i thought i finally cracked the proofing....the feel of the dough, the slow spring back after a finger poke, etc however no matter what recipe i look at i see that proofing times for sourdoughs are generally in the 2 - 3 hour range whereas im in the 90 - 105 minute range....this has been pre-occupying me for the last few days and especially this morning when i cut into the new loaf (90% white, 10% wholemeal, 69% hydration, 20% levain) and was a little underwhelmed by the lack of 'holey' crumb.
Having said that there is a good spread of air pockets throughout - nothing large, the spring is good and the moist chew is fantastic - as is the taste but i cant help but feel it maybe slightly underproofed (although i thought i was spot on yesterday)....ive attached a photo...has anyone any thoughts on the matter? My pre-shaping and shaping was fine - not much handling...my bulk fementation went for 4 hours. Despite this plea i am not preoccupied with having huge holes infact it makes the bread impractical to eat i just kind of expected it when using mostly white flour....
thoughts? advice much appreciated.
I am sorry , but, I cannot see your problem. The loaf looks great tp me!
Ford
I entirely get your question. But making bread is to manipulate a living process with all it's own efforts at self determination and wild abandon growth inside the mix of FWSY. Some bread makers are like the french gardener's trying to control nature with their straight lines and structure. Others are more like Pollock canvas. I think most of us are somewhere in the middle.. Sometimes the dough has a mind of itself. As to the timing - my in-home fermentation and proof times are always different and most often shorter than those of the recipes in front of me. That moment of cutting into a loaf is for me one of the most exciting parts of this process. Or to quote forest gump - life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what your going to find inside. The crumb looks great - uniform isn't the goal (at least for me). Enjoy the journey - bake happy!
Looks great to me. The crumb is affected as much as how one handles the dough during the bulk ferment and shaping then just the final proofing. And don't worry, you aren't alone, I too find my final proofing is often shorter than many recipes. I've seen recommendations of 3-6 hours where mine was ready in 2.5.
Take a look at the video tutorials in www.breadwerx.com where Trevor explains on how to get the crumb you're looking for.
Thanks everyone -I guess I feel I've handled dough quite well - the first cut is always exciting :) - and use scraper and wet hands a lot - breadwerx had been a great well of info - Im currently using microwave and mug of steaming water ad a proofing box but might cool down proof a little and see where we get ..perhaps a longer proof will make it a bit irregular - although perhaps I should be more mindful of my S and F. thanks again for the affirmation everyone