sourdough bread

It's not going to be "soft" like commercial white loaves. Sourdough is basically a fairly dense bread which is low GI and very good for you, even if you have mild wheat or gluten allergies. It's never going to be really "soft". But it tastes MUCH better than commercial pap

Hi Laura,

I bake my breads in a clay pot. I have found that addition of some buttermilk not only softens the bread, but make for nicer toasts when the bread has lost some of its freshness and is not as nice eaten as is. I use dried buttermilk. As well, I make it a point to always have a larger percentage of Unbleached All Purpose Flour than any other flours that I may be using, usually it's unbleached bread flour and a little bit of rye flour.

 The bread in stores are soft because they add "stuff" to them to make them soft.  You can make a soft bread but most likely it will be more than water, flour, and salt.  I have noticed when I made bread with some oil as part of the hydration it made for a soft crumb.  You can also try the recipe for "Fred Bread" on this forum as it for some reason has a soft crumb.

 I have heard about baking in clay soup pots and even using Clay flower pots.  Which do you use?  Can you upload a picture?

 It's not a good idea to actually bake in or on terra cotta.  Lots of heavy metals, and that's not good eats (if I might borrow a quote from Alton Brown).  It's fine to use terra cotta as a cloche, but buy a pizza stone that is made for baking, if you want to bake on a stone.

[quote=laurapom]

Hi all, I am new to baking breads and I have had some success, they look pretty and they taste good but when it come's to the inside I just can't seem to get it soft like in the store, also not a lot of holes.  Can anyone help me figure out what I might be doing wrong? I have tried several different reciepes but usually all with the same problem.  I have been baking my bread in a dutch oven, love the look, hate density!  Please help me!

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  I've noticed when I don't let my dough rise enough and bake for 50 mins at like 425 degree F, it will brown on the outside but be very dense and not cooked enough on the inside, but when I let it rise overnight on counter, punch it down, form loaf and let it rise for another 3-4 hours before baking.  It results in bigger holes, and in turn the inside cooks better and is softer and less dense.  I also spray mine with water 2-3 times during bake, which makes for softer crust.  I also bake directly on cooking stone that I let preheat for 1 hour+.  I think these parameters also depend on size of loaf, in which case my usual is 2lbs.

Hope that helps.

[quote=laurapom]

Hi all, I am new to baking breads and I have had some success, they look pretty and they taste good but when it come's to the inside I just can't seem to get it soft like in the store, also not a lot of holes.  Can anyone help me figure out what I might be doing wrong? I have tried several different reciepes but usually all with the same problem.  I have been baking my bread in a dutch oven, love the look, hate density!  Please help me!

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The way to get  big "holes" in your bread is to use a wet dough. It should be sticky, so that it is difficult to handle. I used a mixer with dough hook to solve this problem. Then let the dough rise for a long time. It will easily double in size and have big "holes"... GUARANTEED!

Jeff

[quote=laurapom]

Hi all, I am new to baking breads and I have had some success, they look pretty and they taste good but when it come's to the inside I just can't seem to get it soft like in the store, also not a lot of holes.  Can anyone help me figure out what I might be doing wrong? I have tried several different reciepes but usually all with the same problem.  I have been baking my bread in a dutch oven, love the look, hate density!  Please help me!

[/quote]

You should not give up on your objective of producing sourdough with a good crust and a soft crumb, simply from flour, water, starter and salt.  The following factors usually work for me - use a high hydration dough (75% or more); autolyse for 30 mins before adding the salt; don't skimp on the bulk fermentation period; work the dough with wet hands by stretch and folds in the mixing bowl; shape and prove in the refridgerator overnight, but ensure that the dough is not under proved before baking; bake on a hot stone with a pan of water in the oven; have the oven on max for the first 10 or 15 mins and lower the temperature for the remainder; when I get it right, including not having under or over proved the dough, the crumb can be deliciously soft, plus you get a good crust and taste.  It doesn't work every time, but that's usually because I have done something different!

Cook it longer, I had this problem until I ignored any preset notions of cooking times and started judging by the darkness of the crust, I go for a mahogany colored crust, I noticed with a dense loaf the problem seemed to be wetness inside a longer cook time seem to alleviate this problem.

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