I've been baking sourdough since March, there's been a couple very under proofed loaves, but most have been tasty if maybe slightly under proofed and not very tall.
This one looked promising…I ended up shaping it up a bit on the counter after pulling it from the fridge to tighten it. Looked good when I pulled it out the oven, I typically take the temp of the bread to double check but I skipped it this time since parts of the crust were dark. Let the bread rest for a day then cut into it to reveal the sad state of the inside. Pretty sure the weird area in the middle is from underbaking? :c
Dough:
130g levain (ww)
400g water
25g rye, 75g ww
450g bread flour
12g salt
Mix everything but salt. Rested 1 hr. Added salt with S&F 1. 2 more S&F 20 mins apart. Proof on the counter till about double – around 12hrs (house around 68F). Shape, rest, final shape, banneton. Fridge for 22 hours. Gathered the dough and did a couple tightening pulls on the counter. Into preheated DO at 450F, spray with water. 25 mins lid on. 20 mins lid off at 425F. Rested a full day in the cooled DO. Cut open to sadness.
by JustMediocreAtBest
9 Comments
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I don’t know how exactly you were tightening the bread just before baking, but I did that few times before, and that squeezed my dough together and left such thick underbaked spots in my dough. I don’t think that step should normally be done. Proof, shape, banetton in fridge. Then just pop it out before baking, score a into oven.
The bread looks good anyway.
It looks like you did everything right but underbaked. If you feel it’s getting too dark on top but you want to cook it longer next time because the temperature is not where it should be, you may wish to lay a bit of foil over the top as a shield.
Sorry for your sadness. It’s a learning process.
I preheat everything including the cast iron pot to 500 for 1 hour then bake at 450F (every oven is different) and it usually takes 25 covered + up to 30min uncovered. Straight from overnight in fridge to the pot. Your looks beautifully scored.
So close, just slightly underbaked. Great looking loaf otherwise.
Damnit— it needed a longer time probably about 40 minutes with the lid on. I’m so sorry.
For all it’s worth, my kitchen is the same temp and I rarely go beyond 6 hrs from mixing to fridge.
I mix ingredients, rest for an hour, add salt, S&F, just like you. But then I do 4 sets of S&F about 45 min apart. Shape, banetton, then rest on the counter a hour, up to two, but never beyond that. Fridge overnight and then I bake at 480° lid on in the beginning. The rest is more or less the same as you. But I’d say try a shorter bulk, do a couple more S&F and bump the initial temp to 480°.
• Mixing dough: The start of bulk fermentation.
This is basic method only put dry ingredients in bowl and combine. Add water and levain stir with stiff spoon or hand until all dry flour is combined. At this stage you have a chance to adjust your hydration to suit the flour but, over the next hour or two the flour will absorb more of the free fluids. So, aim for stickier than drier. I work the dough at this stage to a ensure that the dough is binding as a cohesive ‘ball’. Now the dough needs to rest.
Fermentation is a continuous process. Usually split in two. Bulk fermenttion is when multiple loaves are fermented together in one batch. Then proofing after the ‘ bulk ‘ has been reduced to individual loaves and shaped. Often times the proofing is done in refridgerated conditions to refine baking process. Especially with sourdough.
It is important to adjust the point at which the one finishes and the other starts. There needs tp be just enough ‘food’ to sustain the yeast through to baking. This is usually guaged by the % rise in volume of the raw dough. The longer the intended proofing the lower the % age rise. There are several other ways to guage the curtailment point tho.
My preferred rise is about 75%. I measure the volume of the just mixed dough and then finish the ferment in a bowl marked to double thata
I’m gonna go against the majority of the comments here and say this isn’t underbaked unless your oven isn’t up to temp. I have almost the same method minus the fridge proofing – but same proof time, ratios, bake time and temperature with lid on and off. This looks gummy, like you possibly underproved it or it got overproved during the fridge step.
What’s different is 68 degrees proofing. This is pretty cold and I find that my starter really slows down under 70 degrees. If I did this at 68 degrees, I’d need 14-15 hours for proofing with whole wheat and rye in the mix. Your starter might just be a bit sensitive to cold or slightly immature and weak.
Do the same exact thing again including proof temp but don’t do the fridge proof. Shape it and rest for 30 minutes before you bake. Same time, temp and everything. Tell me what happens.