Bread not rising enough? Help

Baking Fails
1

Hey guys! I’m Ashley and I’m new to these forums and new to baking bread in general. I’ve only ever done sourdough bread so I thought this would be a good place to post my questions.

  1. Why is my bread not very fluffy?? The best recipe I’ve followed was the 80% hydration loaf and it takes forever (like start to finish is a day and a half). Though the recipe is better than my other bread recipes, it’s not as fluffy as it’s supposed to be.

  2. Why does my sourdough never hold it’s shape?? I’ll shape the dough in the way it’s supposed to (several times actually) and it barely holds. It’s a massive glob that slowly melts which means that my cuts on it always turn out so messy and it’s pretty flat going into the oven (I’ve never had a perfectly round bread before ;-; )

The recipe I follow is on YouTube: “The 80% Hydration Sourdough Loaf Recipe- The Easy Way” by The Sourdough Lady
(Though I use a Dutch oven and make my loaves rounds)

2

An gooey flat dough could be overfermentation or too much liquid for your brand of flour. Are you tracking the expansion of the dough? Using a straight-walled dough bucket or large pyrex might help, and then making sure your dough doesn’t do more than double. Usually 75-100% increase in size is good. Ignore the clock and watch the dough. Here’s a dryer dough that shows before and after photos of the bulk fermentation (in a regular bowl) and final proof in a round banneton.
I hope this helps!