Advice on scoring to get a better ear
Hi everyone. I’ve now made three loaves of sourdough with my starter which is nice and active. Each time I’ve followed the Beginner Sourdough recipe on The Perfect Loaf here https://www.theperfectloaf.com/beginners-sourdough-bread/
One change I made for the 2nd and 3rd loaves was to add an extended autolyze of 7-8 hours at the same time as I started the Levain build. Otherwise I followed the recipe. The 2nd loaf I decided after scoring that I would put it into the Dutch oven and then give it a spritz of water. That loaf was baked at 475ºF with the lid on for 20 mins and the lid off at 450ºF for 30 mins. I should have pulled it out earlier because it is overbaked with too much color.
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I think that it turned out much darker than my first loaf I posted here earlier because of the much longer autolyze allowing more of the starches to be converted to sugars which then caramelized much faster even with the same temperature and bake time. Perhaps the spritz of water had an effect as well.
Then the 3rd loaf which had the same long autolyze and initial 20 mins at 475ºF with the lid on but then I dropped the temperature to 425ºF and baked for only 25 mins lid off. I took its temperature which was just over 209ºF so I pulled it and I’m much happier with the color, it also doesn’t have any burnt scent.
I’ll post crumb photos later after I cut them open, but I’m wondering what advice you can offer as far as achieving a better ear? Am I not getting enough tension when shaping? Do I need to score more deeply or more of an acute angle or do I need to score more shallowly? I think I had a pretty acute angle to the score of about 30 degrees and I had scored about ¼” when I scored my 2nd loaf. When I scored my 3rd loaf my blade was at a 90* angle to the dough.
Any other comments would be appreciated by this new sourdough baker, lots of skills to learn.