Can anyone suggest why my sourdough is not rising in the oven? I am following the recipe exactly and lots of kneading and time to prove. It is looking lovely and then I put it in the oven and it does not rise any more. This has never been a problem in the past although I havent been doing it long ( on and off for a little while). Previous loaves have risen beautifully in the past but they arent now and i dont think anything has changed.
Thanks in advance
Kylie29
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Replies
Hi Kylie29,
There is a bit of a trade-off between the rise that you get in proving and the oven spring that you get in baking. In the realm of underproved dough there is often more oven spring with the attendant risk of bursting in unwanted places and more pronounced bursts at the slash line. As the loaf progresses to fully proved, the amount of oven spring reduces, the burst is less pronounced and for a fully proved loaf there might not be much spring or burst at all. When you go into the over-proved situation, the dough becomes fragile and can collapse with handling and oven spring is minimal/non-existent and it certainly doesn't burst.
You don't say what the finished loaves are like but you do say that after proving they look lovely and I assume that they just don't get bigger to any significant degree in baking. So one possibility is that your proving conditions are perhaps a little warmer and the dough is getting closer to being fully proved and the oven spring is reduced as a result.
Perhaps on your next bake you could give a little less time in your proving stage and see what happens. But, if your bread has a satisfactory crumb and texture, the amount of oven spring is really no big deal.
Good luck with your projects.
Farinam