Recipe:
50 g active starter (passed the float test)
375 g warm water
500 g flour (1/4 whole wheat flour, 3/4 white flour)
9 g salt
Method:
Starter incorporated with water and then I added flour. 45 min. autolyse.
Three stretch and folds over 4 hours.
Dough preshaped and put in proofing basket
18 hour refrigerated ferment
Dough scored and put in to bake at 230 C, no dutch oven but
i put a large dome pyrex bowl over top with water to create steam in the bottom tray.
The bread tasted great and has a pretty soft texture, doesn't feel dry but I'm impatient to get larger open crumb structure like I see in pictures!! Any and all advice appreciated
Assuming your levain was 100% hydration, the percentage of total flour prefermened was slightly less than 5%. That percentage is low, but will work. I’m not sure exactly what your problem may be. The crumb looks over-proofed, but I suspect the bulk ferment was not long enough for such a small amount of levain. If that is correct the bread should be under proofed at that stage.
But IF your refrigerator was on the warm side (41F or above) it is possible the dough over proofed during the retard.
Can you estimate the temperature during the BF?
What is the temp of your refrigerator? Best way, take a glass of water and place it in your frig in the same spot you retard the dough. Leave it for 5 hours or so and then take the temp of the water.
Let us know the temps.
Danny
Hi Sonia..
There are many of us on the board that have the same open crumb envy you do. Trevor Wilson wrote a great book called Open Crumb Mastery - just google for it. It's helped me get better, but I haven't gotten there yet. Watch many of his online or Instagram videos, check out his e-book and that will set you on the right path - or at least I think it's getting me closer!
Also, on Dan's point above, assuming you can replicate the bread above consistently i would make two loaves and bake one after a 10-12 hours in the fridge, and the other as you would normally after 18 hours. That might give you more insight into how your dough is developing and if it is indeed just over-proofed and has little pop left to give you that final rise with larger holes. I'd also suggest you try coil folds instead of stretch and folds as a better way of developing dough structure - again google Trevor's examples of that.
Best of luck.. frank!
Typically your levain runs from 18&-25% of total dough weight. At 5% you’re asking the wild yeasties to do too much work given your fermentation/retardation period. You could try leaving it under refrigeration for another day, but best bet is to increase your levain within the above range.