Stuck on sourdough
I can’t find my camera so I don’t have any pics to go with this.
As you all know (well, both of you) I’ve been baking bread for about 12 years. I’ve gotten to the point where, if I bake it with commercial yeast, I can predict the outcome pretty well. If I fail I generally know why. Not to say I’ve perfected anything. But I know what I’m doing now.
I have two sourdough “things” in my fridge. One is a straight starter and the other is a 1.5 pound ball of dough.
Every three to four days (or so) I take the dough out, split it in half, bake half, replenish it, then put it back. Since it’s a full dough I use flour, water and salt. It ferments more slowly than the starter due to the salt, but it does still come up pretty solidly in a few days.
I do the same thing with the starter, though I generally put the “discarded” half back in the ball of dough so I’m not actually throwing it away (and yes, I adjust the salt appropriately.)
Now, to the problem: No matter what I do, whether I use several stages of preferment or bake it after a half hour of resting in form (or an hour, or two) the resulting crumb is always a little… gummy. It’s fully cooked, the internal temperature on last night’s loaves tested at 208 and change, which is a nice sweet spot for bread doneness.
But still, even with a delightfully complex flavor, a bit of sourness that didn’t overpower (not that I mind that so much) the crumb is just… spongy.
It looks for all the world like it’s merely undercooked. But I know from experimentation that if I leave it in the oven that property never dissipates.
It’s been driving me nuts for years. But I’d always assumed that somehow it was just undercooked until a month or so ago, when I started baking them to death.
I’ll figure it out, I’m sure. But in the meantime if anyone’s got any smartsauce, I’d be happy to hear it.
February 6th, 2013 at 12:51 pm
Maybe it’s not how long you bake it, but the temperature at which you’re baking. Just a thought.