Loaf 51 – Longer Proof Sourdough

Posted on Jun 11, 2012 in loaves

Loaf 50 was finally getting close to what I want in a sourdough bread, but the crumb was still too dense. My flash of insight from that loaf was that I wasn’t proofing it long enough. This loaf is exactly the same, but instead of proofing it for 2 hours and 15 minutes I proofed it for 3 hours and 50 minutes.

Like before, I shaped the batards to the best of my ability and let them rise on a couche. I folded the top of the couche over the loaves during proofing. When I did the poke test on loaf 50 at the 2 hour point there were still a few areas that felt firmer that the rest of the loaf. After another 15 minutes the whole loaf felt uniformly soft and the finger indentations slowly rose back out. I though that was enough, but I was wrong.

With these loaves I left the house so that I wouldn’t fret over them. I knew I wanted them to proof for 3½ to 4 hours so I tried to stay out quite awhile. At the 3½ hour mark they were very soft and the indentations from the poke test took a long time to rise out.

The skin of the dough (which is the bottom of the loaf) was getting dry and firm. I was actually afraid that I had over-proofed them. They didn’t deflate when I scored them, which was a good sign, but it did take them an extra minute or two before they started popping up in the oven, so I was worried once again.

The finished loaf was beautiful, and surprisingly the score had expanded just as much as the prior loaf. I had expected less stretching along the score line.

I let the loaves cool on a rack for an hour, then finally wielded my bread knife.

Success!

I knew as soon as I started cutting that the loaf was much better. The knife sawed through with none of the resistance it had met with all my prior sourdough loaves. It still had sourdough’s signature large holes, and the rest of the crumb was light and airy. My dense crumb problem was gone! It even seemed to be smiling at me. 🙂

I am really happy with this loaf. This is my tenth attempt at sourdough at home, and I’m finally proud of what I’ve done.

Next Steps
There’s always room for improvement, and my next job will be to coax a nice sourdough flavor out of my starter. I used my starter at the peak of its growth, so it was as mild and sweet as it could be. That was reflected in the flavor of this loaf – very mild and non-distinctive. My next experiments will be tuning the hydration and the timing of the starter to find the right balance of flavors.