TFL'er Trevor Wilson has a nice blog, with videos at Breadwerx.com. One of the more interesting, even provocative, pieces is the one advising that bakers in search of open crumb would do well to focus on dough handling technique, and not immediately reach for the 'crutch' of increasing hydration.
Well this was a bit of a wake-up call to me, who, like many here, have followed the work of Chad Robertson and Dave Miller, who emphasize both handling and hydration (and carry it out masterfully). But, I think Trevor is correct in saying that hydration has become heavily emphasized in many discussions as the ticket to open crumb (and other things), and the challenge of handling high hydration doughs (I think) seduces many of us into thinking of it as the answer to the ultimate artisan bread.
Funny that while just finding Trevor's stuff, I have been thinking lately how it would just be so much easier to make lower hydration doughs (and I could regain some height in my loaves!), despite finally getting much more comfortable working with the really sloppy stuff...begging for something resembling the best of both worlds.
So, while as Trevor acknowledges, its not that hydration doesn't make a difference in crumb structure, as well as other characteristics, I thought it would be worth further discussion about all those trade-offs, and what people see as their relative importance, and strategies for addressing them, in light of the piece found here:
http://www.breadwerx.com/how-to-get-open-crumb-from-stiff-dough-video/
to start with a lower hydration and get dough handling down fist=rt before upping the hydration to maximize the crumb holes like the real pros do - if that is what you want to do. I personally don't like huge holes since most of my breads are used for sandwiches and not for photo shoots in bread baking books - except for ciabatta of course where large holes are the mark of great bread in that style.
Happy baking
This overriding desire for "big holes" in bread could be a topic in and of itself. I mostly prefer a moderately open crumb -- not the extreme openness associated with Tartine style loaves. Every loaf has its place, and I enjoy a good Tartine style loaf as much as the next baker, but it is not what I want out of my daily bread.
Unfortunately, there's a dogma that's starting to develop that says only the most highly hydrated and open of loaves deserve to be considered as great bread.
Such a shame.
It ignores the great variety of breads that don't conform to that one very narrow category. Now, there are certainly other valid reasons for making high hydration bread besides the quest for an open crumb. Some folks love the custardy texture. It produces a different flavor profile. Different mouthfeel. It saves money for professional bakers (flour is much more expensive than water).
Hell, I usually make wet dough simply because I like working with wet dough. It's a process that I find more pleasurable than working with stiff dough. Wet dough is dynamic and responsive. It's a challenge. As far as I'm concerned, it's just plain fun. But when I'm looking to make my favorite styles of bread for eating, it almost always requires a stiffer dough.
I'd love to see bakers stop judging the quality of their own bread against that of the Tartine loaf. Tartine is a great loaf, no doubt, but it is not the be-all and end-all of bread. Do your own thing.
Cheers!
Trevor
I appreciate the shout out. My main concern is that many new bakers feel the only way to achieve a nice open crumb in their bread is by increasing the hydration of their loaves. Of course, that leads to the problem of trying to handle wet sticky dough. And handling difficulty usually leads to a tighter crumb, which kind of defeats the purpose.
And even worse, by making dough that's too wet to handle they've traded loaf height and volume in the hope of gaining an open crumb through higher hydration. It's a messy and frustrating process for someone who's brand new to bread baking and expecting to get a nice holey Tartine style loaf right off the bat.
The problem is that they read a book like Tartine, and they see the gorgeous photos of ridiculously open crumb, and they are told that it's the hydration that made for such wonderfully holey bread.
But that's only part of the picture.
What they aren't told is that those loaves in the pictures were made by one of the most skilled bakers in the world. Someone who can handle wet dough with ease and proficiency. Someone who's been baking bread for decades.
It sets a very unrealistic expectation right out of the starting gate. And if the new baker can't seem to bake bread that lives up to that expectation, discouragement and frustration ensue.
I believe that most new bakers are simply looking for a moderately open crumb. Something light and airy, but nothing outrageous. But when their first few loaves turn out dense, because of handling/proofing issues, they go online and the resounding consensus from the articles they find is to make their dough wetter.
This is the wrong answer.
They should be told the truth -- that the first (and most important) two steps to getting open crumbed bread are to develop their handling skills (which takes lots of time, especially for those who don't have the luxury of shaping hundreds of loaves a day like the pros), and learn to accurately judge the degree of proof in fermenting dough (and starters).
These two skills take time to develop, but they will get most bakers 80% of the results they're looking for.
I believe that we do more harm than good when our first response to a new baker seeking a more open crumb is to tell them to increase hydration. As DBM pointed out above, we should first tell them to get dough handling down before making wetter dough. We wouldn't tell a beginning guitarist looking to make great guitar solos to simply play faster. No, we'd tell that guitarist to master the scales, improve technique and understand key. Speed will come in time.
We should do the same for beginning bakers. We should give them the honest truth -- it's gonna take time, but with practice you'll get there. I certainly couldn't make an open crumbed loaf for the life of me when I first started baking. I'm glad no one told me that the answer was to simply make a wetter dough.
Cheers!
Trevor
This is all very apt, and I've really enjoyed this discussion. I will add that not all newer SD bakers like me are just chasing the open crumb. I'm sure many, like me, just want to build all the knowledge and skills necessary to make great bread.
I reached the conclusion early on that I need much more handling experience to get a more open crumb. I've watched Hamelman's and others' handling and shaping videos many times, but experience is what I need most. It's going to take a long time just baking on weekends when I can. I'm looking into ways to get that experience, including the possibility of an SFBI sourdough class, or offering labor to a local guy who has started his own cottage baking business.
You've got the right mindset, and the right idea . . . practice, practice, practice. I highly recommend on-the-job training if you're looking to improve your shaping/handling technique. There's just no better experience than turning out loaf after loaf to develop those skills. The more you work in production -- the more you get your hands in the dough -- the shorter your learning curve will be.
Cheers!
Trevor
I think the Hamelman shaping videos are an interesting case in this context, as he and his crew, working with these particular doughs, are regularly degassing to some extent, and you can hear the bubbles popping throughout most of the process as he shapes a boule. So this again begs the question of just what 'gentle' means, and also brings up the issue of avoiding overly large pockets of air in your finished loaves, and when to intentionally degass because of it.
In most of the bakeries I've worked in, it's a pretty common practice to partially degas a loaf before shaping. From the point of view of commercial production -- especially wholesale production -- big holes in the loaves are a far greater concern than tighter crumb.
Nobody ever returns a loaf because they felt the crumb was too tight. In all my years I've never once saw that happen (not including underproofed loaves that were too dense for market and should never have been let out the door). But, I've seen hundreds of loaves returned because of large holes and tunnels. That's an expensive problem that can be mitigated with a bit of degassing.
But the need for degassing increases with the degree of proof in a batch of dough before it's turned out. The bubblier the batch, the more likely for large holes or tunnels to appear. So the need for degassing can be minimized by keeping the dough slightly on the young side. Keeping a dough under tension as it proofs (through frequent folds) is another way to extend the proof without the dough becoming overly bubbly.
Trevor