Wondering if my loaf has been under or over proofed you guys are much more knowledgeable with this stuff the. I am. Recipe is 400g flour, 300g water 8g salt, Bulk fermented for about 3.5 hours in oven with light on at about 78-79deg.
Thanks for your help, also wondering if there are any tips on how to improve and get a better ear
by Frostfired
14 Comments
Not sure about the ear, sorry
But the crumb looks great! 🙂
Your bread looks lovely. If it looks good, and tastes good, I wouldn’t worry overmuch about anything else.
This idea that good bread must have a huge flap of rock-hard crust sticking out the top (that’s hard to cut through, and can hurt your mouth if you bite it wrong) is just an arbitrary standard that looks pretty in pictures. It’s not a sign of actual quality, or lack thereof.
If you want a more pronounced ear then you need to score deeper and at a 45° angle. I find that using a small serrated paring knife works way better than a blade because it doesn’t snag on the dough as you slice it, which means cleaner cuts (it’s what we use in commercial bakery too)
Once your bread is mostly proofed, maybe 75%- 85% then put in the fridge or freezer for a bit to firm up the skin of the dough piece. If you don’t do this there is a possibility that your dough will deflate when you cut it, especially if you’re cutting it deeper in order to get a nice ear to pop
Have you heard of the five minute score? If you open bake it’s easiest in my experience. But 5 minutes after baking you can open up and restore in case it has started to close up already. It helps get the sought after ear and you can add more steam and the close back up and finish baking
Why do want an ear? You can’t spread butter on an ear.
Looks great. Ears are overrated. You got good oven spring, good looking crumb. Lack of ear is probably scoring technique.
I’m no expert, but your bread looks how my bread looks after 12 hour fridge ferment. I get more ear if I fridge ferment for a couple more days.
It’s perfectly proofed. I learned through personal experience that hydration can drastically change what the ear looks like. Lower hydration gets a worse ear than higher hydration.
Having the oven at too high a heat can also mess with the ear and rise. 230°c seems to be a good temp. I now keep a thermometer in my Dutch oven til it’s ready for the dough and spritz with a small amount of water before going back in the oven. This has helped my ear.
Hi. Very nice looking loaf. More ear us method of cutting see my profile for Basic expansion / decoration cuts.
The load appears very slightly over proofed evidenced by holes in cell membranes and some few signs of tearing or early collapse.
Happy baking
Looks fine and dandy!
This is excellent bread, butter it and enjoy! you don’t need to do what’s trendy on reddit 😉
It’s looks perfect to me. ‘Ears’ are sharp when biting into it.
I’d eat that everyday
I agree with what others are saying, the crumb looks great, not to open or tight, well proofed. Looks delicious which is the most important thing. But also, I’m a professional baker, and love the learning of how or why things happen, especially when you’re just working with 3 ingredients. If you want to experiment with *how* to get an ear, I’d try mixing it a little longer, especially if you’re hand mixing. I find a lot of people who hand mix are very gentle with it, but gluten likes it rough. I bake my loaves fresh from the fridge (or try to, sometimes they may need a little more proofing). Use steam. Steal a wooden coffee stir from your local coffee shop for your blade, to help angle it. But do all that in the spirit of learning and experimentation. This loaf is great as is, and if you reached your goal, A+!