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Overproofing & crust texture? Troubleshoot me, friends

crustquest's picture
crustquest

Overproofing & crust texture? Troubleshoot me, friends

Hi there,

I started baking sourdough in April and have done it almost every week since and fallen in love with the process.  Now i know it's going to be part of my life it's time to get serious about my (usually tasty but not so perfect) results and tweak my technique.

This week I made Maurizio Leo's Country Loaf with a young levain and long autolyse.  www.theperfectloaf.com/country-sourdough-less-levain-longer-autolyse

[80% hydration, 900g organic stoneground white bread flour (from UK so soft), 100g organic stoneground wholemeal bread flour (from UK so soft), 15% levain].

The bulk was supposed to go 4.5 hours but after my last S&F (1.5hrs in) there was already lots of activity.  I cut it short by 1 hour.  It was in oven with light on at around 27 degrees.  Alas i fear I overproofed. 

It spread badly in preshape and the dough was 'flabby' coming out of the fridge after ov'night proof and degassed as soon as i scored it. It had a decent rise in the oven but spread to the sides quite a bit rather than the top (images show dough at end of bulk and crumb).

The crust was crusty when i pulled it out of the oven, but quickly went soft and by the time we ate it (3.5 hrs later) was pretty much totally soft.

I have 2 questions.

1.  am i right in thinking this was overproofed?  would it have been more open crumbed and had more height if i'd cut bulk by even more time?  

2. how can i get my crust, crustier?  is it connected to the overproof?  

all advice and insight hugely welcomed.  thank you all.  A.

idaveindy's picture
idaveindy

"white" bread flour, based on the color of dough and crumb.

That is a common problem when using a foreign formula with local ingredients... the ingredients just don't match up even though the names of the ingredients might lead you to believe they do. 

"white" flour in the US would be .50 to .55% ash, or 72 to 75% extration rate.

Based on the tan color, you obviously used a very "bran-y" flour for your "white bread" flour.

And high bran (high ash, high extraction) flour ferments much quicker than true white flour, due to the enzymes in the bran.

Your crumb also shows slight overfermentation with the open hole crumb on top of a denser lower portion.

--

The next clue about it being  the wrong flour for Maurizio's (US) "white flour" is that it is stone ground. When sifting or bolting stone ground flour, the miller just plain cannot get the bran/ash down to the levels of what is called "white flour" in North America.  It takes multi-million dollar roller mills to achieve that low level of bran in refined flour.  

Your (bolted) stone ground flour was likely no less than 85% extraction, which is more or less equivalent to a mix of 50/50 white  flour and whole grain.

The net being, your use of 900 g bolted stone-ground plus 100g whole meal likely worked out to be the equivalent of what in the US would be 60% whole grain and 40% white refined flour.

Not that there is anything bad with that.... but Maurizio's amount of levain, and  ferment/proof times are based on 90% white flour/10% whole grain, not 40/60.  

More bran means less levain and/or shorter ferment/proof times are needed.

And that's likely how and why your loaf overproofed.

So.... there are two possible paths:  either use ingredients that match Maurizio's or find a recipe that better matches your ingredients.

Anyway... the loaf still looks good and tasty.  

Happy baking!

--

(and you might want to contact the miller and inform them that their flour description is misleading.)

crustquest's picture
crustquest

Unbelievably helpful, thank you.  The miller says because it's made in a traditional way the bran content is higher than regular strong white - i can't believe i didn't think about this when doing the recipe and no wonder it went great guns in bulk. 

I thought my loaves were regressing but actually the overproofing issue just started happening when i started using this flour.  I need to find some different formulas as i have about 4kgs left.  It's one of the hardest things adapting things for UK water / flour.  I've had great results with Foricher French flour so might try that again next time.

Thanks again.  A.

idaveindy's picture
idaveindy

If my guess about your bolted stone ground flour being equivalent to a 50/50 mix of white/wholegrain is close, then Maurizio's 50/50 formula might be a good match for that flour -- you could use 100% of that flour, adding no other flour.

https://www.theperfectloaf.com/fifty-fifty-whole-wheat-sourdough-bread/

If my guess is off, then future adjustments could be made by adding a little refined-white (ie, roller-milled .50 to .55% ash)  flour or adding a little wholegrain flour, depending on which way you need to take it.

 

crustquest's picture
crustquest

I tried the 5050 formula from The Sourdough School (80% hydration) plus a 2 hour Autolyse and a 2 hour bulk.  Tasted good (possibly a bit mild and not quite sour enough for my liking) and oven spring much better but I feel the crumb is quite 'fluffy'?  maybe this is just the unique quality of the flour... any ideas welcome.  also crusty when it came out but lost its crunch very quickly (2 hours later).  is this a flour quirk or a problem with my technique?