Over proofed my bread again. Why do I do it?

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the hadster on

sigh.  Over proofed my bread again.

I keep getting into trouble with the long retard AFTER shaping.   It did not appear to have risen that much over night, so I let it sit out for 2 hours, then I reheated the oven for 45 minutes, and then I baked the bread.  Next time, I will cut the counter top bit down to 1 hour and will preheat the oven at the same time.  sigh

The good news is that the bread is lovely.  Nice open crumb. Lovely earthy flavor.

I did a 3 or 4 stage build:

Biga: mixed in the evening, let rise until almost double, fold down & into fridge over night.

250 g water

300 g flour

50 g starter

Sponge: started with the biga and water for 1 hour to soften, then added flour. 2 hours at room temp

600 g biga

150 g water

100 g flour

Bread dough: added the rest of the flour and salt, let sit for 1 hour, then French kneaded twice, 5 minutes apart, for 1 minute each.  S&F at 30 & 60  11:05 AM was the start time of autolyse.

850 g sponge

100 g flour

9 g kosher salt

 

S&F at 12:45 & 1:15.  By 1:45 the dough was so active I decided to scale, bench and shape.  I used a steel mesh strainer lined with flour sac towels because I don't have bannetons here.  They were suspended in a bowl over night.  I put a piece of plastic wrap lightly on the top - which became the  of the loaves - and then put in the fridge over night.

 

I'd say you didn't but you are having fun waiting for the larger bubbles. If you want smaller ones, bake sooner or reshape while cold coming out of the retard (deflating) for a finer crumb. I don't see any signs of over proof/proving. Crust colour is optimal and even all around and the shoulders don't slump and the bubbles have good distribution and there are no dense or wet areas just inside the bottom crust. If you want the same crumb and all but a taller loaf, try using a shallow rounded form that would support the sides while the loaf is rising in the oven. What does the top look like? This is what counts if this is what you wanted: "The good news is that the bread is lovely. Nice open crumb. Lovely earthy flavor."

I based my "over proofed" opinion on the oven spring, which was minimal.

I didn't cook this in a dutch oven, it was free form on the stone.

I love the open, uneven crumb, the taste is lovely, the interior is moist and glistens nicely.

I just get a more dramatic oven spring, and I think that if the dough was colder, I would have seen more spring/doming etc.

Thanks for your input.  I will try using some kind of form to support the loaf.

May I suggest you bake straight from the cold retard? I generally retard the bulk, but have done proof retards baking cold with excellent results.

You mentioned that the dough looked like it didn't grow much, and in my experience this is a good indicator. If the dough looks like it had expanded a lot, spring is usually not as good.

Hope that helps.

but I think I will give it a shot.  It would certainly be easier on my scheduling to do so.

Also, when I get back home in a few weeks, I'm going to buy the "Tartine" cookbook, or at least I will read it at the book store and make notes on his method.  I've been using Peter Reinhart's sour dough recipe from "Crust & Crumb" with wonderful results, but I'm always open to new ideas.

Thank you for your suggestion!

If it ends up not working then you know what your limits of proofing are. It's all about tweaking variables until you are happy with the results.

The Tartine book is great. Even if you don't like the no knead approach, you can still get a lot of information out of it and adapt the recipes to work with whichever method you prefer.

might work for me.  I didn't know he had a no knead approach.

I've been letting things such as sponges and such, do the mixing work for me.  Then, I usually do a minute or two of the French fold, followed by as many stretch and folds as it takes to get a nice springy balloon type of dough.  I usually get wonderful gluten development.

So, who knows, Chad might have another convert!  Thanks!

I'd be thrilled to have a consistent crumb like pictured above. I recently over proofed a loaf and the top of the baked bread looked like a sunken volcano.

But it sure tasted good...

If height is what you are looking for, then a container of some sort would help. Lately I've been baking 2 1/2 to 3 pounds of dough in a dutch oven. Since the dough is so large and the hydration is high it is prone to spread. But the side of the cast iron pot causes it to rise up once it has expanded against the sides. And the finished appearance of the bread looks fine to me.

I'm thinking that greater height is your goal. This was 3 1/4 lb. of dough baked in a 10" wide DO. It measure 3 3/4" at it's highest point. I was concerned that the DO would mess up the appearance of the loaf on it's sides. But I'm happy with the look.

By-the-way; I read an article on the forum about baking in a cold DO. I even cold proof (12+hrs) in a DO and the bread turns out great. Scoring is also much easier when the dough is chilled. Using this method has given the bread GREAT oven spring.

I like boules. They are easy to shape and I think they look good. But when I shape high hydration dough and then bake on a stone or steel, it tends to relax and spread out too much for me. I like wider bread slices for sandwiches, so the extra height is important for me.

--Dan