First Loaf! Advice Please!

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LittleGirlBlue on 20 May 2020 at 14:51

I am looking for answers to a few specific questions (at bottom of post) but also, and maybe more importantly, any additional comments on those things I don't even know to ask yet.

Finished Loaf:

Crumb Shots (different parts of same loaf):

The story (aka the method, and what went wrong):

This was intended to be a 123 No Knead Do Nothing loaf, according to the recipe here on this site:  http://weightloss-slim.fit/node/56678/123-sourdough-no-knead-do-nothing-bread%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E%3Cp%3EI used 100g levain KA AP flour starter at 100% hydration, 200g filtered water, 300g KA AP flour, and 6g salt (salt is adjusted just slightly down from recommendation cuz I watch my sodium intake).  My room temp is about 70F.

I mixed up the levain at about 6pm the night before.  My starter is little slow to peak, sometimes not quite peaking by 12 hrs and I wanted to be able to get an early start the next morning.  Then I was surprised at about 1am seeing the levain was nearly doubled.  I decided to go ahead and mix up the dough and put it in the fridge until morning.

After about 7 hrs in the fridge, I took the dough out and let it continue to do its thing at room temp.  After an additional 5 hrs at room temperature, I judged the dough to be roughly doubled (altho I found this to be incredibly difficult to gauge in a bowl, so I'd believe anywhere between 1.5 to 2.5).  I did a windowpane test which I thought looked pretty good, and so turned the dough out, did an envelope fold, and tried to round it into a ball.  The dough was very sticky despite having lightly oiled my hands and working surface, and wetting my hands after oiling them.  I ended up throwing a lot (probably too much) flour at it to be able to manage it.  I decided to do a 2nd envelope fold, and that helped some.  So then I rounded it into a ball and put a little more flour on the seam side and put that side down in my "proofing basket", which was a mixing bowl lined with a floured towel.  I later realized I was supposed to do a bench rest and a 2nd round of shaping before putting it in the proofing basket, so bench rest & 2nd shaping never occurred.

I let it proof for 2 hours, checking every 15 minutes after the first hour with the poke test to try to determine when it was ready to bake.  I really don't feel I understand what I'm looking for with this test.  I've watched several videos but how quickly the dough fills in is difficult to assess and when the people in the videos say "this is ready to bake" seems random.  Also it seemed I could poke one place in the dough and get a significantly faster or slower filling in than what I had gotten at a different place only a moment before.

When I guessed the dough was ready to bake, I put a steaming hot wet towel into a preheated loaf pan in my preheated oven (475F) and poured some boiling water over it & closed the oven door to minimize heat loss & start trapping steam.  Then I put a piece of aluminum foil (closest thing I had to parchment paper) on a cutting board and put it over the bowl, then flipped the whole assembly.  The dough was stuck to the towel.  I was able to peel it off without it tearing more than slightly, but ended up with a pile of loose folds of dough "skin" on top of my loaf.  I have a pic of this I can share if anyone can't picture it.  I slipped the aluminum foil onto the preheated doubled baking sheet in my oven, reduced the temp to 450F, and sat down on the floor in front of the oven to watch (everyone does this on their first bake, right?).  I should point out that I had misremembered what temp it said in the recipe when I preheated the oven: it should have been 450F not 475F.  But I did turn it down when I added the bread and I kinda thought maybe the slightly higher temp was for the best since some heat would be lost when adding the bread anyway.  I can see this being a bigger issue if you have a cast iron DO that would not lose heat as quickly.

Oven spring during the first 5 minutes was minimal.  I thought I was for sure going to end up with a total pancake.  But by 15 minutes it had risen enough to fill in most of the loose dough on top.  The crust did not split or crack at all, but that's not very surprising considering it had all that loose dough skin to fill in.  It ended up with a sort of "crown" from the last little bit of loose dough.  You can see it in the pic if you look closely.  It was actually sort of cute, even if nothing like what I was going for.  At 15 minutes I removed the loaf pan with the wet towel.  The recipe said to cook for 12-15 minutes more, but at 15 minutes more I thought the crust was still too light.  I let it go for 2 more minutes then removed it because altho the crust still seemed light compared to a lot of pics I see I was afraid of overbaking it.

