I've recently made a couple of my first sourdough Boules a la Ken Forkish's book (the country blonde recipe).
The flavor is good, but they seem a bit more dense and flat than I expected.
I have also noticed that large bubbles have formed during both bulk fermentation and proofing.
So my question, first off, is are large bubbles a bad sign, and if so of what? (over fermenting/proofing?)
Secondly, and more generally, what techniques are available to identify when a dough is done bulk fermenting and proofing. I'm sure there is not a simple few answers. I am aware of 'doubling in size' and 'the finger poke test,' however I have read many posts on this forum where people discount those tests and mention knowing in some other way if it is ready? I'm not sure what other tools I may have to know...
Thanks for any info. I'm sure this info is already abundantly discussed on the forum, but I couldn't track it down (and surprisingly wasn't in either of the 2 bread books I have).
as a lot of this comes down to experience. After baking sourdough for a few years now I don't have a 100% fool proof method. I've recently begun to go more by feel then by visual but a visual guide is good when one hasn't got anything else to go by. Practice often enough helps getting a feel for it. You'll begin to notice differences in the dough when performing the stretch and folds. The only way I can describe it is the dough becomes billowy, aerated and elastic but doesn't necessarily have to be doubled. Then you know the bulk ferment is done. Final Proofing is more difficult and I think its the most difficult part to judge correctly. Bulk Ferment you have quite a lot of lee way. Not all recipes take it to the same limits so you have a bit of a margin each way. But for final proofing this has to be more exact. I do the poke test and also aim for just under doubled for an all white loaf and a bit less if it has more wholegrain. But at the end of the day it's a tad of guesswork too. Perhaps this will also become more apparent to me like the bulk ferment did but will take a bit longer. To get around this it does help to final proof in the fridge for 8-12 hours which does take the guess work out of it.
Hope this helps.
Thank you, that is helpful.
If I am seeing large bubble gum like bubbles (well not as large as a real big bubble gum blow) is that undesirable?
When shaping knick out those big bubbles but save the small ones. Employing a pre shape, then a rest allowing the dough to relax and afterwards a final shape really helps.
I usually just eye ball it, but i take the bubbles as a good sign. When i start seeing bubbles around the edge, where the dough meets the container, my dough is usually ready.
If i tip the dough out for pre shaping it and it doesn't feel billowy and airy, i'll usually just give the shaped loaf an hour at room temp before refrigerating.
Hope that helps.