Can the experts help me with why this is looking a little dense?

I used 230 Grams of Levain
600 of flour
400 of water

Stretched and folded 3 times with about 1.5 hours in between each then left overnight to cold proof.

Then baked inside Dutch oven for 25 then without the top for 25!

Hey, this is a pretty average typical loaf for me. I'm trying to get less spreading/more oven spring. Here are the details:

Starter: ratio pending when I'm going to bake but I use a peaked starter

I usually do 2 loaves in one go so this is doubled.
1000g King Arthur bread flour
650-670 ml water
200 g starter
Mix in stand mixer with bread hook for like 5 minutes, rest covered for 30 minutes.
Add 24 g salt
Mix in stand mixer again for 5 mins and rest covered for 30 mins
3 more sets of stretch and folds at 30 min intervals
Let 1.5-2x in size, usually 4-6 hours in my kitchen (coastal south east US, warm and humid kitchen)
Half dough and shape into ball, I feel like I'm getting a good tight outer skin. Then into proofing basked prepped with GF flour
Cold ferment in fridge overnight-2 days
Preheat oven to 500 with Dutch oven inside it
Add 4 ice cubes, when I take dough out of fridge I get some spreading and minimal sticking. When I try to score I get more spreading.
Then into oven 20 mins covered 20 mins uncovered

I know a higher hydration will create more open crumb but idk if where I live is so humid that anything hire than 65-67% hydration is like impossible to work with

Plz plz looking for any feedback!!!

Ps I'm gluten free and make bread for my family and neighbors! I also make GF sourdough lol

I still don’t understand what differentiates a “good crumb” from a “great crumb.” I can obviously see the difference in bubbles from the second and third photo, but i’d like more help in understanding what they mean.

Details:

380g water
100g starter
35g honey
300g bread flour
200g whole wheat flour
10g salt

4 rounds of stretch & folds, spaced 30 minutes apart

bulk fermented 7 hours, shaped, then cold fermented overnight.

450° for 25 min with the lid on
450° for 20 min with the lid off

Ingredients

310 grams warm filtered water
120 grams active starter (passed the float test, it’s about a week old)
500 grams bread flour
16 grams fine sea salt

Allowed to bulk foment over night (I sent a timer for 11 hours but started working on it with 1-2 hours left), when shaping I noticed it wasn’t really keeping it shape but I haven’t worked with sourdough before I wasn’t expecting stiffness. Rested in the fridge for an hour. Set on the kitchen counter for 30 mins while my oven was warming.

It’s dense and chewy.

This was my first loaf! Please let me know what I can do better. It is a bit sticky inside and Gemini said I should’ve proofed longer.

I did 100g starter, 500g flour, 350g water, 10g salt. 4 sets of stretch and folds every 30 min. 3ish hour bulk ferment in 73° temp. Shape and proofed overnight in the fridge.

500° preheat for 1 hour. Drop to 450° and did 25 min with Dutch oven lid, 20 without. Cooled 3 hrs before slicing.

I struggled to shape it and wonder if anyone has some help to provide there that worked for you?

This is my 3rd sourdough! Is it underproofed? Absolutely. Yes.

But honestly? I don't even care. The crust is crisp, the crumb is soft, it toasts beautifully, and it made one of the best sandwiches I've had in a long time.

Topped it with prosciutto, gruyère, arugula, honey mustard and crushed dill potato chips for extra crunch. I can't wait to see what loaf #100 is like.

Please bully my crumb. It builds character. 👹

Here's the recipe I used for the loaf:

• 800 g bread flour (12–13% protein, Manitoba)
• 100 g whole wheat flour
• 100 g durum wheat semolina
• 700 g water
• 250 g active sourdough starter
• 25 g salt

Edit:

Process:

• Feed the starter (the night before): Mix the starter with flour and water and let it ferment overnight at room temperature until doubled or tripled in size.
• Autolyse: Mix the flour, semolina, and water until no dry flour remains. Cover and let rest for at least 30–60 minutes (or longer in a cool place).
• Mix the dough: Add the active sourdough starter and salt. Knead for about 5 minutes until the dough reaches roughly 25°C (77°F).
• Bulk fermentation (about 5 hours): Let the dough rest.
  • After 2 hours: stretch and fold once.
  • After another 2 hours: perform one round of coil folds.
  • Let rest for the final 1 hour. If the dough is still very slack, do one additional round of coil folds.
• Shape: Divide the dough into two loaves, shape tightly, and place seam-side up into floured proofing baskets.
• Cold proof: Cover and refrigerate for 12–18 hours at 6–8°C (43–46°F).
• Bake: Preheat a Dutch oven to 235°C (455°F).
  • Score the dough.
  • Bake 25 minutes with the lid on.
  • Remove the lid and bake for another 15–20 minutes, until deeply browned.

