Hi everyone!

Overall I'm very happy with the taste and crumb of my sourdough bread. It's nice and airy with a tangy smell/taste and slightly moist crumb, I love it.

The problem is that the bread always kind of spreads out while baking. With a round shape it's less noticable, but a batard will turn into a circle shape and turn flatter than it should be.

I have a lot of experience with baking bread with yeast, and the loaves turn out exactly as I want them. I notice with sourdough that the dough is 'ready' after bulk fermentation and shaping goes easily without much stickiness at all. However, after the cold proof overnight (fridge), the dough starts spreading out after taking it out of the banneton, and this continues while baking. I'm thinking it's overproofing in the fridge, but I'm stuck as to how I can solve this..

Any tips?

Here are the ingredients I used:

  • 500g flour (375g white 14% protein + 125g full grain)
  • 100g starter (20%)
  • 340g water
  • 10g salt

Bulk ferment around 4-4,5h + overnight proofing in the fridge

by -DoofusRick-

2 Comments

  1. Hi thank you for the post. From the looks of your bread you are right on the cusp of getting it perfect. I noticed in your recipe that you didn’t give much detail about the process you used. Please include it in a comment so that we can have more to go off of and so that you meet rule 5 which asks for a complete recipe with bread pictures.

    Thank you

  2. -DoofusRick-

    Here’s the full process:

    Prep:

    – 1 hour autolyse
    – add starter and rest for 30min
    – 2 hours of stretch & folds every 30min
    – 4 to 5 hours of bulk fermentation, depending on growth. I aim to see the dough either doubled or slightly less.
    – Preshape + bench rest 30min (covered)
    – Final shaping
    – Cold retard in fridge: approx from 8-10pm until 10am.

    Baking:

    – 25min covered at 230 degrees celsius, it’s the highest my oven will go and it’s no problem with yeast breads.
    – 25min uncovered

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