I have been making sourdough for almost a year now. My bread is pretty consistent and not necessarily bad or wrong, but I feel like it could be better.. for example, I think the oven spring could be improved. I’ve also noticed that when I take it out of the fridge to score, it usually flattens and loses some shape. Overall, the taste seems fine. I might be overthinking it all at this point so maybe I just need some reassurance but any feedback would be nice 🙂
Recipe:
110g starter
350g water
500g KA bread flour
Mix together for about 2-3 min and then let rest for 30 min. After rest, mixed in 10g salt and 25g water for another minute or so.
Did 3 stretch and folds 30 min apart then left to sit on counter for about 4.5 hours. Pre-shaped, rest for 30, shaped and put in fridge for the night. Baked at 450 degrees for 25 min with lid on, 20 min with lid off.
Recipe is https://amybakesbread.com/sourdough-basic-country-artisan-bread/ with a couple tweaks.
by Hunkygrandma
35 Comments
Bro if i made this loaf i would be showing everyone i know these pics lol
This reminds me of the sub with the super hot only fans model, asking what she can do to improve
Looks perfect. I wish I could match this.
its fine
If you ask me, once you get to this being a consistency, I think the main thing you can do to learn it try new recipes, understand them, and maybe you’ll learn techniques to make your favorite loaf better, whatever that means to you.
It’s got beautiful ear, blisters, browning and nice open crumbs, I would be very happy If my bread came out like this! 😅
It looks great!!
You dif great. I think evcan agree on that. If you want to expand your knowledge. Plent people on YouTube explain their versions of sourdough and their techniques. I watched many videos almost 10 different accounts until I found the best one who I stil listen to today. His name is Patrick Ryan for a basic losf.
https://youtu.be/2FVfJTGpXnU?si=AS6Dc0MozY8FYuGl
For infused more complex recipes I found this one.
https://youtube.com/@thatsourdoughgal-v6l?si=NwauIJP_UFDXU5-Z
maybe you could improve oven pring by making sure you create a nice surface tension while shaping, but honestly i think this loaf look amazing!
Looks tasty to me!
Since you want to experiment, and mention that your loaf flattens after scoring, I would start by adding extra coil and folds during the BF to strengthen the gluten. Congratulations on a beautiful loaf
Seems like you run the risk of over relaxing the dough since you’re front loading strength. Try spreading your folds 1 hour apart to have more strength as it goes into the fridge. Your dough might not have enough extensibility
Looks yum
Girl what this looks amazing 😭
Crumb looks great. If you’re looking for more open crumb, kick up the hydration but the practicality of very wide open crumbs is minimal. So much s*** falls through in sandwiches.
If your sourdough dough is flattening a bit in the fridge, during the cold retard, then you’re probably overproofing a bit. You’ll want to adjust your bulk proofing and cold retard time depending on the temperature of the dough and the general ambient temperature of the kitchen.
What I can visibly see that you should probably work on is your *scoring*. Score over the same spot two or three times. Do not be afraid to cut deep and try to do it at an angle. Before you score the dough, think of it as the top half of a clock. You want to score between 1:00 and 2:00. It’ll take a bit of time semester but it should help with your oven spring and to have a more voluminous sourdough boule.
As an aside, you may also want to refocus, as well, pre-shaping and final shaping. Boules are far more difficult to shape batards, so a little extra time spent and trying to figure out how to appreciate and final shape properly we’ll go a long way in your sourdough journey.
I’ve been baking sourdough for 5 years and I still have off- baked. We all do. I still have stuff I need to work on and technique I need to tighten up, but overall I don’t beat myself up over some of the nuances. Frankly I’m the only one that notices when my sourdough does not come out near perfect. Everybody else who sees it and eats it never know or understand what I’m talking about when I lodge complaints and faults with what I baked.
Good luck.
Hi. Nice-looking loaf congratulations.
To up your game, you need to learn to read your dough before it over proofs and recognise when to curtail bulk ferment based on the percentage of volumetric rise.
The process begins with adding your levain to your bulk paste, presuming you autolyse the flour and water first.
The starter will make your paste very sticky. Persevere. It is important to thoroughly combine the paster and levain and to work it quite vigorously for five to eight minutes until the dough is a smooth and homogeneous texture if somewhat tacky . Rest the dough for an hour before commencing the stretching and folding.
