Gummy loaves
Hello all.
This is my first post and it’s a cry for help.
Soggy and gummy sums up my problem.
I will itemise my methodology and post some photos in the hope that someone can help me?
Ingredients: (2 loaves)
Flour: 900 (Marriage & Son 100% Canadian Very Strong White Flour)
Water: 564
Starter: 115
Salt: 18
FAMAG IM-5S-10V Spiral Mixer
08:45 Mix flour & water and leave to autolyse for 30 minutes
Mix:
Speed 2: 4 minutes
Speed 4: 2 minutes
Rest: 30 minutes
Speed 4: 5 minutes
10:00 Into bowl with airtight lid. Bowl into proofing box @ 21°C
11:00 Stretch & fold then back into proofing box @ 21°C
12:00 Stretch & fold then back into proofing box @ 21°C
15:00 Stretch & fold then back into proofing box @ 21°C
18:00 Separate into 2 loaves weighing 762g each.
Pre-shape then leave covered on worktop
19:00 Shape then into floured banetton with cover.
Back into proofing box @ 21°C (1 loaf into fridge to cold proof for tomorrow)
19:30 Preheat fan oven to 230°C with cloche in.
(Emile Henry Cloche A Pain)
20:00 Loaf in
30 minutes @ 230°C lid on / 20 minutes @ 190°C lid off
Loaf put back in turned off oven on rack for 15 minutes at the end.
Loaf weight before bake: 762g
Loaf weight after bake: 749g
I don't see anything obviously wrong except that the lid-off temperature is lower than I would use, but the final weight seems high. This would be in line with a lot of water remaining in the baked loaf. For comparison, here is a loaf I often make that would end up weighting between 16 and 18 oz (453 - 510g):
286 g AP flour
198 oz water
85g starter
6g salt
Total ingredient weight = 575g
The baked weight is 510/575 = 90% of ingredient weight at most, or even less. For your loaf, the baked weight is 98% of the ingredient weight.
Did you measure the internal temperature at the end of baking? Gummy can also mean undercooked as well as wet. I would look for a temperature >= 97.8C (if you are near sea level). Note that you can hit the temperature and still be too wet, but for a lean dough the temperature should be at least that high.
Consider baking with the lid off at 205C, and after removing the loaf from the pot give it another 6 - 8 minutes at 200C. See if that improves things. If the crumb is dry enough but the crust comes out too thick or tough, just reduce the temperature of the last stage or two a little or shorten them up.
TomP
Thanks for the reply.
I didn't check the internl temp of this one, but I constantly get gummy loaves and they have all been in the 96-98 °C range.
96C is IMHO a little low for a lean loaf. As I said, you can hit an internal temperature and still have too much moisture in the loaf, so it's only one factor. The fact that your loaves are wet and gummy tells us that they need more baking. Once the loaf is out of the pot it will be easier for the moisture to escape. That's why I suggested more bake time once the loaf is out of the pot, and a higher temperature in the pot when you take off the lid.
The bread I gave as an example is proofed and baked freeform without any pot, on a baking steel. I will typically bake it for 37 - 38 minutes at 410 - 425 Deg F/210 - 218C. Actually, lately I have been turning off the oven (I turn it down to 300 deg F/149C) for the first 7 - 8 minutes and that has been working very well. The idea is to slow down the hardening of the crust for more expansion, since my oven can't hold the steam in for more than a few minutes. The overall baking time is unchanged.
The 96-98 figure is one I have seen several times on sourdough resources as the target for a baked loaf.
The baking temps you quote, is that in a fan oven?
It's an electric oven without a convection fan. As for crumb temperatures, 210 F/99C is a common number. The thing is that a wet bread will maintain a temperature in the range 98C - 99C as it dries out (at sea level), so you want to get up there but if you know the loaf is going to be wet, it still will need more baking time to drive out excess moisture. How important that will be depends on the kind of bread.
And as Mariana just wrote, check your oven temperature to make sure it agrees with the control setting.
You loaf seems to be severely underbaked. It should lose about 10-25% of its raw weight during baking and yours hadn't even lost 2% of its weight (10-20% of its water didn't evaporate), thus it is gummy and soggy.
Please, verify your oven temperature with a couple of oven thermometers placed in different places in your oven, since this problem of gumminess presented with different breads you baked before.
I agree with Mariana - it looks like your oven temperature could be low. Ideally you want to check it with a thermocouple thermometer - something like this one. Use the wire probe and trap the tip under a piece of metal or an ovenproof plate, then lead the wire out through the edge of the oven door to the thermometer.
Also your dough hydration is rather low - I calculate 65%, assuming a 100% hydration starter. This is pretty low for a sourdough loaf with the flour you are using - you might be better increasing the water to give 68-70% hydration.
I am in the UK and my guide internal loaf temperature for "minimum doneness" is 95-96C. Of course this needs to be viewed in conjunction with moisture loss, crust colour and general loaf appearance.
Are your loaves well proofed when you bake them- finger poke test?
And lastly, is that the picture you intended to display in your post?
Lance