Loaf pan size and oven spring.
I'm baking, or trying to, bread in loaf pans. I always assumed my pans were standard size. At the top they are 9 1/2 inch by 5 1/4. At the bottom they are 8 1/4 by 4 1/8. Height is 3 1/2 inches. All measurements are internal. Is that normal? I'm beginning to think I'm simply not using enough flour. My latest attempt was two loaves of all KA unbleached white flour at 70 percent hydration. 500 grams flour per loaf. After kneading and about a 2 hour initial rise the dough was shaped and put in pans. It took almost 3 hours for the dough to rise slightly over the pan tops in my 70ish degree kitchen. I put one pan in a 375 oven at that point and the second when the first was done to let it rise a bit more and baked the second in a preheated dutch oven (loaf pan just fits) with a heated wet towel for steam at 425. Both loaves failed to exibit any oven spring. Is it possible I'm not using enough flour for the pan size? I thought 500 grams would have been more than sufficient for a loaf but consistent lack of oven spring using different methods, flours, hydration, oven temps (including cold starts) etc is leaving me stumped. Thanks for reading. Thoughts appreciated.
“To know exactly what weight of dough fits your tin you need to put a water tight plastic grocery bag in the tin, then weigh the water it takes to fill the tin to the rim. Then divide this water weight by the expected rise of the dough in this case 85%. So if the water weighed 2200 g you divide it by 1.85 and you get 1189 g of dough is required to fill the tin.” - Dab
85% expected rise is for dough with whole grains otherwise, it is 90% for white breads.
Hope this helps.
Holy cow! I had to delete my first response because I misunderstood and took "dough" as "flour". I was going to need a larger mixing bowl, lol. In any event it does appear I am a short on weight. When I divided my last dough each half weighed 750 grams. It took 1900 grams of water to fill one of my pans just short of overflowing. I should have been closer to 1000 grams of dough according to that formula. Thanks Dab. Guess I've been over proofing letting the dough rise over the pan tops. Not sure how I missed this information. Though I just restarted baking bread, a decade or so ago I was quite involved and must have collected well over a dozen bread baking books without learning this bit of information. Evidently, my pans are deeper than typical and I've followed recipes intended for a shallower pan. I'm going to be bruised from kicking myself now. :)
his dough rise to one inch above the edge of the pan unless he is using a Pullman pan, then I am not sure how he measures the dough for that. Send him a private message. I am sure he can be more specific than me.