Trying to improve my bread
Hello freshloafers,
I'm looking for help to improve my sourdough bread. It is delicious and tasty, but I'd like to understand what I can do to get a more uniform crumb. Recipe is basically the country loaf from tartine.
Any tips, suggestions or observations are very much appreciated.
thanks,
recipe (2 loaves)
700g water
900g bread flour
100g Whole wheat
20g salt
200g leaven
starter was fed for 3 days getting consistent double in size over 12 hrs.
made leaven the night before, 11-12 hours before mixing.
mixed at 8:30, 4 turn and folds every half hour after (didn't have time for an autolyse)
dough proofed in oven with light on.
around 2:30 it doubled in size.
I divided and pre shaped into rounds.
15 min bench rest, then shaped into boules to rest in bannetons.
covered in plastic bag and put in the fridge to cold proof overnight.
Baked the next morning at 9:00.
And a few suggestions. The top of the loaf is baking cooler than the bottom. I assume you are using a DO so maybe put it on a higher shelf in the oven or put a sheet pan or pizza stone underneath.
I would also try reducing the recipe to make a smaller loaves maybe 800 total flour Intead of 1100
If your house is warm your starter should double in less time than 12 hours. I use the newer Tartine method that doesn’t use an overnight levain. It is fed 1-1-1 in the morning and doubles in 3 or 4 hours at 78F then fed 1-1-1 again and used in the dough when it has doubled.
Try ending the bulk ferment when it has increased only 50% and give it a longer bench rest.
You should also try a different scoring pattern or maybe the flying top is a sign of it being slightly under proofed. MTCW GLWT
Thank you very much. I will give these things a try.
I own the Tartine audiobook "getting started with sourdough", where they first discussed their 2 x morning feed levain method.
The book is worth a listen, but I find the two morning feeds don't work for me, from a scheduling point of view - I want to be mixing dough in the morning, not early afternoon.
Lance
Hi there,
Your bread looks lovely!
I also use the Tartine method and have found the following things very helpful. Try not to skip the autolyse if possible, I think one of the reasons you are seeing a tighter crumb in this one is because you skipped this step. Also, it may help to do the autolyse and then add the salt. When I was starting out I would mix everything and do the autolyse and then start the bulk and I found that I would have a tighter crumb than when doing the autolyse without salt and then adding the salt and starting the bulk. A baker told me the salt interferes with the formation of the gluten strands that begin to form during the autolyse. I find a longer bench rest 20-30 mins helpful for me as well. I generally don't look for doubling in size during the bulk ferment more of what I go for is that marshmallow, airy feeling, and clean pulling away from the bowl (that Tartine talks about). Also a fun tip I learned from Robertson's new book "Bread Book" was that you can take a small piece of your dough and do the "float test" with it to see when it is ready to shape (drop in a glass of cool water) - I find this method to be hit or miss, but sometimes it can really help me decide when the bulk ferment is done. Lastly, I agree with the person who suggested putting a baking sheet in your oven under the dutch oven. This was such a game changer for me to have evenly baked bread!
Good luck!