September 20, 2009 - 5:20pm
Heavy loafs
Anyone have expertise in production baking? I am a chef with little natural leavening baking experience. I can make a mean loaf with commercial yeast, but alas, cannot seem to get the the "old fashioned" thing down. I am determined to do what ever it takes to make the absolute most natural and best loaf in las vegas and in my restaurant. My main complaint is that the loafs are too heavy. If I try proofing them for longer they are lighter but become "over-proofed". i.e. extra heavy crust that is extremely hard and crunchy. Please let me know if any of you can lend me a hand in troubleshooting my production.
Thank you,
Giovanni.
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Hello, Giovanni!
Welcome to the TFL.
I spent most my life in Las Vegas!
You want to talk with the dghdctr, Daniel T. DiMuzio.
Sylvia in San Diego
A little more info would be helpful. Sourdough acts a little different than commercial yeast doughs. Flour, temps, timing, etc.
6:00 PM make dough: starter, flour, salt, water. Develop gluten making sure not to overdo it since I let it ferment for a long time. Let rest at 45 degrees
6:00 AM portion dough and let rest at 45 degrees
6:00 PM form loaf let rest at 52 degrees
6:00 AM proof to take "chill off" and bake.
Worked beautifully for a week or so, now it's not working anymore! ARGH! Can't figure out what we are doing wrong.
Hi, ggmauro.
If I understand your procedures, your fermentation is entirely in a retarder or refrigerator. 45F is too cold for the yeast, especially, but also the lactobacilli to really multiply and metabolise.
You have a number of choices as to when in your process you have your dough at a warmer temperature, but if you don't give the yeast a chance to ferment the sugars, they won't produce carbon dioxide (which causes the dough to rise and aerates the crumb), and you will be baking bricks.
The mystery is why it worked "for a week or so," not why your bread is "heavy" now.
David