dangers of too-long bulk fermentation with a forkish recipe?
Hello everyone,
I am hoping to get some advice on a bulk fermentation issue.
I am making the overnight country blonde from Forkish's FWSY.
The recipe calls for 12 to 15 hours for bulk fermentation overnight. I mixed the dough around 4 p.m. without really thinking that would mean it would ready to go around 6 a.m. normally that wouldnt be an issue but I foolishly made some social plans for a socially distanced hike from 7-10 and I am afraid of over proofing if I put the loaves in the baskets at 6:30.
Would it be an issue if I didn't start proofing until 10 or 10:30? That would be a. 17.5-hour bulk fermentation. What issues would arise? Also, would it be possible to slow down the process a bit by putting the dough in the fridge for the next few hours?
Thanks, all! Excited to find this community. It seems like a very wholesome place.
In general, the "dangers" of overproofing are that your dough will lose strength. This manifests as either or both a very spread out, flat bread, as it loses the strength to hold itself upright, and very large "tunnels" of air throughout the loaf, as it loses the strength to hold bubbles apart.
Imo, your best bet given this scenario is to pop it in the fridge now and leave it there until you return from your hike, then take it out, shape, and bake right from the fridge, not particularly worrying about the post-shape proofing. This won't yield "ideal" results of course, but should still make a tasty and satisfying bread!
If you have time in the morning prior to your hike, you can shape it and put it back in the fridge to prove for the remaining time, but if you'd have to wake up even earlier for that, I wouldn't sweat it, no point in literally losing sleep over it. :)
Welcome to the boards!
Thanks for the advice, Amara!
I think I'll take your advice and throw it in the fridge right now to slow things down a bit.
I'm kicking myself for making plans without prioritizing the bread -- I really wanted to get the shape right this time! The first sourdough loaves I made were delicious but a little misshapen and dense. I was hoping these would have a bit more spring. Oh well, learning experience!
Don't beat yourself up too bad! Very rarely will bread come out as picture-perfect as you wish, and when they do it's a touch boring because it usually means you didn't do too much "exploring." Depending on how cold your fridge is and how active your starter is, they may not over-ferment at all, and you may still get plenty of spring!
I would give it a few hours additional fermentation time at house temperature after taking it from the fridge. If you only ferment overnight in the fridge and then bake it straight away, I would expect it to be under fermented. Complete fermentation in the refrigerator would take at least a few days. By the way, I think this technique is very useful for getting the dough to fit your schedule instead of you modifying your life for the dough. I do this all the time. A two-stage, cold/warm fermentation strategy can actually be used to plan bake time to an exact hour, regardless of when you mix.
I have tried a few of his recipes and was never able to come close on his times. It was always over proofed at room temperature. If you do a search here you will find that many people have not been able to achieve his fermentation times without over proofing. The overnight country brown ferments even faster. You could adjust by reducing the amount of levain. His room temp must be arctic like. YRMV
I ended up putting the dough in the fridge overnight and taking it out in the morning. When I got back four hours later, it was almost triple the original size - almost perfect.
I shaped and proofed it for another 1.5 hours. Then I baked them in a cast iron crock pot on parchment paper.
Unfortunately, the bottoms seemed to have burned. I think this might be because the rack was too low. Lesson learned....
Also, there was so much flour on the loaves after they baked that I had to take the finished product outside and brush the excess off with a pastry brush.
Other than that, the bread itself is fantastic. The crust is chewy and rich, the crumb is excellent. The flavor isn't quite as strong as my over-proofed loaves from the last batch, but it's still tangy and delicious. The crumb is my best so far - far more interesting than the over-proofed ones. They held their shape and had a lot of oven spring as well.
Lots to improve for next time! I'll upload pics a little later.
As promised, here are pics!
bread2.jpg
bread1.jpg
the bottoms do look a bit toasty, but very beautiful loaves, congratulations!
Very nice looking loaves!