believe that it was overproofed. Because de dough felt very soft and airy when I shaped.
But ALL my breads stays with a gummy crumb, even the ones that I underproofed, anyone know what it can be?
Back to fermenting questions:
I've tried to monitor the growth by putting the dough into in a container and marking about 25-50% of growth, that's when I pre-shaped the dough, so I don't get it why it was overproofed.
Already tried this other method (https://www.instagram.com/p/CAiiydjpcJ1/):
I took 20g of the mixed dough (no autolyse this time, mixed everything together and waited one hour to take the 20g sample and start folding) and waited until it raised 50%, but it took like forever to start growing and according to my notes I shaped the dough around 10hours after mixing and still wasn't in the 1,5x mark. The dough seemed overfermented. This is weird because my starter triples in size around 5h with 1:2:1,6
Anyone know a better way to monitor the bulk fermenting? I can't seem to get this part right.
Thanks
Always use same container and note results at different heights. Shouldn't take to long to find a good spot. And after reading again, something caught my eye - wet, and apparent lack of gluten when scored.
Starter into needed - age, consistency (a hydration% doesn't help me), feed schedule and amounts/ratios etc.
Your bread is gummy because you are most likely using a bag of flour that is either 100% spring wheat or a blend that has a high percentage of spring wheat(you mentioned that you used strong flour).
Get a bag of winter wheat like Arrowhead Mills Organic AP Flour or Giusto's Artisan Unbleached Malted Bread flour. You will find that it is a world of difference.
Judging by how your bread looks, your technique is fine.