My scores keep closing up - long post

Baking Fails
1

Hi,

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Newbie with only 2 years’ experience. Gee, this is complicated! Being as brief as possible.

460g Bob’s Artisan Bread Flour (13.9% protein)
20g Bob’s Dark Rye
20g High Altitude Whole Wheat
350g water (70% hydration)
12g salt (2.4%)
100g starter (30% rye, 70% bread, 100% hydration, kept unfed in refrigerator until needed, then once fed (1:5:5) doubles in volume in 2 hours at 85 degrees - max volume is 2.5X at about 3 hours, starts to fall about 1 hour after that)

High altitude 4500 ft.

2 hr. autolyse with salt (no starter). Mix with electric hand mixer, maybe 5 mins, then rest for 15, then 3 more until dough easily comes clean from sides of bowl. Bulk to 50% rise (85 degrees) - 4 strong coil folds 45 min apart then wait till ready. Proof 1 hour @ room temp. (70 degrees) then 16 hours in refrigerator (banneton with plastic cover on top only).

Seem to have good gluten development and great windowpane. The dough holds its shape well during bench rest and final shaping (with moderate tension and maybe 20% degassing at most).

However, the score closes up in less than 3 mins after being put in the oven. Cross at 90 degrees or single slash at 45 - no difference. Misting dough with water and baking on a cast iron lid (and parchment paper) with steam from a tray below. If I score a second time it results in a flatter loaf, but still does not form an ear and closes up again. Preheat to 500 and reduce to 440 after adding dough. Steam for 20 minutes.

Tried using the Dutch oven, but still the same problem. Prefer to not use since can’t see inside and dough tends to spread more - a free standing loaf works better for me.

Am I scoring too deep (about 1/4" after breaking skin)? Or does the misting cause the problem? I notice misting causes the dough to flatten and spread and reduces spring. Misting is the only way I can get blisters.

I get reasonable oven spring and a nice crumb (I think - or is it under proofed?), but no ear.

Thank you for your help,
Steve

2

When I use ice cubes in a dutch oven or mist the dough in an open oven with steam under, my score seems to gelatinize and prematurely seal up too. I think you have to weigh the joy you get out of blisters on the crust with the joy you will get out of more score bloom.

Have you tried the Dutch oven, the mist, and scoring a second time.
These breads were baked in cast iron pans, no mist. The one on the left was scored a second time. It is also flatter but still a nice slice shape.

3

As an experiment, try leaving the oven at 500 for the first 10 - 12 minutes of your bake and then reduce to 440 as you normally do. You’ll probably want to reduce the total bake time by 5 - 10 minutes (go by how it looks and an internal probe thermometer if you have one).

4

Thank you. Every time I tried the Dutch oven (mine is oval) the dough quickly spread to the sides and made a pancake. Misting or not did not seem to make a difference.

1 Like
5

I occasionally forgot to reduce the temperature when I was first starting out. The result was a much darker crust much faster which prevented oven spring. The crumb also suffered with this approach.

I have also tried the “turn off the oven for better spring” method. That didn’t work well either since the oven had to run longer to reheat resulting in a burned bottom.

6

…or don’t.

7

Just wanted to say I appreciate your input. My best path is to take all the advice, try each idea with smaller loaves, more than once, and see what happens. Peace.

8

I just read this have you made any progress on solving this? I believe I am having the same issue using a DO and a different dough but essentially my scores are closing up and preventing my spring.