June 9, 2022 - 4:13am
First Sourdough Bread
First, thank you for the advice for my sourdough starter! It works and today I tried making my first sourdough bread.
I used the recipe from the link below:
https://www.feastingathome.com/sourdough-bread/#tasty-recipes-35045-jump-target
and halved the recipe, bulked proof it for 6 hours because it's warm here (about 25 degree Celcius). When I tried the poke test after 6 hours, it didn't spring back so I did the 2nd set of stretch right away. Then I final proofed it in the fridge for 1 hour then scored and baked it directly.
It looks undercooked and tastes gummy, and the ear part burnt while the other part is still pale. Should I just try to lower the temperature and bake it longer? Or is it underproofed? Any other advice to make it better?
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Yes I agree it is under fermented. I don’t use the poke test for end of bulk, I’m not sure that it is accurate for that. It is much better used to determine the end of final proof and only on warm (not cold retarded) dough. The gumminess is typical for under fermented bread.
Proofing
To assess the proofing/fermentation ignore the big holes first. What is the crumb like, are the alveoli in the crumb tiny and tight then more likely to be underfermented. Is the crumb overall actually pretty nice and not tight then not underfermented. Then the large hole characteristics next. Are there large tunnels through the bread and not necessarily immediately under the crust? This along with the tight crumb equals underfermented. Are the large holes immediately under the crust? Do these large holes show in them signs of gluten breakdown with thin broken gluten strands? Then this points towards overfermented. Then look at the profile of the loaf, decent oven spring or excessive oven spring is more associated with under proofing whereas flat profile is more associated with overproofing.
You’ll want to ferment for longer, probably more of both bulk fermentation and some warm final proofing before any cold retard. You’ll need to experiment to figure that out. A lot of this depends on how active your starter and thus your levain is when used.
Benny
Thanks, Benny, that's very helpful, I'm going to experiment more!
Tania