One night two weeks ago I couldn't sleep. So I got up, went to the kitchen and strated making bread.
I mixed 200 gr starter, 350 gr water, 280 gr white flour and 250 gr whole wheat flour.
I kneaded it lightly, then let it sit for half an hour. I then added a tsp and a half of salt, kneaded it again, put it in a dish lined with baking paper, slashed it and went to sleep, dreaming of the beautiful bread I'll have in the morning.
Next day I eagerly rushed to the kitchen to see how the bread had risen. I was totally taken aback by what met my eyes. The bread didn't just rise, it overflowed the dish and had spilled all over!
I decided to add more flour and water. I'm not sure how much and for how long I let it rise because I didn't write it down. But I kept roughly the same proportions. This time I thought I should slash the dough just before baking. I slashed on 4 sides all around.
I looked at it through the oven door as it was baking. I was happy to see it was rising. It was a very large loaf.
One of the slashes had opened too much, more than the rest. Maybe because it was in a hotter part of the oven.
I wasn't really pleased with the flavour, maybe a bit more salt would be better, or maybe longer baking time.
But just now I looked at the camera and was impressed by a close up photo of the grain, so I thought I might upload it.
Replies
This was happening to my loaves, so I stopped using the square-shaped slash and went for a cross instead.
I also have problems with the bottom of the crust tearing as the bread springs. I think this is because the air currents in my fan oven dry out the crust too fast (even when I put a whole tray of boiling water in the oven with the bread).
One thing I plan on doing is getting a baking stone and using that instead of a baking tray. I suspect that the baking tray is suffocating and insulating the bottom of the crust, while the air currents in the oven harden the upper crust. This seems to cause the bread to burst at the softer lower crust.
If a new oven (with a non-fan option) and a baking stone don't improve the outcome, then I'll probably try covering the bread with a casarole dish for the first 10 mins or so to prevent the crust from drying out too soon.