I’ve been practicing my sourdough bread for about 6 months. I have the process down fairly well (or at least I think I do). The only thing I want to figure out is how to make the crust a tiny bit less chewy.
My recipe / process…
- 75g active starter. Mine will double in about 3 hours and triple in 6 + 375 g water (110F) + 500g King Arthur Bread Flour + 11g salt.
I mix the starter, water and flour and let autolyse for 30 mins.
I add the salt and do 4 sets of stretch and folds over 2 hours.
I bulk rise in a straight wall container until about 75% gain. Usually 6 hours-ish.
I form and bench rest for 30 minutes before putting in a banneton basket and the cold proofing in fridge for 24-36 hours.
I preheat a Dutch oven in a 500F oven. Then drop temp to 450 and cook covered with 2 ice cubes for 30 mins and uncovered for 20.
Cool on rack for 2-3 hours.
by Puzzleheaded-Age1661
4 Comments
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Get the internal temperature to 95°C
If your crust is becoming too thick, my understanding is that you want more time covered (steamy, so crust doesn’t set fully as quickly) and less time uncovered.
Try kicking up the temp to 500 when you uncover and baking for less time? I do 20 min covered with ice cubes at 450F and 10-20 min uncovered at 500F. This is a guess but my thought is that would set that crust quicker. Alternatively you could go towards an enriched dough which would soften things up, using olive oil, butter, milk, coconut milk, etc.