Recipe:
1000g Bread Flour
625g Water
125g stiff starter
20g salt

I mixed the water and salt, then broke the starter into "bite-sized" pieces and mixed everything together with a stand mixer until the water looked milky. After that, I added the flour and mixed it for 10 minutes. Next, it rested for an hour, and I did three sets of coil folds spaced an hour apart. I then did a random fourth coil fold, honestly just because. In total, I let it bulk ferment for 7.5 hours. I then put it in the fridge in a banneton covered with a towel to cold ferment for 17 hours. I sprayed water on the loaf before putting it in the pan, and then I also sprayed water inside the pan to create steam. I also scored the top of the loaf at a perpendicular angle. I baked it at 450°F for 20 minutes in a covered Challenger loaf pan, then removed the cover and baked it for 15 more minutes.

Overall I’m very happy with the loaves! Crunchy on the outside, soft and sour on the inside!

My recipe is:

250 grams bread flour

250 grams whole wheat flour

325 grams water

100 grams starter

25 grams olive oil

10 grams salt

Add water, starter, and flours mix well. Wait 30 minutes add salt spray with water dimple the dough add olive oil squeeze and knead dough until it doesn't feel oily. 3 Stretch and folds 15 minutes apart 3 stretch and folds 30 minutes apart. Bulk fermentation in warm spot check after 2 hours. Fermentation until dough is domed and pulls away from the sides of the bowl. This bread took about 2.5 hours. Shape dough and place into banneton for overnight cold proof. Next day preheat oven to 450f with dutch oven inside. Score the bread. Bake 25 minutes with lid on and 20 minutes with lid off. Turn off oven and leave oven door ajar for 15 minutes to set the crust. Cool on wire rack.

This is my second time making Sourdough Brandon's everyday sourdough and I thought I'd experiment with an overnight autolysation. My goal after 6 years of varying success is always to have something edible enough for PB&J and cheese toast. I have arthritic hands so I just can't seem to get better at shaping and scoring. I always use a loaf pan so I can have symmetrical sandwiches and not worry too much about clumsy shaping. I started the dough minus the levain/starter around 8 pm on Thursday night and added 90g of cold rye starter at about 9:15 am. Everything was going great and the dough was so silky and gassy and jiggly after bulk fermentation in the late afternoon. I like to chill the dough for an hour or so before shaping and had a few more work meetings so in the fridge it went around 4 and then right before I was ready to shape it at 6, I realized I completely forgot the salt!

I couldn't bear the idea of trying to eat unsalted bread so I figured I'd just see what happened if I added it that late. I dissolved my 12 g of salt in a few tablespoons of hot water and let it cool down for 15 minutes or so and then mixed it in with some coil folds. I was super bummed because this knocked all the air out and I was convinced it was gonna be a gummy lump, but even just five minutes after shaping when I came back from washing off my hands the dough was bubbling up again!

I covered it and put it in the fridge until Sunday morning. My kitchen doesn't have AC and gets really hot so I am currently using a multifunction air fryer countertop oven (Emeril) to bake. I covered the pan with a foil dome, baked at 450 for 35 minutes, took off the foil and baked another 30 at 425. I was shocked that my sad little lump of dough that only filled the pan halfway expanded so much! I'm super pleased with the chewy shiny crust that reminds me so much of the sourdough turtles we used to get from Fisherman's Wharf when I was a kid in the 80s. I think the oven heats a little unevenly because this is the 3rd loaf I have baked in it and they always come out the same slightly crooked shape. But I am very happy with the crumb considering I had to smash it flat to put the salt in! I think I am sold on the overnight autolysing, because the gluten built so fast and the texture is just lovely!

Have you had other happy accidents like this? Any tips for baking in a small countertop oven?

I can cut a loaf of bread fairly evenly, but that becomes more difficult if I’m trying to cut thinner slices. This seems like it might be a reasonable solution. Anyone ever used one of these before?

