Hi everyone, glad to be back. Need your help for the below frustrating mishap when trying a new recipe
Getting back to sourdough backing after a while, and baking a 71% hydration pretty standard sourdough BUT got no oven spring and a kind of "dent" ( see the red arrow) in the crust. The worst is the crumb with a huge hole in the middle and near the crumb. What went wrong?
Process :
Mix flour and water in stand kitchen and autolyze for 45 minutes
Add starter and knead in stand mixer for 3 minutes, low speed. Add salt and knead for extra 6 minutes (result - very sticky dough, limited window pane)
Bulk fermentation - 5 hours at 23 C ( see pic) , 6 quite extensive folds. ( result - nice stretchy dough , not bubbles and limited growth (about 40% in volume)
Pre shape - standard.
Shaping - Batard , stitching method.
Retarding - 1 hour in room temp, 11 hours fridge (result - not much growth in volume , quite low profile, feels good and not slacky, easy scoring)
Baking - 260 c oven with stone + boiled water for steam - 20 min covered, 25 min 240 c uncovered
Your starter is not nearly active enough. The large hole is from steam like a pita bread.
Thanks , but the starter IS doubling and passing the "float" test ...
You should wait until a piece of the bulk fermented dough passes the "float" test.
The float test is not always reliable. Looking at the crumb and the dough from the banneton it looks like the loaf is underproofed.
Did you use your levain for successful bakes before?
Yes I did, not sure it matters , but it was a recipe with much higher ration of starter than the failed one