Hey guys, I’ve baked about 4 loaves now and they’ve turned out pretty good (I still think the bottom crust could be less tough and wish the loaves would rise a bit more)
This time I decided I wanted to try a sweet loaf. So I did:
375g warm water with milo and instant coffee powder
100g starter that I fed the night before and it had doubled and was floating in the water
500g flour
About 100g chocolate chips during the stretch and folds and shaping
Mixed it all up and kneaded it for 5-10 mins to help with the gluten formation (I heard it helps to do this earlier on), then did 4 sets of stretch and folds every 30 mins and let it bulk ferment for about 8 hours until it doubled and then cold proofed for about 12 and baked it the next day… nothing new/changed other than the mixins
It looked good when I took it out but then I cut into it, the top had an air bubble, and it was all gummy and raw 😭😭😭 I was pretty keen to eat it so was really disappointing… any idea why it failed so badly? 🥲
by One-Resolve87
15 Comments
I thought this was a rib, I’m sorry 😭
This is going to sound silly, but I swear I am not trying to be an ass… did you accidentally set the oven to the wrong temp? AND if there’s no chance of that, have you cooked anything in the oven since this loaf and are you certain the oven is heating properly?
Because there’s nothing about instant coffee powder and some chocolate chips that should make a usually reliable bake turn out THIS underbaked looking. Like yes they can melt and add more moisture into the dough, but this looks beyond that to me.
Have you tried a sweet version of the recipe before? Or is the milo/espresso/chocolate all new? It might have behaved differently because of the additions. Sugar content massively impacts fermentation.
I like making a cinnamon roll sourdough focaccia. I use cinnamon baking chips mixed throughout my dough, but the brown sugar ripple only gets added at the end because if I add it in too soon it messes with my ferment.
If these additions were changes made to a base recipe, it might be a good idea to check out a recipe that is designed for sweet mix ins.
Less mix ins……
Did you take the temperature of the loaf before taking it out of the oven?
I’m asking because this weekend I had a blueberry lemon loaf that didn’t behave normally at all. I had to bulk ferment it an extra long time. When I took the cover off the Dutch oven after 45 minutes of cooking, it was still flat and looked raw. When I temped it at one hour (at 425f) it was only reading 100 degrees–half what it should have been. I put the cover back on so it wouldn’t get too brown and cooked for 20 more minutes, and when I took it out, it had risen beautifully and was finally the right temperature.
I have no idea what happened, but it wasn’t raw when I took it out because it had hit 205 degrees Fahrenheit.
I think the Milo powder may have caused some trouble. Its first ingredient is Malted Barley (ahead of sugar and cocoa). If that is active malted barley it would make the enzymes in the flour more available to the yeast. That would might have over proofed the dough during the fridge time and kept going, destroying the gluten network. The instant coffee powder or liquid coffee would be fine.
Just a note: I am not positive that the malted barley is active because I do not know the manufacturing process for Milo
If you used 50g Cacao and 30-50g sugar instead of the Milo I think you will have a better, more normal result. Let the cacao bloom in the water for a few minutes before adding the other ingredients.
Pantry mama also has a good recipe for chocolate sourdough with choc chips. I do add a teaspoon of instant coffee to her recipe.
https://pantrymama.com/chocolate-sourdough-bread/
I’m sorry, I thought this was an animal carcass 🤣😭
I thought this was a nicely cooked rib. Im so sorry.
Is it chocolate? I am tempted to try a chocolate chip loaf but havent done add ins yet.
😱 at first glance….
Ah I don’t have a probe thermometer 😅 so was basing it purely on recipe times. Maybe I didn’t make it for long enough then! It looked like it had risen fine so I wasn’t too worried but then it just completely collapsed when I cut into it..
It’s giving cadaver
I literally thought this was a mummy autopsy
I thought the last picture was a steak! 😅
With the add-ins, and assuming a 50/50 starter, this is almost 80% hydration. Which is absolutely bonkers. I don’t recommend newbies doing any more than 70% hydration, and really 65% is best. Take at least 75 grams out of the water, and try again using high-hydration techniques, like slap and folds for 10 minutes before the stretch and folds, and really stretching far during the stretch and folds.
Sorry, I didn’t get how much time it takes to bake it.
My latest bread with 400g flour, 100gr stiff starter and 240 g water with dried tomatoes, olives and herbs ( 80 g)was 45 min in oven 230 C ( covered) and then 15 mins 200 open to get done. It might be that your mix required more time for the total weight