My sourdough starter was doubling nicely a week before I made my sourdough starter. 100 grams of starter was used. All ingredients were weighed on a scale.
100 g active starter
375 g room temp water
500 g bread flour
10 gram sea salt
(Recipe I took from) https://alexandracooks.com/2017/10/24/artisan-sourdough-made-simple-sourdough-bread-demystified-a-beginners-guide-to-sourdough-baking/
After mixing up all, I autolysed 45 minutes. I then did 6 slap/stretch folds (fold 4 corners to center, stretching out then letting rest 30-40 minutes in between each fold).
I took pictures after 6 (30 minutes apart) slap/stretch folds, then placed the dough in the fridge overnight. I also checked on the windowpane texture of the dough (don't know if that's needed, but it seemed to windowpane just fine).
Next day I bulk fermented for about 8 hours, until dough was 1.5 times doubled. (Picture with rubber band is starting the bulk ferment)
After that I attempted to gently shape it (first picture where it's slack after gentle shaping) then I took a bench scraper and attempted to make it into a more concise ball (2nd picture more ball shaped on silipat mat)
I then fridged the dough, covered, in a rice floured banneton overnight.
I forgot to take a picture of it before it went into the oven, but whenever I turn the dough onto my board to transfer to my Dutch oven, the dough always starts to slack and kind of spread out right away. Is this bad?
Final picture is bread out of the oven and cooling (parchment removed) on a wire wrack. After preheating my Dutch oven 30 minutes in 500F oven, I baked the bread at 450F for 30 minutes covered, then 15 at 400F uncovered.
Any help, tips, etc would be appreciated!
Forgot to add. After it cools an hour, I'll cut into it and show a cross section.
We need to see a cross section, of course. my impression from your pictures is that the hydration looks higher than I expect based on the recipe. Try with somewhat lower hydration (maybe 340g water instead of 375). Or it may have needed more stretching.
With a slack dough, you want to do more stretching during shaping to develop enough elasticity for the loaf to hold its shape without too much spreading. If you just can't keep the loaf from over-spreading then definitely reduce the hydration.
TomP
Does a little corner count or should I cut it directly in half?
I think the crumb looks just fine. Decently open, a range of pore sizes, a bit of gelatinization in a larger pore - all good. The loaf doesn't seem to have expanded as much as some but the result looks good.
I understand your wanting to make the best version of sourdough bread that you can, but why does it have to be judged as a sport 😀! I have been making sourdough breads for a very long time, and of course, some are better than others in appearance, but what really matters is how does it taste? If your bread tasted delicious and the crust and crumb was to your liking, then it was a success. I hope your sourdough baking gives you and your lucky recipients much pleasure.
Keep going till you're a happy camper. Enjoy!
Oh - looks fine.