June 30, 2017 - 9:22pm
Need Help to Read My Sourdough Crumbs
Hi, I'm looking for your advice since I'm super new to bread baking & particularly sourdough bread. Recently I tried a recipe from The Fresh Loaf & ended up with pretty dense crumb (I think). As I'm not really familiar with sourdough bread, I really am not sure if this is the supposed crumb I get from below recipe: 150 gr starter (high hydration), 250 gr bread flour, 63gr whole wheat flour, 6.5 gr salt, 270 gr water. Autolyse for 40 mins, bulk ferment 3 hours at room temp, shaping, retard for 14 hours in the fridge. Immediately baked about 20 mins after taken out from the fridge. Kindly need your help and advise on how to improve my bread.
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Hi Eonawi, The bread looks great for one of your first sourdough's. You don't mention the fruit that is in the loaf, how much ?, was it soaked ?. Assuming the hydration of the starter is 100%, your over all hydration is 89%. That is a bit high for a free form loaf, you were lucky to get it to rise as high as it did. How old is your starter ?.
Bill.
Hi Bill, my starter is just turning 3 weeks this Saturday. I didn't add much fruit/nuts. I just happened to have leftover dried fruits & I didn't weigh them. They definitely weigh less than 100 grams & I didn't soak them beforehand. I was trying to shape it into a boule, but I'm afraid I'm doing it wrong. I shaped it into a boule yesterday 4 pm. This morning (6 am) the dough had risen beautifully, but sadly, it sticked to my plastic container (not enough flour I suppose; & I don't have any bannetone). When I tried to remove the dough from the container, it flattened out. I folded it a few times before putting it in the oven. In less than 15 mins, I put the bread in the oven. Could this be the reason why my bread didn't have significant oven spring?
Eonawi, Next time you make this recipe, try 180 grams of water. This will lower your hydration to 66%. Which will make it much easier to handle. There is a recipe on this sight called 123 bread (sourdough). Search for that and give it a try. But keep trying, when you bake a good loaf, all the trouble you have is worth while.
Bill.
Just to add to what Bill has said... watch the dough and not the clock. But learning to read when the dough is ready comes with practice. Bulk ferment is ready when the dough is areated and has elasticity but doesn't necessarily have to double. 14 hours in the fridge after shaping is a tad too long. Keep it within 8-12 hours.
Keep on baking. Enjoy!
P.s. your starter will improve and gain in strength over the coming weeks.