my score keeps sealing and I don’t get a good ear. I use my levain young around 3h at 80f, but always passes the float test. The dough is fermented 4h at 80f. Why does this keep happening. I don’t think it’s lack of steam there are a lot of blisters. What could be wrong
The bread apparently had a very good, and early, oven spring. I say that because the grigne is very wide but nearly as dark as the rest of the crust.
It may be that the blade of your knife or lame is held to close to this "-", when it should be closer to this "/". A bit less horizontal and a bit more angled may make the difference. Also, a little less expansion in the final proof would leave the door open for even more oven spring, which might also help get the ear you want to see.
Those are really pretty loaves. I'd happily claim them as mine.
Paul
It's overproofed for this cut and your slashing technique needs work.
Tell more about the cut? when you slash on the long side it should be less proofed? how about slashing technique?
should the lame be kept at a slight angle? how deep should i score? I usually make 920 g batards and get the same problem.
scored. Search this site for it = Scoring tutorial
He did an updated version in 2015
I don’t think it’s my slashing technique. I am very similar with slashing, and do it at a nice angle. / like that
Seems more like a lack of oven spring
oven temps?
Perhaps the upper is too high compared to the lower temp. Try turning the upper temp down a little if you can. Or was the oven still preheating?
I can only blame over-proofing. Yesterday I made 3 batches, same dough. I retarded all of them, and removed all from the fridge at 11:30 AM, because the oven is in another location.
The first batch vas ok, good ears for all the breads (except one). The second (at 13:00) vas half half.
The third (at 14:00) was a disaster (only 2 loaves out of 8 had an ear). I blame the time passed between leaving the fridge and baking (almost 3 hours at RT).
But I am still not sure!
Looks like you may have to come up with a solution to keeping the dough cold. Or get the later bakes into the fridge sooner before retarding. Much sooner.
I keep the fridge pretty cold at 45 degrees, and retard for 8h. I don’t think it’s overproofed. But I could be wrong. Here’s a picture of the crumb.
https://ibb.co/bMan4H
45F is too warm. Recommended fridge temp to keep food at a safe temp is 40 F or below. I keep my proofing fridge at 37 F.
You are right. I just took the actual temp and it was at 40f I don’t know why I thought 45
Just checked the thermometer again and now its 38. I guess I read higher temps when I opened the fridge door
is tricky. The second you open the door the warmth rushes in and throws the thermometer off. Leave it for a couple of hours and then check but you gotta make it fast.
You might want to try dropping it to 37F. I don’t have issues with loaves overproofing since I have done that.
So I took everyone’s advice on today’s bake, and bulk fermented for 3.5h instead of 4h and it’s very underproofed. It was dense. Could it be my last batch was underproofed, and not overproofed?