Seeking Better Spring & Ear
Hello!
I have been baking sourdough about 6 months. I have struggled more in the summer months with the heat affecting bulk.
But I am still disappointed, no matter what I do lately, with the middling oven spring and ear. I am keeping dough at about 80-81 degrees for a 3-3.5 hour bulk. 75-78% hydration, 10% whole wheat, 90% bread flour (I do other mixes but right now just trying to get a basic bread to spring more), 20% starter (100 g for 500 g of flour). I do a 30 minute autolyse withfolds every 30 minutes, I do some extra folds before adding salt. I think my starter is fine.I always do a float test on the dough when I think bulk is over.
I think the color looks ok? And crumb is ok, I wouldn't mind it more open but it's not bad. The flavor is NOT overly sour so I don't think I'm over-fermenting. My guess it either under-fermenting or it's my shaping?? I do a rounded pre-shape and then I shape a few different ways but try to get it taut as I can. Sometimes the dough is a bit sticky underneath so I can't pull it around the board.
Looking at the attached pictures what more should I be doing to get more spring and ear?? Height of inside of loaf is only 3", I feel like it should be more like 4-4.5". I use a 9" round banetton, Lodge Dutch oven heated for one hour, 450-475 degree oven.
Help is appreciated!
Everything you are doing sounds good. Three areas to look at:
Lance
Developing gluten - you mean via the folds? I haven't been checking for windowpane...can add that in to my process I guess.
Yes banetton is pretty full after proof. I usually leave it out at room temp 30-60 minutes, then put in fridge 12 hours. Occasionally the timing works that I can bake a few hours after proofing at room temp after bulk but doesn't seem to make a difference.
I thought I was shaping well...maybe I need to shape twice?
Last batch (pictured) I followed to a T what Jennifer Latham of Tartine showed in her videos on Instagram. I basically did it along with her so I was working the dough as much as she was. I thought it was going to be a perfect loaf. But just didn't rise as high as I thought it would...I do find that when I shape I can't stretch the dough as easily as others I see in videos. Mine feels "tighter" than theirs looks. Does that mean something? Not all the time but sometimes...
So many factors...makes my head spin sometimes but also makes me keep baking!
Yes make sure you’ve developed good gluten. As a newer baker it is very informative/educational to do a windowpane after each set of stretch and folds. This way you can assess how the gluten is developing.
With shaping, ensure you get a nice tight boule with good surface tension, that helps with oven spring.
Your crumb is quite nice, but if you were to cut back on bulk a bit, you might get more oven spring and still maintain the crumb. Have a look at this thread.
I use a spiral mixer so I'm not an expert on manual mixing, but I know quite a few experienced bakers like to develop the gluten upfront by slap and folds or Rubaud method and follow up with a fold or two.
It is important to monitor your bulk to get the right volume increase prior to shaping. Have a look at some of Benny's (aka Benito) posts - he is a champion of the aliquot jar, where a small quantity of dough is put in a clear cylindrical jar and the volume increase is monitored. Current guidelines suggest to look for a 30% increase in bulk and then another 20% in ambient proof before refrigerating your shaped loaf. Or another way, now coming into vogue, is to do a float test on a golf ball sized lump of dough. If it floats, your bulk is done - simple!
And what about your bread flour - I presume that is good quality stuff?
Lastly, consider reducing your hydration a bit; you don't need high hydration for a good loaf and you will get less spread at, say, 72%. You can alwas go back up later. I presume your hydration figures include the levain?
Lance
for all the help! I actually had a success today - much higher spring and good ear on one side. Not sure why the other side didn't develop the same ear but lopsided is better than none! :)
I use King Arthur Special Patent bread flour so I think the quality is good. A chef friend buys 50 lb bags for me at wholesale.
I definitely got a tighter dough in final shaping so perhaps it was all about the shaping...
My hydration % did not include my starter which is 1/2/2/ formula. So there is some extra water in there. I completely forgot to check for windowpane. But one thing I did NOT see was the dough rising above top of banetton during the overnight cold ferment. In fact it was lower than any of my previous loaves. So I wonder if I was overfermenting.
I went almost 4 hours with bulk but the dough was much cooler, only 77-78 F as it's been cooler in my kitchen. I wonder if my issues were really all about the heat. I was doing fine in the spring,but when summer hit I had started having problems. My previous doughs were hovering around 81 F while in bulk but I was only doing about 3-3.5 hours which I thought would make up for the warm dough.
Anyway, I will carry on and was so happy to see some spring today. I can't wait to cut it open and measure but I think I'm seeing at least 4" in height!