I like many others, started baking sourdough with the fear of overproofing dough. I always tried to aim for a percentage rise based on temparature and would never let my dough go above that, let alone double. After reading various sources and content creators (especially Trevor Wilson, open crumb mastery is a must read) I slowly started to experiment with taking fermentation further and further. The other day, I forgot about loaf #1 (pics 3 and 4) and ended up letting the dough double. The results were fantastic, so I thought why not try even further? Loaf #2 (pics 1 and 2) was bulked to about a 125% increase and was the first time I've achieved such a lacy yet even crumb structure – moral of the story is, experiment outside of your comfort zone with fermentation and see what happens!
Recipes: Loaf 1 – 33% einkorn flour, 67% bread flour, 20% starter, 83% water, 2% salt. Loaf 2 – 20% whole wheat flour, 80% bread flour, 85% water, 2% salt.
Method same for both loaves: autolyse 1-2 hours, mix in starter, wait 30 minutes add salt, wait 30 minutes and laminate, 3x coil folds 45 mins apart, bulks were both about 8 hours at 75f, shape and cold proof 18ish hours, bake at 450f 22 minutes covered 20 minutes uncovered
by Calamander9
7 Comments
Beautiful
Really nice crumb!
Nice bread 🙂
I really really agree with this. People are so in to minmaxing their way to a specific goal but come on, it’s bread you eat, learning can also be a much more organic process of experimenting, learning what you like and what works for your life/equipment/ingredients, and thinking critically about the results to improve them next time.
FWIW I almost always let my dough fully double, especially in winter kitchen temps, and get similar results to your crumb. If I’m baking in a loaf pan I’ll let it go even further. The time/temp fermentation chart passed around is a helpful guideline when you first start (for that specific dough and method), but people should absolutely use it as a basis for experimentation!
I think this is my issue. I let mine proof for 8 hrs over night. I thought it was fine but was just a little bit shy of where it needed to be.
Yes, I just learned on my last two also. And to not worry about over mixing on the Ankarsrum. And to not worry about baking them too dark. It was a trifecta of revelations. All this after 200 loaves baked.
I’m making two loaves right now to see if I can duplicate it again.
On higher hydration recipes, longer bulk leads to really sticky dough that’s difficult to shape. I have a lot more tolerance to push bulk and final proof with 40%+ whole wheat.
Sorry I’m new to this and am working on my first starter (on day 5 of feeding) how do these percentages work for those recipes? Like for loaf 2 would it translate to 20g whole wheat, 80g bread, 85g water and 2g salt?