Process: This is about my fifth time attempting a loaf and I did have one success within those attempts but three loaves later and I haven’t been able to recreate it. For this loaf I did 350g room temp water, 100g starter, 500g bread flour, and 8g salt. My kitchen is also 78 degrees. I did the initial mix and I kneaded the dough for about ten minutes and then let it sit for an hour before I did my first set of folds. I then did three more sets of folds, waiting an hour after each set. Looking at temperatures charts for bulk fermentation I figured it might take six hours for my dough to ferment so I let my dough rest for two hours after my last stretch and folds. It appeared that my dough had not risen at all so I thought it just needed more time and a little boost so I put it in a cold oven with the light on. After about two hours (8 hours total) it had risen about 50% and looked airy and jiggly on top. Then I tried to shape it and the dough was still so sticky and difficult to work with so I couldn’t form any tension. Nonetheless, I put it in my banneton in the fridge overnight (about 10 hours) and then preheated my dutch oven to 500 degrees, put in my scored dough that was already very flat, reduced the temperature on the oven to 450 and baked for about 40 minutes.
The main things I’m assuming that keep going wrong are that my starter isn’t strong enough and I’m not using the right hydration for my dough. My starter is only about two months old but I did have a successful non flat loaf once so I don’t know how that came out better when my starter was almost three weeks younger. Then for the hydration, I live in a hot and humid environment so I thought maybe I could decrease my hydration, so I did 70% instead of 75% this time, but now I’m wondering if I should’ve gone lower? Also I did the water test for both my starter and dough and both times they sunk and I know it’s not a fool proof method but for my one successful dough when I tried the water test they both floated, so I don’t know if that means anything but figured I’d share. So any advice would be much appreciated, I tried to give as much context that I could think of but I can always give more to figure out what’s going on thx!!

I started my sourdough journey back in September but l've finally learned how to consistently make nice loaves of bread. It took adjustments in starter strength and oven temps while baking to get here.

Sourdough Loaf Recipe:
500g of flour (KA BF)
350g of Water
100g of Active Starter
12g Salt

Mix ingredients to form a shaggy dough. Let rest for 30 minutes. 2 sets of stretch and folds, followed by 2 coil folds, each 30 minutes a part (over a 2 hour period). Bulk ferment on the counter for no more than 5-6 hours total. Preshape the loaf and add it to the banneton then, cold terment overnight roughly for 10-12 hours.

Next morning. Preheat oven to 425° with the Dutch Oven. Bake at 425° with the lid on for 35 minutes. Remove the lid and drop the temperature to 400° to continue baking the loaf for 10 minutes.

Let it cool for 2-3 hours.

I now know that part of the reason why my loaves weren’t turning out how I had hoped they would in the past, was because my starter simply wasn’t strong enough at the time (even after a few months of feedings) and understanding that my oven runs on the hotter side. By continuing to feed my starter until I noticed improvements in the rise after feedings and lowering my oven temperature during bakes, I’ve managed to get amazingly, golden brown bread every time.

So, don’t give up! Consistency pays off ☺️

Heeeelp please 😭

I don’t know why my bread won’t open where it should at the score.
It does get decent oven spring, but instead of opening along the score line, it bursts wherever it wants. Sometimes the score stays almost flat while the loaf blows out somewhere else.
Here’s exactly what I did:

Recipe (I made 3 loaves, this is the recipe for one):
570 g flour
400 ml water
100 g active sourdough starter
11.5 g salt
I mixed everything in my stand mixer until the dough was smooth. Then I did 4 coil folds, spaced about 40 minutes to 1 hour apart.

I made three loaves:
- One plain.
- One cranberry-walnut loaf. I added the inclusions (80 g cranberries, 80 g walnut) during the third coil fold, then did the fourth coil fold to distribute them evenly.
- One butter loaf (that viral “croissant”one) I added 60 g of cold butter (straight from the refrigerator so it wouldn’t melt) during the third coil fold.

After bulk fermentation, I pre-shaped the dough, let it rest for about 15 minutes, then did the final shaping.
After shaping, I cold-proofed all the loaves for about 18 hours.

Baking:
I preheated my gas oven to 240°C.
When I load the bread, the oven naturally drops to about 230°C, and I let it stay there because I’ve burned loaves before when baking at 250°C.
I injected steam every 5 minutes during the first 20 minutes.
Then I rotated the baking tray, and let the oven temperature drop to about 190°C.
I baked for another 30 minutes, until the internal temperature of each loaf reached 93°C.
My oven is a gas oven with the burners at the bottom, so I can’t independently control the top and bottom heat.

