2d (edited) • 🔥SHOW US YOUR BAKES!
Learn From My Mistakes: Patience & Trapped Moisture
I'm all about full transparency, so let's take a look at what I did wrong and how to fix it! ✨️💯
**long read ahead**
Even sourdough microbakery owners can have a flop every now and then😅 ESPECIALLY when they're so eager to do the experiment that they rush through it and don't think first🤭🤣 so let me tell you how to learn from my mistakes this time around👇🏼
Our monthly challenge at the table this month is hydration exploration - comparing your regular hydration to a new one you dare to try. And although I've handled dough at this hydration before, I've since changed up some of my methods (used to use tea towels as liners and switched to plastic shower caps for convenience) and silly me didn't properly think this one through🤫 just know I immediately ordered some more tea towels after this🤣
Anyway let's get into the nitty gritty...
My ✨️impatience✨️stems from my eagerness to see the finished product. In turn I cloud my senses and don't think it through properly
👀Checking for bulk ferment doneness:
I temped my dough and each dough was at slightly different temps, resulting in almost exact same bulk ferment time. As I pulled the dough away from the bowl (80% loaf) I noticed the resistance, although it did eventually pull off. And I knew... I KNEW it needed longer. How did I know? Because the other wasn't ready (64% loaf) and I knew they should be done at the same time... BUT, against my intuition, I went ahead and shaped it anyway🤦🏻♀️ 1 hour was the difference!! If I would've waited just ONE hour, that would've fixed one mistake. ⏳️Patience⏳️
👐🏼Shaping:
When shaping the 80% hydration loaf I did not flour the surface nor my hands beforehand - and I highly wish I would've. Because I didn't, I wasn't able to get a super tight shaping that I wanted due to the dough sticking to my fingers. I could have also wet my fingers... but in this case with the plastic shower caps, flour would've been helpful 😅 Also 👉🏼, I should have let the dough rest at least 5 minutes after reshaping to allow the gluten to relax, hence the cracking on the exterior crust (also caused by slightly underproofing)
💦Moisture:
Speaking of the plastic liners, let's talk about the trapped moisture. Two things: due to me not getting a tight shape for a high hydration loaf, the dough spread out when removing from the basket. Plus the ripping of the plastic off the surface of the dough finishing that spread job🤦🏻♀️ Because I used plastic as the liner & the cover for the basket, the dough is covered in a layer of moisture. When I decided to reshape, that moisture got trapped in the creases of my shaping and caused the gummy lines you see in the crumb. I knew this would happen because I've experienced this exact thing before... but I was hoping by some miracle it wouldn't this time🤪 On top of that, the 1 hour underproofing really sealed the deal for that gummy bottom line and large holes at the top of the crumb.
🔥Dutch Ovens: I might also add that I have two different dutch ovens... one that I love and one that just SUCKS😅 I baked the 64% in the one that sucks, so the bottom sides are super browned from hitting the sides 🤦🏻♀️ I WILL be ordering two new dutch ovens this month!! ✅️
When I get those new dutch ovens, I'll be doing this experiment again👌🏻💯
I hope this is huge help to someone!! Maybe I made these mistakes so someone else could get their aha moment 😂🤣
3:19
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Learn From My Mistakes: Patience & Trapped Moisture
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