August 27, 2020 - 7:33am
Large air pocket in sourdough loaf
Hello!
I recently baked a loaf of sourdough, and ended up with this large air pocket! I’m wondering what may have gone wrong? Overproofed? Underproofed?
I did a series of stretch and folds every 30 min over about 2-2.5 hours; then bulk rise for about 3 hours; bench rest for 30 min; then proofed overnight in the fridge for 12 hours.
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The crumb looks very dense. There are a couple of causes. Was the levain fully ripe and active when you mixed the dough? Other causes are under fermenting and under proofing.
That looks very underproofed. With underproofing you’ll get a gummy dense crumb and then large air pockets as you have there, it can almost look like you get huge oven spring when in fact it is one huge pocket over gummy dense crumb.
How ready was your levain? How active is your starter? Don’t forget temperature, what temperature did you bulk ferment at? What rise did you get at the time that you ended bulk fermentation? What was your formula?