It is important to avoid tearing the dough during the stretching and folding. Further, tho it may seem counterintuitive, wet your hands with cold water to avoid sticking to the dough. The initial stretch is a straight lift, allowing the dough stretch under its own weight. Let it drop slowly fold inwards on itself. Re-wetthe fingers and turn the dough 90° and repeat. After four or five folds, the dough will stop stet hing and lift cleanly of the bowl or counter. Let it rest ½ an hour before repeat the stretching and folding, or could folds or slap folds.
All this develops strength in the gluten so ot will hold shape.
Over proofing causes gluten to be broken down by bacteria, weakening the structure that can result in thin walled alveoli that have a tendency to tear or become holey. When scored, these large gas filled cells collapse, limiting the oven spring, which is nothing more than the expanding cells as they heat up in the early stages of baking before the gluten sets.
Your dough has only so much food for your yeast once they stop working. The bacteria and enzymes continue to thrive by breaking down your precious gluten into starch and sugars and hooch.
I hope this makes sense and wish you good luck.
Happy baking
🎣
I agree with everyone else, I would be stoked to pull this out of the oven.
But to give some ideas to try off the top of my head, none of which I guarantee to work but perhaps might help;
– Scale up the recipe to 600g of flour. It might just be missing the actual mass to spring in the oven, especially if your baneton is meant for larger dough volumes.
– Try 65% hydration instead of 70%. I’ve been really liking the results of these dryer doughs recently and find they spring very easily. However, they definitely are harder to work with initially, and I do think higher hydration doughs often taste better (specifically a little bit more sour), so feel free to skip this one.
– If scoring is a pain in the butt because the top layer isn’t sturdy and keeps tugging at the lame, don’t score it at all initially. Instead, when the oven is preheated, bake it for the first 3-5 minutes, then pull it out, score it, and put it back in (accounting for the time already spent baking). That way it’ll develop a very soft crust and make it so much easier to score.
– Try throwing an ice cube in with the dough as well whenever you put it in the oven, professional bakery ovens often have a steaming function for sourdough.
Taste taste taste – How does it taste and feel? Rarely do people discuss taste.
How does it taste ?
Mix in a bit of different flours. I like 15% of the four to be Rye and 5% to be whole wheat. Your spring is good, a better spring would honestly be down to luck or factors you can’t really control.
Do you use a stand mixer because that’s the thing that pops a lot of the casual loafs you see on this sub?
First half of the bake (first 15 mins) at least the first 5-8 mins you need TONS of steam, especially for an open bake. Are you baking in a dutch or open?
Add some diastatic malt powder, King Arthur sells it. It improves oven spring
I’m beginning to doubt you too. I doubt you can eat all that bread yourself, so why don’t you DM me for my address and send me some
Maybe you could do an autolyse 🤷♀️ might be worth a try
I swapped to 1 set of stretch and folds and 3-4 sets of coil folds (30 min apart) from my previous method of just 4 sets of stretch and folds and my oven spring is WAY better.
I also bake at 480 for 30 min now, then lid off at 425 for 5-10 until I like the colour. It has been pretty great results I think.
I think it looks good, if ever so slightly over proofed? You can tell right at the bottom, which is probably why you feel it doesn’t hold shape too well right before you score. Have you tried not doing an autolyze, how do you termine when your BF is done?
Love this because I was considering making a similar post today as I’m struggling with the same things! I think I’ve come to realize I’m over proofing slightly. My loaves are always nice and taste great but my oven spring is way inconsistent.
There are graphs you can reference to see what approximate temp your dough should be before it goes into its cold proof, as it will continue fermenting as it cools down. I’m going to start exploring that too 🙂
Finally, when you score make sure you’re doing it at an angle to get the ear. Sometimes I’ll make a slash and then go in almost horizontally and cut again to make sure it opens nicely.
Good luck on dialing it in!
Self doubt is the mark of an accomplished artist
Honestly this looks pretty perfect to me.
crushed it imo
Did you put in the oven directly out of the fridge? Or did you let it come to room temperature?
Beautiful loaf! I do understand wanting to fine tune things (although I don’t see it haha) We are our own worst critics! I’m fairly new to the sourdough baking world (white brad queen tho) so the only advice I can confidently give is if it taste great, good texture, and you and your loved ones enjoy it. It’s a great loaf of bread. Enjoy your baking!
That looks like one tasty loaf of bread to me. Tons of micro blisters, beautiful crust. Imo I like a somewhat tighter crumb like that because my butter, jam or sandwich toppings stay on or in my sandwich. I don’t like all my butter and jam to be oozing out onto my fingers while I eat lol