
Hey All,
I'm a very novice sourdough baker, with mostly successes until now. I tend to work a bit.. loosely, not exactly with a recipe rather using it as a reference, without actually measuring ingredients and all.
I have used white flour, and a good, active starter i made.
I used this recipe:
Mix (Autolyse)
• In a large bowl, mix:
• 500g flour
• 350g water
• Stir until no dry spots remain.
• Let it rest 30–60 minutes (this helps gluten form naturally).Add starter + salt
• Add 100g active starter and 10g salt to the dough.
• Mix well, folding and pinching to combine fully.
• Cover and rest 30 minutes.Bulk fermentation (4–6 hours at room temp)
• Every 30–45 minutes, stretch and fold the dough:
• Grab one side, stretch it up, fold over. Turn the bowl and repeat 4 times.
• Do this 3–5 times during the bulk rise.
• Dough should get puffy and airy.Pre-shape + Bench rest
• Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface.
• Gently shape into a round. Let it rest 20–30 minutes, uncovered.Final shape + Proof
• Shape into a tight boule or batard.
• Place into a floured proofing basket (or bowl with a towel).
• Cover and let rise:
• Option A: Room temp for 1–2 hours
• Option B (best): Refrigerate overnight (8–16 hrs) — improves flavor and scoringBake
• Preheat oven to 250°C / 480°F with a Dutch oven or baking stone inside.
• Turn dough onto parchment, score the top with a razor or sharp knife.
• Bake:
• 20 min covered, then
• 20–25 min uncovered at 230°C / 450°F, until deep golden and crusty
• Let cool completely before slicing.
It looked really good on the outside, we were all excited and happy, and when we opened…
We laughed really good, and ended up carving all of the inside (most of it was creamy dough) and eating just the crust 🙂
Can anyone explain?
thanks!
by Proud-Exercise-5417

27 Comments
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was the oven on?
Looks like your oven was malfunctioning.
Maybe double check that your oven is temping correctly, preheat with a thermometer inside and make sure it matches the temp you set it to.
Toooooo many folds. Less is more.
Did you attempt to add the starter, and ended up missing the bowl entirely? 🙂
I thought this was a cream-filled pastry at first. It looked good for a sec.
I would like to know what happened too. It’s so unique in that I’ve never seen anything like it.
Your oven shut off at some point.
I saw this and thought it was a literal ice cream sandwich omg I’m so sorry that happened
Your oven turned off. I’d put an oven thermometer in there and bake something like potatoes that takes a long time, get up and record temp every 10 min. If it’s fluctuating, it’s malfunctioning. Doesn’t necessarily mean the whole thing is broken, there’s small parts in the back that can be replaced first.
To me it looks like the oven and Dutch oven were preheated, which gave you the nice golden crust, but you turned it off when you put the dough in and that’s why it didn’t cook all the way through.
Definitely an oven issue but it also looks like you do stretch and folds the entirety of the bulk rise and sometimes go right into the fridge? You only need to do them a few times and you want to leave the dough alone to rise undisturbed before putting in the fridge since it will only proof a tiny bit more once refrigerated. It should be basically proofed before going in, the fridge is for adding flavor rather than more proofing. I do 3 S&F about 45 minutes apart and then leave it alone until it’s risen enough.
You say you don’t measure ingredients at all but you have specific measurements in your recipe. I definitely would try to follow recipes accurately rather than eyeballing everything, especially if you’re a “very novice” baker,
It really looks like an attempt I tried to save when I made the mistake of accidentally turning off my oven instead of turning off my timer. I’d say faulty oven or someone turned off the oven on accident. I would have died laughing breaking into this baby.
I wonder if your oven is actually capable of getting that hot, and if it’s not then you don’t really know what temp it is.
I say that because my oven can barely get to 400 degrees F. I’m able to find some altered recipes where I can still bake just fine, but 480 seems SO high. I think 500 is usually “self cleaning” temp.
You didn’t bake it
Check internal temperature with a probe thermometer when you thinking it is done. Bake until core of loaf reaches 200F.
there isnt enough gluten on there. that is really runny. how did you shape it? Or did it somehow turn to goop in the oven?
Looks like the inside didn’t bake through at all. Might be a combo of too high hydration, underdeveloped gluten, and not enough time in the oven. Try letting it proof a bit longer, shape it tighter, and make sure you bake it all the way — even if the crust looks done!
You forgot to bake it
It’s underproofed and underbaked.
Here for the comments.
Dud you accidentally have the oven set to 250 Fahrenheit?
That may not be bread
The recipe you used doesn’t sound to me like it has enough proofing/rising in it. Starters can vary in their activity level, but for even 10 hours of proofing at room temperature to be adequate you need a higher percentage of starter or your room temp needs to be like 85F. The yeast in many sourdough starter strains basically completely pause at fridge temps, flavor and gluten degradation continue but slow down.
Also, your oven definitely turned off
Not the creampie sourdough bandit again