April 28, 2020 - 11:09am
Need help from some experienced bakers!
Hello! I am new to bread baking and started with the Tartine bread procedure. My loaves have all been turning out similarly to the attached picture, and I am wondering if anyone has any suggestions to achieve a more open crumb and more oven spring. My loaves have been flatter and more dense than I would like. Any suggestions would be much appreciated!
A little about what I've been doing:
- I feed my starter twice a day when at its peak
- Leaven: I use a 100% hydration leaven after it passes the float test
- Hydration: 75%
- Flour: 90% Central Milling Artisan Craft Plus, 10% Bob's Red Mill Whole Wheat
- Autolyse: 40min with leaven, warm water, and flour
- Bulk fermentation: I try very hard to hold the dough temperature at around 78-80F, although it sometimes gets cold in my kitchen so I have to put the dough on a heating pad or out in the sun. Bulk fermentation has been taking longer than the recommended 3-4 hours. The loaf in the picture was bulk fermented for 5 hours with 4 sets of turns spaced out by 30 minutes at the beginning of the rise. I stopped bulk fermentation when the dough looked slightly bubbly (not dramatically so) and just barely passed the float test in cool water
- Bench rest for 30min
- Final rise for 12 hours in fridge
- Baking: I take it out 20min before I place it in my preheated dutch oven (Staub 5.5qt)
Some concerns I have: Am I underproofing during bulk? Am I not folding the dough enough? Are there any recommendations for how I could tell if either of these things are happening?
Thanks for the help in advance!
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You do not mention the initial mixing in your list, and that is an often overlooked (and important) step. If you are not creating enough gluten structure, then your dough will not be able to expand and trap all of the gas that you are wanting for large holes. Watch a couple of videos of Trevor J. Wilson and you will see dough that has been worked and that is ready for bulk fermentation. When I saw those videos and started spending more time and effort during the initial mixing step, my bread improved with better crumb and more oven spring.
Happy baking -- and stay safe and stay healthy.
Ted
This will sound odd and maybe it is. But when I look at your crumb I think that you could do well by thinking about your crumb as a series of layers of dough you want to build. Think of it as folding a sheet over on itself over and over again, creating layers with every fold. If you've seen videos of how they make croissants buy building butter layers, it's kind of like that. Google coil folds and try them next time instead of stretch and folds. That will help to develop a better structure. There are many elements to improving crumb and oven rise. That's just one. Also to remember to use your starter when it's at peak - not just feed it at peak. Lastly look up Trever Wilson and Open Crumb Mastery - he writes a lot about how to improve crumb. Good luck!
Hi!
I was just about to post the same thing and you beat me to it. Your bread and process looks amazingly similar to mine - except I bake from cold because I find it easier to score. I also find that I have to extend my bulk to get it to jiggle and be slightly domed (5 hours at 26C/79F) with bubbles around the edge.
My dough doesn’t seem to have the strength that I see in videos of other bakers shaping boules. This makes me think I might actually be shaping too late. Next loaf I’ll try shaping it a lot earlier and see if it improves.
let me know if you get to the bottom of it!
This is 10 wholewheat, ~78% hydration:
Hello,
Your loaf looks overproofed. Does it taste more sour as well?
Flat and dense loaves tend to be overproofed.