SOS - Gluten structure failing in my breads
Good morning everyone, hope you are all doing well!
I have no idea what has been happening to my breads. To start, I've been baking bread for a couple of years without experiencing this, I even bought my first dutch a few months ago to up my bread game -- with great success.
My last two loaves -- during the final shaping phase, the "skin" would stretch and break apart (please refer to picture). I'm not sure what is going on, I haven't changed my recipe, and my sourdough starter is healthy.
What are your thoughts?
I admit its been incredibly hot and humid lately...so it could have overproofed to the point of destroying the gluten structure. But I'm not sure, even earlier when I would fold my dough in its early stages...something did not seem right.
Dutchy, these looks like an extreme case of dough degradation. I suspect gross over-fermentation, causing over acidification.
Please post your formula, room temperature, and process timings. We need this information to know for sure.
Danny
Hello Danny, thanks for reaching out.
I start with my leaven >> 75g flour, 75g water, a spoonful of starter, left out over night
In the morning I mix 210ml of water and 350g flour with the leaven and left that sit for an hour or so, before adding 25ml water mixed with some salt. (Sometimes I do this all in one step without noticing too much difference)
Once it is all mixed, I fold it once every half hour for 2.5 hours. I let it sit for another hour or so before final shaping. Then I back up the dough in my fridge overnight to bake next morning at 500 for 20 minutes, 450 for 10 minutes, then roughly 20 minutes without the lid.
I would say year round my home is between 18C - 23C including winter and summer months.
However this summer has been the hottest I've experienced in my life, and the past two weeks have been consistently above 30C, and since I don't have AC, the inside of my home is around 30C
I suppose I need to start taking in the extreme heat into account when making bread and cut down my time
Dutchy, you definitely need to cut back the BF timing when the temps are that high.
Optionally you could try using 1/3 amount of levain and adding the extra water and flour back into the final dough mix.
Yeah, it really looks like it, I'll watch it like a hawk next time and react accordingly.
Thank you for you help!
In addition to cutting the bulk ferment times dues to the higher ambient temperature, you might consider removing the levain from the autolyse step. The hour that you let it sit before adding the salt is technically part of the bulk ferment, if you have included the levain. So next time, mix only the flour and water, let it sit for an hour, then add the levain and salt (either together or mixed in separately).
Hope this helps!
There is some bad flour out there right now. I've had a few bad batches if typically good brand name flour. Due to the flour shortages, some flours are being rushed to market and they are not properly cured and can't handle typical hydration rates. I've had a few failed loaves in the past few months due to this issue.