I'm loving baking sourdough. I do have a problem. The dough doubles in size when proving but comes out flat as a pancake from the oven. I can't seem to make boules. Is the dough too wet? Should I change my loaf recipe? My starter seems fine? Should I use a bread tin to give it height? Is living in the humidity of the Caribbean a factor. The 'flatbread' is delicious.
Category:
Replies
My guess is over proofing. If it is rising well than falling in the ove, that's my guess!
Hello Pamamac,
I would suggest that shasta has nailed it.
I'm guessing that your room temperature is reasonably high and so your fermentation times are likely to be significantly shorter than you might see mentioned in recipes and methods.
One option is just to shorten the time that you leave the dough to prove. It might only require a couple of hours. In the meantime try to learn about the poke test. It can be a bit subjective but once you get the idea it can be useful if conditions (temperature) change.
The other is find a cooler spot or to use the fridge to slow things down but either way, you have to be able to assess when the proof is sufficient although things will be more reproducible in a temperature controlled environment such as the fridge.
A less likely possibility is that the dough has been over-developed initially but that is quite difficult to do unless you are using some high power input for the kneading. It is far more likely to be the combination of time and temperature. So higher temperature - less time.
Good luck with your projects.
Farinam
Just from your description, as the others suggest try decreasing your proving time but also maybe decrease your rising time. Although it is preferable, your dough does not have to "double in size" if it is being over fermented. Also, if you can, try a different source of flour, it may be that the flour you are using does not have enough gluten to maintain the crumb structure.
I hope this helps
Pamamac I am completely having the same problems. My loaves are tasty but have the following issues...
1) Dense texture and no large bubbles apart from a few near the crust 2) Not rising in the oven or deflating slightly 3) Soggy bottoms despite experiments with pizza stones and heating metal trays in oven first
I thought that I was under rising and under proving, rather than the opposite? Today's loaf I have left longer at both stages. The rise had lots of bubbles and fermentation and looked very promising. I then knocked it back, chaffed and put in the proving bowl. I allowed an extra hour on recipe compared to yesterday. Carefully sliced the top, which revealed some enticing bubbles! Only to tear open the bread to find yet another dense, soft loaf with an awesome crust that tastes yum!
I have seen that rye can affect the airation and this recipe has 100g rye flour. I haven't been able to follow the feed about hydration and I need to research this as I have no idea what that means. I have been making a Pain de Campagne recipe a lot recently but this also uses yeast so feel as if it is a bit of a cheat!
If anyone has a link to images of each stage of the process, including rising and proving then that might help. Also maybe a different recipe to the one I am using. I know that there are many online but it's hard to know what to go for. I am a new working mum in Leeds, England and spend far too much time on making bread already, so cannot go and source rare grains! I have been doing this for 6 months and am not giving up now.
Thanks folks!
Current recipe
300g starter
400g strong white
100g Rye flour
10g Salt
10 g sugar
250ml water
Hello Jess,
Have a look at this contribution of mine - http://sourdough.com/blog/one-way-make-loaf-bread
A recipe with 25% rye flour can make for a dough that is difficult to handle if you are not used to it. I have found that a very good recipe for beginners to find their feet is the Pane francesa recipe that SourDom gives in his beginners blogs on this site (link at the top right of each page). These blogs are also a very good source of advice for beginners.
Hydration is just the ratio of liquid to flour in the recipe expressed as a percentage. With yeasted recipes this is pretty simple but with sourdough you really need to take into account the water and flour in the levain (starter) in the recipe. With a white wheat flour somewhere about 70% (350 g liquid with 500g flour) gives a dough that is pretty easy to handle for most people.
If you are using other flours then the situation will change due to changes in the gluten content of the flour and the absorbency of the flour components. Wholemeal flour will give a stiffer dough at the same hydration due to the effects of the bran and germ on water absorbancy. The roughage will also affect the strength of the gluten structure that is developed so it is often better to start with a lowish percentage of such flours (say 10%) and build up the proportion as your expertise grows rather than get depressed by seeming failures.
Hope this helps you out but feel free to ask if you need more assistance.
Good luck with your projects.
Farinam
Panamac - just re-read your post to see that our issues are slightly different. Have you tried proving in a basket? I also found that using the fridge to rise or prove dough was a happy accident! It got to midnight in the early days of making and it had to do a stage in the fridge so I could get some sleep before work!