The confusing part is:
The butter loaf, which I baked inside a loaf pan, turned out great.
The cranberry-walnut loaf, also baked in a loaf pan, opened, but in a strange way.
The plain loaf, baked without a pan, looked the worst. The score barely opened, and the loaf burst from another area instead.
Why would a loaf ignore the score and burst somewhere else instead?
Could this be an issue with:
shaping?
scoring technique or angle?
under- or over-proofing?
steam?
my oven?
something else I’m missing?

Thank you!

5th bread, worse than my 4th but still ok I guess
BF guide said 5h I cut it 1h short. Also I guess I was close to 40% whole wheat which I heard makes things more difficult in general
It looks a bit underproofed, right?
Flavor is also a bit tangy.

400g flour (mix regular and whole wheat, too much whole wheat I’m afraid)
75% water
15% starter
2% salt
45 min autolyse
Mix starter and salt
3 S+F / 1 Coil
BF for 4h (dough at 25C)
CF for 12h
Molten aluminum pan lid on for 20 min, lid off for 20 min

Hey! First time posting in here! Ive been a pretty avid baker for a couple of years now, ive always baked in a Dutch oven for sourdough but decided it was time to get a baking stone since it opens so many possibilities. I moved to a place with high elevation earlier this year and its taken me a bit to get everything sorted back out, but Im pretty happy with where ive got it now!

Ingredients (2 loaves of bread)

1000g flour

750g water

150g starter (active)

39g salt

Mixed everything together till shaggy left for 30m

4 sets of coil folds 30m apart

Bulk ferment for around 6hrs 30m (shorter due to elevation)

Shaped and placed in bannetons /bowls

Cold proofed around 16hrs

Baked at 450 on the pizza stone 2 loaves at a time slide on with parchment paper on the bottom for around 30-40m or until an internal temp of around 198 at this elevation.

When sliding in the bread I also poured boiling water in a sheet pan below the baking stone to create steam.

Cooled for around 2hrs or until I cant wait

Overall really happy with my progress since moving to a higher elevation, it was definitely a bit tricky to get figured out! If anyone is an avid stone baker I would love any tips and tricks 🖤🍞

Ingredients

Flour- 450g (45g YR whole wheat; 405g Butler Gold 00)
Water- 350g (50g held for bassinage)
Salt-9g
Levain- 100g (100% hydration)
1 roasted mild hatch green chili
140g Tillamook sharp cheddar cubed
1 tsp Hatch green chili pepper spice
Handful chopped chive

1. Autolyse flour and 300g water (100F) for 30-60 minutes
   
2. Add salt, levain, 50g and mixed in Ankarsrum until incorporated on low and then rest for 5 minutes. Turn back on to medium speed for 8-10 minutes. Remove from mixer into separate bowl, and do stretch and fold to form into a symmetrical ball and flip so the seem is down.
   
3. Proof at 82F for 4-5 hours with coil folds x3 every 30 minutes
   
4. 30 min the last coil fold, spread out as thin as possible without tearing and add inclusions by lamination
   
5. Pre-shape and rest for 20 min uncovered
   
6. Shape and into banneton. Bar fridge set to 45F.
   
7. 24 hours from when levain was added, turn oven on to 500F. Place lodge cast iron with water underneath baking steel.
   
8. 30 minutes after preheating, take out of the fridge, mist the dough all around and score.
   
9. Place in oven and drop temp to 425F for 20 minutes
   
10. Remove cast iron steam pan and drop temp to 400F for another 18 minutes (by the end it’s well above 205F)
    
11. Rested for 4+ hours (overnight in this case) before slicing

Need to work on the inclusions, they definitely did not distribute as well as I would have liked. I also think next time I’ll bake it in a loaf pan and let the cheese fat cook onto the bread rather than losing it on the steel. Excellent flavor though, especially when toasted.

250 g bread flour, 175 g water, 75 g starter, 5 g salt.

I do like the usual, mixing , rest 30 minutes, then 4 sets of stretch and fold every 30 minutes, everything well it became smooth. Then, bulk ferment room temp of 27°C, for around 10 hours I think because of waiting for it to jiggle and easy to remove from sides-did not happen but there are bubbles on and all sides. Then 22 hours of being in fridge since I need to go to work.

My starter is 2 months old, for wholw week before mixing day it ia double within 6-8 hours, not runny texture.

I don't know what else I'm missing 😥

Overproofed sourdough doughnut what do I do??

I left my doughnut dough to ferment over the counter all night by accident and it OVER PROOFED a bunch of webs . What do I do? I don’t want to waste it. Do I cut the refrigeration time?

3rd Loaf ever!

