December 15, 2020 - 3:32pm
A basic question... bread is too thick/small bubbles
Hi everyone!
I am following a recipe from Alan Wainer's book, flour water salt and yeast
- 500 gr flour (11 to 12 grams of proteins, tried both white flour, whole grain and semolina - not sure is the right word in english)
- 360 gr water at ca 36°C - don't have thermometer, about my hand's temp
- 4-7 gr driead yeast
- 1 teaspoon salt
- Hydrolysis, mix everything in a tub, fold a couple of times - bulk fermentation lasts 5-6 hours (both at 21° room temperature or in the oven with light on, ca 25-25°). Generally after that the dough is quite slack and wet, probably not more than doubled in size.
- Then proofing for 40-70 mins, either in a small bowl or in a proofing basket. Cooking with some steam at 200-220 C
Issue: the look is great, crust is great, but bubbles are really small and the texture is not light but quite thick.
What am i doing wrong? When I tried to extend bulk fermentation, dough was weaker and lost most of its size when put on the oven rack/manipulated. See some pics below to get an idea
thanks a lot in advance for your comments!
Share
You can't eat holes.
Looks perfect! Holes are for Instagram. There is no flavor in holes.
.
yeah...I was hoping more for a result like these..
BTW looking at others' pictures here in the forum it seems in general the texture is lighter, with bigger holes...
One percent salt is a bit low. Average is 2%. Try almost two level teaspoons. Hydration is 72% and if it seems too wet, save some back leaving a few tablespoons. Add only enough to wet dry spots of flour when hydrating. Salt should help with dough feel and getting control of the fermentation and more predictable from bake to bake.
I agree with the others that the bread looks much better than you describe. Try raising the salt and lowering the water just a tiny bit.
Mini
You can’t leave dough with that much yeast resting for 4-5 hr unless it’s in the fridge. Your dough has broken down. Trythis: Mix, wait 20 min, stretch and fold awhile. Let rest 1 hr, shape let rise 40 min. Cook. If you want to let it retard for better flavor- put it in the fridge after 1 hr of bulk fermentation. Then, after a few hrs (or overnight)in the fridge, shape the chilled dough and now rest at room temp until nearly double to bake ( and that will take maybe 2 hrs, depending on room temperature).
Agree with Mini that you need more salt, too. And, it’s true that you can’t eat holes, but nicely foamy bread has a pleasing texture and makes great toast.
Hi, and thanks both for the answers!
@suminandi I am interested in understanding more about this part
In my mind, less yeast and more time = more yeast and less time, with the first option leading to more flavour
I am not sure if what you mean is that there is too much yeast, and it has eaten all the food available, or there is too few. As, if the case is the second, I would imagine the dough should keep rising, even if at low speed...
thanks
5-7 gr is about one ‘packet’. Those are sized to raise a loaf in 1 hr.
so, yes, either much less yeast or cooler rising conditions.