Hello folks.
This is one of two loaves I baked this morning, same batch of dough, proofed together, baked together and the same thing happened to both.
Recipe was:
83 gms white starter @ 100% (very active)
600 gms white unbleached AP flour
390 gms of water
8 gms fine sea salt
Briefly, starting at 7:00 PM:
Dissolve starter in water, mix in flour, autolyse for 1 hr
Work in salt by folding and hand kneading. Ferment 'till 11:00 PM with S&F each hour on the hour. Cover tightly and leave to ferment at room temperature overnight.
8:00 AM this morning, dough had risen well, but not what I would call aggressively. Separate into two, preshape both, rest 15 mins, shape and proof in smooth tea towel 'till 10:30. Baked free form on a stone with parchment at 500 Deg F in a steamed oven for 20 mins, vented steam and baked for 10 more at same temperature.
The crumb is as delicious as it looks. To my inexperienced hands and eyes, great results for 65% hydration.
One side of the loaf (loaves) looked great:
While the other side, not so much so:
Is this "bursting" a result of poor scoring, too much oven spring caused by underproofing, or a combination of both? I can't think of anything else that would cause this.
I scored ~ 1/4-3/8" deep and would have thought that would have been enough. While I've had other loaves that blew up like a ball I don't think I've had one like this, literally bursting this bad.
Cheers!
Jamie
But if I recall correctly, when the loaf bursts it's due to improper scoring. They look delicious, btw.
hester
Could be underproofed.
See how dark the scored area is? The crust cooked hard before the inside of the bread had a chance to spring, hence the burst along the roll line. It had no where else to go.
Try putting the loaves in at 500F with steam, then after five minutes lowering the temperature to 425F. Bake for another 15 minutes, then turn the loaves and give them an additional ten to 15 minutes.
You should have lighter coloured-crust along the score where it opens.
Lazy Loafer's right. Moreover, loaves cooked too close together tend to kiss each other as they will expand at the cool spot, which is at the narrowest point between two loaves.
you are baking 500g loaves. this is my routine baking size as well as I can do two at a time on my baking steel. I use a modified San Joaquin Sourdough recipe popularized by David Snyder on the website. I ferment over night and then the cough is separated, a stretch and fold to each and they sit on the bench for an hour. then another stretch and fold at which point they are shaped into batards and placed on a linen couche that has been dusted with a bit of rice flour. I do a single slash as it appears Lazy Loafer does. My baking temp starts at 460F with steam for 15 minutes and then 15 minutes at 420F with convection. Scoring correctly requires practice and my early loaves were hit and miss. Sometimes they would burst along the sides. 1/4 inch deep slash appears to give me pretty consistent results.
The dough took the path of least resistance. More steam would definitely help, deeper slashes might help, but the fact is that your slashing pattern gave a way out on the side. If you had a slash only on the top, then this would still open up most likely, but it would be at the top and give a big ear.
Wetter dough needs shallower slashes, dryer dough needs deeper slashes (to a degree). If you include the stater, this is actually a 67% hydration dough. So the slashes don't need to be really deep. Make sure to block any vents you can that lets steam out of the oven. You can see that the extra flour on the top made the bread more dry, so steaming is even more important.