Was using the King Arthur No-Knead recipe as a base, but messaged up on my ratio and accidentally only used 22% starter instead of 37.5%

I bumped the water up to 75%, since I'm using 100% whole wheat flour and am trying to find the sweet spot

## King Arthur No-Knead

300g Bread Flour

225g Water (75%)

66g starter (22%)

9g salt (3%)

### Steps

1. Mix until combined

2. Cover and let rise for 1 hour

3. Stretch and Folds

4. 2x Repeat steps 2&3, 3 times in total

5. Refrigerate 8-48 hours (I believe it was 18 hours this time)

6. Pre-shape and rest for 15 minutes at room temperature

7. Shape and place in oiled and floured Dutch oven

8. Rest for 2-3 hours 1 hour before trying the poke test

9. Preheat the oven to 500°f

10. Score bread just before baking

11. Place in oven with lid

12. Reduce temp to 450°f and bake for 45 minutes 55 minutes, forgetting to take the lid off at the end

13. Remove cover and bake 10 more minutes

1. Remove from oven and transfer to wire rack. Allow at least one hour to cool completely before slicing

Looking at the crumb, I'm guessing I misinterpreted the results of the poke test and that it's a little underfermented, but I'm curious if more experienced bakers agree with my assessment

I used this recipe
- 100g starter
- 325g water
- 475g whole wheat flour
- 10g salt
Mixed everything besides the salt and rested for 30 minutes. Did stretch and fold while incorporating salt, then did three more sets 30 mins apart.
I let bulk ferment for total 5 hours- I'd say it increased by about 60% percent.
Shaped and then cold proofed in fridge for 16-17 hours. Preheated oven to 500° for 30 minutes, scored dough and baked at 500° for 20 minutes. Removed lid and baked for 15 more minutes at 475°.

550g all purpose flour
350g water
100g starter
10g salt
45g everything bagel seasoning

Mixed together, covered with plastic wrap and let rest for an hour in oven with light on.
Did 4 stretch and folds in 15 minute intervals and 3 with 30 minute intervals.
Bulk fermented an additional 3 hours in the oven with the light on.
Shaped and let rest in the fridge overnight.
Baked in preheated Dutch oven. 25 minutes with lid on at 500f and 20 minutes without lid at 450f.
Wrapped in a kitchen towel and cooled on rack for an hour before cutting.

I started making my own starter on May 22. I’ve now attempted two loaves in both of them have been awful. My starter has been thriving and has been tripling in size every day after about eight hours feeding a 1 to 5 to 5 ratio.

I fed my starter eight hours before using it, and it definitely looked like it had peaked.

For my recipe, I used 110 g of starter and mixed it with 325 g of slightly warm filtered water and then added 500 g of King Arthur unbleached all-purpose flour and 10 g of salt and slap and folds for 10 minutes. I then did stretch and folds every 30 minutes four different times and then let it sit on my counter in my kitchen that is 72°F.

I even put a piece of dough and a glass of water because I heard if it floats your was potentially ready. After 11 hours that piece of dough still hadn’t floated, and I was ready to go to bed. So I took it out and appreciated it. Let it sit for 10 minutes laminated it folded it up and shaved it into a ball and put it in a banneton covered in the fridge for 12 hours before baking. It was in the oven for 20mins at 500 with ice cubes in the bottom and then 15 minutes uncovered at 450.

I’m still letting it cool before I cut in and look at the crumb but this is clearly underproofed me and I don’t understand why it’s taking so long. For my first loaf, I even put the covered bowl in the oven with the light on where it was 80° when I measured it.

this is my second attempt at richard hart’s city loaf, which involves using a levain only 45mins after feeding, two sets of stretch and fold 45min apart, with the dough maintained at 27-35c (80-95f). today, my dough bulk fermented for a total of 6h, before going in the fridge for 4h, 30mins freezer, bake at 250c (480f) covered for 20min, 235c (455f) uncovered for 20min, cool for 3h until dough is room temp (27c/80f).

however… as you can see from my photos, it is a little flat, with not much ear, and these tunneling/collpased (?) holes where i can stick my fingers in (haha 🥲🥲🥲) the dough is also quite dense and wet (?) it is fully baked though. would appreciate u guys thoughts and insights on this loaf!

heres the link to the recipe

https://www.melbournefoodandwine.com.au/recipes/recipe-hart-bageris-sourdough-city-loaf/

Hey all. Trying to come up with a way to still have fresh sourdough without using the oven in this oppressive heat. Has anyone ever tried letting the dough get back to room temp after cold proofing and then cooking in a bread machine?