I immediately took it off the baking sheet/aluminum foil and put it on a cooling rack, where it sat for about 4 hours until I sliced it.  It was surprisingly hard to slice, even through the crumb, but that may say more about my crappy bread knife than it does about the loaf.  I thought the texture and flavor of the bread was pretty good.  Not as light as the grocery store loaves of sourdough I've had (my only source of sourdough in recent years), but I think those are usually too wonder bread-like anyway.  It was chewy and the crust was crisp without being too hard.  I'm elated, but also know it can be improved and having tasted my first loaf, I'm even more driven to figure out how to make it even better next time!

QUESTIONS:

1- Why was the dough so very sticky when trying to shape it?  Is this a sign it needed to ferment longer?  Or was it overfermented?  Or should I just write this off as my inexperience in how to handle dough, and assume I'll get better with practice?

2- Any advice about the poke test and any other ways to know when the dough is ready to bake would be very useful.  Same for knowing when the dough is ready to be shaped.  Hoping for a few more clues, but let me know if it's really nothing but "more experience will help you interpret the windowpane test and poke test better".

3- Do you think it is overproofed?  underproofed?  Or just about right?

4- In the 2 crumb shots from different parts of the loaf, there is a significantly different amount of open holes.  I think I've read this uneven crumb is a shaping issue, is that correct?  If so, I would guess that will improve naturally as I gain experience, but any specific hints would be appreciated!

5- The crust seems a bit light in color.  I was afraid to let it go longer for fear it would dry out or suffer other effects of over baking.  I don't know how much of a concern that is as I see posts about gummy crumb but not much that seems like over baking except a burnt bottom crust.  Should I start out with a higher temp?

6- For my next bake, I'm thinking of trying mostly the same recipe and method (including the fridge retard because I liked the flavor), except adding some slap and folds as soon as I mix the dough to hopefully work up more gluten structure and reduce the stickiness of the dough.  Is this likely to get the result I want?

7- Any other comments or advice very much welcome!  Thank you!

I can't help you with all of these, but I'm sure it's a bit underbaked.  Everything else about the bread looks pretty good for your first one!  The dutch oven is a solid technique, 20min lid on, 20-30min lid off, or to your liking.  Cast iron DO results in better color than just a big stainless steel pot with a lid, but both work just fine, and way easier than trying to steam your oven, which I think is more likely to cool the oven too much than help. Shaping is tough, takes time to get good at, and your 71% hydration recipe is best for your second or third loaf.  

Thanks so much for your reply!

I don't own a DO nor any other cast iron at all, and with the current situation, not in a place to buy one right now.  It's on my list, though!  In the meantime, I'll just have to make do with what I've got, but maybe I can find a cheap stainless mixing bowl to use as a lid on my baking sheets.

I'll let it get darker next time for sure!

Planning on my 2nd loaf tomorrow.  Anyone have any additional suggestions to add before then?

This one. You've probably seen it already. I'd take this quote to heart:

If you are new to sourdough baking and decide to bake this recipe as a loaf for learning, please do your best to follow the recipe as written. Changing things on your first bake will add variables that can complicate troubleshooting. After you have successfully baked this bread as is, you will be better prepared to venture out with this formula or any other as you wish. Experimentation is at the heart of all avid bakers. But it is most efficient if you learn to walk first, and then run.

I remember when I started out getting into trouble when I deviated usually because I got distracted. When I didn't get the results I wanted even after following instructions to the letter, I fell back on "watching the dough, not the time".. And then I usually got an acceptable result. We're all pressed for time but all good cooking/baking takes an appropriate amount of time.

I'm quite sure the author of that quote did not mean I should ignore the dough and just randomly pick any amount of time in the rough time windows the recipes gives.  Part of that recipe is about learning how to "watch the dough".  I'm asking for help in interpreting how well I did with that.  I'm asking for help in understanding why the dough was so unmanageably sticky and what to do about it.

I appreciate your advice.  If you read my whole post you know I didn't set out intending to deviate from the recipe.  I added the retard because it seemed the best option I had when my levain nearly doubled much faster than expected.  And I proposed the possibility of adding slap and folds as a way to get the stickiness under control.  You might be right that I should not do the fridge retard nor add any working of the dough.  But I feel it will be very difficult to progress without some feedback on the difficulties I encountered, my results, and how to improve.