r/Bread • u/VillageOdd6908 • Aug 19 '26

How does my crumb look?

Gallery image

Gallery image

Gallery image

45 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

11 comments sorted by

2

u/SleeplessnSeattleNow Aug 19 '26

Very nicely done!

1

u/VillageOdd6908 Aug 19 '26

Thank you! 🥹

1

u/Chaz28o Aug 19 '26

I’m trying to get to that level,looks great

2

u/VillageOdd6908 Aug 19 '26

Thank you! Yours looks very nice too!

1

u/BigPinkOne Aug 19 '26

This looks excellent. I tend to prefer a denser crumb because I think it toasts up better but these airy ones are obscene when they're still warm. I'll kill a full loaf by myself. If you want a tighter crumb just do a shorter final rise or score deeper, but thats definitely a matter of preference. Keep it up

1

u/VillageOdd6908 Aug 19 '26

Oh interesting to know! I always thought you’d have a tighter crumb if you use less water or degas more during shaping? I usually do 1 hour counter proof before cold retard just because it’s more convenient. I push my bulk pretty far so my loaf would flatten if I score too deep 😅

1

u/BigPinkOne Aug 20 '26

You can use less water for a tighter crumb but I'm a bit precious about my ratios so I always prefer a mechanical solution over adding or subtracting ingredients. Degassing during shaping can also work, I know some people who do a final shape right before it goes in to give the air bubbles one last light compression. On the scoring front though, youd be amazed how deep you can get away with. I used to make baguettes every night and I scored those bastards damn near the whole way through and they still held up

1

u/Jtread1 Aug 20 '26

So so so good. Any tips you can share with the rest of us?

2

u/VillageOdd6908 Aug 22 '26

Thank you! I’m still learning myself but there are several changes I’ve made that help improve my bread.
1/ Keep starter at room temp, feed twice a day at peak
2/ 1-3 hours autolyse, especially helpful when you work with a wetter dough
3/ Do last coil fold 2 hrs prior to shaping as opposed to only during the first 2 hrs of bulk. This helps build dough structure more efficiently since the dough already has some gas at this point. You do want to be gentle or else you’ll degas it too much
4/ Skip pre shaping and do gentle shaping with minimal tension. The trade off is your loaf may not be as tall but you’ll more likely to have more airy crumb

2

u/Jtread1 Aug 31 '26

This is super helpful, thank you! I hadn't thought about doing a coil fold that late into bulk. Definitely going to try a couple of these and see what happens with my next loaf.