June 15, 2013 - 4:32am
Advice for 3rd loaf
Hi,
I tried my second sourdough it tasted good but there were a couple of problems and I was hoping I could get some tips before I try my next loaf.
I think the bowl I proved in was too big, and the dough stuck to the floured tea towel that I lined the bowl with, so it was difficult to turn out onto the baking sheet.
There was a little oven spring but not much, I think I knocked quite a bit of air out by dropping it out of the bowl onto the baking sheet. I'm looking to get nice large pockets of air in the bread. Here's what the final result looked like:
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I'd have to say things may be a little over proofed. crust looks a little pale in spots, and this will cause little oven spring, along with a bit of deflation after whatever spring you do get while baking. dough sticking can be a problem. I've had that happen and loaves do flatten out from the sticking (to much handling to get the dough unstuck), but oven spring was still ok. this makes me think things were over proofed a little. if using a stone, was it preheated enough?
You probably need a bit more structure to the dough; an extra fold or two might have helped it retain its shape and resist overproofing.
For most of my high hydration breads (no-knead) I will cut two 6 inch strips of parchment paper and lay them into the bowl that the bread will rise in. I will use this as a cradle to transfer the ready to bake dough to the baking stone or Dutch over. I don't use a couch or a tea towel for these types of bread. This is how I avoid deflating the dough.
Good luck, Dwayne
I pretty much followed the instructions from here: http://sourdough.com/blog/sourdom/beginners-blog-slash-and-burn-hopefully-not
I don't have a baking stone or a banneton. So next time I will keep a closer eye on it while proving and I'll proof it in a much smaller bowl, without the tea towel. Is it ok to proof in a lightly greased bowl? I'm afraid to use baking parchment as the dough is so sticky!
go for it. a light spray or thin coating of olive oil should help out a lot. by the way, sourdough.com is a great site. lots of good help and great people. I still post there when I think I can help.
cegueira, you can lightly spray the tea towel with spray oil or non-stick cooking spray, then flour it. The oil helps as the flour will absorb moisture from the dough while it is proofing. If your dough is wet, just oil in a bowl will have the same problem. It will incorporate into the dough and the dough will still end up sticking to the bowl. A little oil AND a light dusting of flour will help the most, whether you use a towel or not. Also, baking parchment will not be a problem with sticky dough. I use baking parchment with some extremely sticky cookies I make. They will not release properly from any of my cookie pans. You should be able to proof and bake your bread on the parchment paper as Dwayne said. Just mind the oven temperature. Artisan breads are best baked at high temps, and parchment paper has an operational upper limit.
Like tgrayson said above, you should also form a tighter ball before leaving it to the final proof. An "extra fold or two" goes a long way toward keeping it rising up instead of out!
I'm still in the process of bringing the starter back from a week in the fridge. I think I may try floured strips of baking paper when proofing and turning it out as gently as possible onto a baking tray with cornmeal on it.
EDIT: I will also try a couple of extra folds.
I finally got around to baking. I did fold the dough a couple of more times but the dough is so heavy that it just flops down. I used a smaller bowl to proof the dough and had some strips of baking paper in the bowl. When it came to turning it out the dough was glued to the baking paper and I had a pretty sloppy mess!
I reshaped the dough on the baking sheet, with cornmeal on it, unfortunately the dough sucked up all the cornmeal and ending up sticking to the baking sheet in places and not rising properly.
I think next time I may need to bake it on a lower shelf in the oven as I don't think the bottom 3rd of the loaf has baked properly and I couldn't leave it in any longer otherwise it would have burnt.
The main problem seems to be having a way to get it out of the bowl whilst retaining its shape. Should I try a different recipe or persevere with this one?