score never opens up wide
I've been baking sourdough quite frequently for 3, 4 months now, 1-3 times a week. After reading lots of posts here, started feeding my starter more frequently, usually once or twice a day, depends on how the starter has grown from the last feeding. I live in NZ, still kinda winter here, kitchen temp is usually around 18-20 during the day, down to 12-14 at night.
So far I've never had any luck with a really opened up score. Picture below is one just came out of the oven 10 minutes ago. It's 70% hydration, recipe is from a youtube video as below:
128g Active starter (100% hydration)
247g Water
375g bread Flour
12g Sea salt
It's a no knead. After mixing the dough, I let it sit for around 1 and half hours, then folded it on the bench for a few minutes, just to create some surface tension. Then back to the bowl and fermented for around 6 hours. It probably grew by 50% I would say. Then shaping and into the banneton, no bench rest (that's what the guy in the video did!). Heated up the oven for about 50 minutes at 250c. No dutch oven, pour two cups of water into a baking pan that heated up along with baking stone.
I've tried other recipes with different hydration, I've tried preheating oven longer (once 3 hours, by accident), I believe my starter is active enough, I've tried full knead the dough, stretch and fold, slap and fold, nothing seems to work, my score just never opened up widely like those beautiful insta pictures. What am I doing wrong here??? Help please....
post by DanAyo at: http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/61181/tip-have-faith-oven-spring
BTW, nice Refrigerator Art.
It is either over fermented or your starter is weak. There is not enough gas being produced in the dough once it hits the hot oven.
Best guess - over fermented.
Danny
High percent of starter. Long fermentation. The dough's already done most of it's expansion before the bake. go for lower percent of starter/levain and try 25% rise in bulk fermentation.
James
I would say cut back on the water just a wee bit for a stiffer dough. With 70% hydration, extra folds are needed to build surface tension. With slightly less water in the recipe, you can get away with one folding. Look up some of the many postings on 1,2,3 sourdough. :)
i used to get the same problem, the crust is setting before it has a chance to expand properly due to lack of steam or being too hot in the oven. I tried different methods such as adding wet rolled towels to add steam but the only successful way I found as I didnt have a dutch oven was by using a roasting tin as a cloche along with my baking steel
what is the oven temp?