I’ve been getting consistent results lately and I’m genuinely happy with how my loaves are turning out. That said, I’m getting some gumminess and tunneling (sometimes pockets around the edges) and I’m trying to understand where it’s coming from.
I feel like most of my issues come from shaping. I still feel uncomfortable when I do it. At the same time, my loaves all come out looking very similar, which makes me wonder if I’m reading the dough correctly or just repeating the same timing and muscle memory each bake.
I’m not chasing an instagram crumb or trying fix something that isn’t broken. I’m just trying to learn what I should be paying attention to and what’s actually worth improving. If this were your loaf, would you focus more on technique, fermentation cues, shaping, or all of the above?
This bake:
414g KA organic Bread Flour
34g KA organic Whole Wheat
379g Water
9g Salt
83g Starter
13:30 Autolyse flour and 330g water (4 hours).
17:30 Fold in starter, salt, remaining water. Mix ~3 minutes.
3 sets of stretch and folds 15 minutes apart.
3 sets coil folds 30 minutes apart.
Bulk ferment
22:50 Pre-shape and bench rest (30 minutes)
23:20 Shape and cold proof.
Dough temp: 77-79 F
Total fermentation time 5h 50 minutes
Cold proof 18h
Bake 450 F 25 minutes covered, score after 7 and bake 20 minutes uncovered.
by Particular_Use_6645
9 Comments
It looks like bread to me.
10/10. Would eat.
Looks fantastic!
Looks better than most! Shaping confidence will come with more reps, yeah?
You’re doing very well! Many congrats!
If you are not chasing an Instagram crumb, reduce your water. The crumb looks wettish, so I think the water is staying in the flour. It is also an option to bake longer to get more of the water out of the loaf if you prefer working with the dough as wet as it is. But shaping will be easier with less wer dough too.
379g water in 448g flour is 85% water.
As an experiment you could drop it down to 78% (350g) and see how you feel about the dough handling. If it is dry for your flour and environment you can always massage in a little extra water during stretch and folds.
If you suspect that it’s related to shaping, maybe consider trying a few different techniques if you haven’t already? Shaping it tighter or more aggressively with your current technique might also pop some of the bigger bubbles.
Beautiful
👏🏻👏🏻👌🏻