June 28, 2020 - 3:10pm
FWSY overnight country blonde : shaping or proofing problem ?
Hi,
The loaf seems a bit flat compared to previous ones :
1. Does it seem to come from shaping or proofing problem here ?
Bulk rise lasted 7 hours (it's about 79°F-26°C and I used 14% levain instead of 12%), during which dough nearly tripled, or perheaps x2,5. It had 4 folds during the first hour. I let it proof only 45mn (It always seems to pass the finger dent test as soon as bulk rise is finished... So I don't dare proofing too much..)
2. According to crumb, is proofing too short here ?
Thanks for your feedback !
Share
The crumb looks alright to me. but 7 hours at 79F seems like a long proof.
What is the hydration? You may want to look for only 2x rise, leave more expansion in the oven. over proofed dough will not expand well in the oven.
maybe lower hydration too, but I dont know what your hydration is. just assuming it's quite high based on the heavily floured crust.
It is a 78% hydratation dough. If the crumb looks alright, it may be that I didn't give enough strength when shaping ?
You were right not to proof it longer. If you were looking to get more oven spring I would shorten the bulk time and the amount of doubling and save some of that strength for easier shaping and more proofing time.
Thanks a lot; I don't know yet how to balance bulk fermentation vs proofing times so I will definitely try that !
I agree that the bulk (at that temp) was probably significantly too long. You can find lots of posts on this site about the benefits of a shorter bulk ferment--there seems to be a school of thought that aiming to double or triple your dough during bulk ferment could be misguided, and that, rather, the goal should be more like 30-50% volume growth, which aims to save some energy for a better oven spring. You might also try a final cold proof for several hours (2-4), so long as you haven't already pushed the boundaries of fermentation and your fridge is under 40F. That should help stop the post-banneton spread.
Thanks, this helps a lot.
For now, I do a few stretch and folds while mixing and during first hour of bulk, shaping before proofing and that's all. Should shortening the bulk change this somehow or add extra steps (like pre-shaping, add slap and fold, etc...) ?
I think you've got really nice crumb on the loaf, honestly, so I don't think you need to tweak too much. So long as you are building up the gluten during bulk ferment and making a strong dough, combined with good shaping, I think you will be fine with just shortening fermentation and/or proofing. It looks like lovely bread already but adapting some of the suggestions might get you where you want to be as far as oven spring and loaf height. I hope you will keep us posted!