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Sourdough Discovery

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    Sourdough Discovery

    Yesterday is almost a year to the day since I "rented" Tartine from Amazon for free and started making sourdough. Coincidentally I changed something up yesterday that really worked for me. I read somewhere on the pit that there were two camps on preheating the dutch oven inside the oven. News to me. Thank you to whoever wrote that. It got me thinking. My bread is not really ever burned on the bottom but it is really tough and difficult to cut and chew. This is despite having a pizza stone on the rack directly below the combo cooker. I decided to preheat the oven until the notification beep went off and then pull the bottom pan of the combo cooker out onto the stovetop and leave the dome inside the oven. This way the bottom of the combo cooker wouldn't be room temp but also wouldn't be 550 F. Not only was the bottom of the boule much less tough, the oven spring was outrageous and the crumb was finally more open.

    The only other time I had results like this was when I used my parents convection oven. I think because the heat source in my oven is a gas burner in the bottom there was an imbalance in the heating of the boule that was not only making the bottom of the loaf tough but actually limiting the oven spring as well. By using a cooler pan but still heating the dome I think I managed to correct the imbalance.

    This infernal hobby is a lot of trial and error so hopefully someone can benefit from this information. No pictures because these boules were snapped up too quickly. However, my wife has a cold and I can't go to work until she gets a negative covid swab due to the procedure manual, so I am going to see if my results are repeatable tomorrow.

    #2
    jhapka This is very interesting. I have had similar problems with my sourdough. How long did you leave the bottom part out before putting the boule in and baking?

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    • jhapka
      jhapka commented
      Editing a comment
      troymeister my oven preheats after about 30 minutes then I pulled it out and let it cool for another 30 minutes. I usually preheat for an hour.

    #3
    That is sort of what I do: I preheat the lid on full blast (I turn the oven down when the bread is added) and I also preheat the base, just not as hot. I might try using a cooler base next time.

    One thing a baker taught me: even though you will get steam in the Dutch oven, go ahead and spritz the top of the bread when you but the boule into the Dutch oven. I started to get about 15% more oven spring when I started doing that.

    Comment


    • jhapka
      jhapka commented
      Editing a comment
      There’s a good tip might try that too

    #4
    I do the pizza stone on the rack beneath the Dutch oven also. I also put a layer of corn meal on the Dutch oven lid
    to insulate the bottom of the loaf. I turn the loaf out onto parchment paper and use that to lift onto the loaf onto the lid
    so I don't plop the loaf down, and just leave that there for the entire bake. The parchment also keeps the corn meal from sticking to the loaf. These two things made big differences for me.

    I will have to try taking the lid out halfway thru preheating, and also the spritz. Great ideas!

    Comment


      #5
      On a related note, jhapka , I mixed up the initial batter for my new starter today, partly as a result of your gentle nudge on another post. So thanks for that.

      Comment


      • jhapka
        jhapka commented
        Editing a comment
        Keep it bubbly and rising 🤙🏼

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