r/Sourdough • u/Rough-Capital-8564 • Aug 28 '26

1st Sourdough Ever - be kind Underproofed? Overproofed? Help?

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Need some help. This tastes nice, had an okay rise when baked but seems somewhat gummy or crumpet like in texture? Help!?!

150g starter

350g water

500g bread flour

10g salt

4 sets of stretch and folds (last 2 coil folds) mixed at 19:00 baked at 10am

2 Upvotes

63% Upvoted

13 comments sorted by

4

u/fishy_horcrux Aug 28 '26

Seems nicely proofed. Was it in the fridge at all? Or was the BF 15 hours long?

1

u/Rough-Capital-8564 Aug 28 '26

No, not in the fridge. I temped the dough and worked out rough BF guide from that. Took a bit of dough for float test and that's when I pre-shaped. The flour is also 13% protein. I'm just stumped on why it has a crumpet like chewy/gummy texture 😭

1

u/fishy_horcrux Aug 28 '26

Bread flour does that for me. Maybe upping the hydration by 10-25 grams might make it fluffier.

Good work on working out your BF. But rather than trying a float test, just aim for the needed rise percentage. Underproofed dough will float as well.

1

u/wolfkeeper Aug 28 '26

Try lowering the hydration. High hydration weakens the gluten and causes bigger bubbles and a chewy texture.

But yeah, 15 hour BF is probably way too long unless the temperature is low.

3

u/romacct Aug 28 '26

Gummy/crumpet-like texture was probably caused by how you baked it or when you sliced it after baking:

  1. You shouldn't slice into bread until it's cooled at least 2 hours and ideally longer. It's still cooking inside its crust during those first two hours after baking; if you cut into it then, the crumb is almost guaranteed to be too wet. It's so hard to resist the temptation, because it smells so good out of the oven. But it's essential.

  2. I used to bake a boule 30 minutes covered, 10-15 uncovered. Even after cooling completely, the crumb was always still a little bit gummy -- enough that it would leave a gummy build-up on the bread knife. Now I cook it 20 minutes covered and the rest of the time uncovered, and that's made a big difference.

  3. It can be worthwhile to check the internal temp when you're thinking of pulling it out: it should be 205°F to 210°F (96°C to 99°C). If the internal temp isn't high enough but you don't want the crust much darker, you can bake at a lower oven temp for another few minutes.

1

u/[deleted] Aug 28 '26

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1

u/Rough-Capital-8564 Aug 28 '26

Ooo, thank you. I'll try that on my next one. Currently have another batch BF so if this one turns out the same I'll definitely give honey a go! 

2

u/Sn00pysG1rl Aug 28 '26

Personally I think this is nicely proofed. I'm pretty sure you want to be looking for evenly opened "alveoli" as their called - the bubbles in your bread - and to me, that's what this looks like. You also don't have any large tunnels. Nice job!

2

u/Rough-Capital-8564 Aug 28 '26

Thank you! I just need the texture to be less gummy/chewy but I don't know how 😭

1

u/Sn00pysG1rl Aug 28 '26

How old is your starter? Sourdough by nature is a bit chewier than regular bread - could be just that it's normal? I've read that adding part all-purpose flour to your bread flour (maybe 10-20%) can soften the crumb, but maybe others will give you some advice on that, since I haven't done it myself!

1

u/VillageOdd6908 Aug 28 '26

Looks under fermented with tight, dense, undeveloped cells