This is driving us NUTTY…
cant figure out why the loaves always do this…
PLEASE SOMEONE TELL ME…
WHAT WE ARE DOING WRONG!!!
@kirkmartin I don’t think you’re particularly doing anything wrong as that looks like a wonderful loaf! If you’re referring to where your loaf has “split”, in my opinion it’s simply where the loaf got it’s oven spring. If you’d prefer to try and direct where the oven spring occurs, you can simply slash the top of the bread with a sharp knife or a bread lame (Breadtopia sells a wonderful one that I personally use). Even if your recipe doesn’t specify slashing the loaf, I have personally found that I get a better oven spring on every loaf if I slash it.
Honestly though, that loaf looks delightful and I’m sure it’ll be extremely tasty.
Blessings,
Leah
Yes ma’am it’s absolutely tasty… But that’s playing that usually springs all the way down the top of the loaf and then when you slice it it makes a mess and a few little monsters complain that the blood falls apart…
So what you’re saying is/the bread down the center with a sharp knife before we put it in the oven to bake and that should stop it from doing that???
It really is annoying… Maybe you’re being too picky…
What’s your method for baking? @Leah1 is right. That’s oven spring and to prevent an uncontrolled splitting one should score the dough. Steam will also help and if you want an unscored smooth top then leaving it to proof for longer and steaming will stop the oven spring being too strong and cracking but that has to be very well timed. Not too over done so it sinks and not too under done so it rises too much.
We are new and we have simply been using the easy bake method that Eric uses the sourdough starter. We have been using a heavy wheat flour fresh ground organic from a local mill here and were also going to start using a white of the same origin and mix the two together.
A bit of trial and error is needed. Step one - add steam. Step two - perhaps add 15-20 minutes on the proofing time before baking. See how that turns out.
steam??? how does one do so sir???
Preheated metal tray on the bottom shelf. Load the dough in the oven onto the middle shelf, pour a cup of water (carefully) into the tray then bake. Look up videos on YouTube for steaming ideas when baking bread. Find one which works well for you.
@kirkmartin My bakes are in a covered clay baker so my baking method is different from yours as I’m not using an open loaf pan. So I’m not able to advise you on adding steam. Thankfully, others here on this forum can and are! Thanks, @Abe!
The only thing I can definitively add to the discussion is yes, a nice slash down the center of your loaf with a sharp knife should help direct where your loaf “splits” for its oven spring. And I remember those days raising children “when you slice it it makes a mess and a few little monsters complain that the blood falls apart…” Those days are long past since even our grandchildren are now teenagers. 
Blessings,
Leah
Thank you Sir…
Peace…
I have a lazy way of adding steam that you might try at some point too – generously “paint” the dough with water before you put it in the oven.
More effortful: make a tented pan lid with foil and leave it on for the first 15-20 minutes of the bake. (You can wrap the base of the pan with a piece of foil to get the right shape, then put your foil tent over the top of the pan. I don’t know if that description makes sense. There are pics in the Vegan Spelt Sandwich Bread recipe.)
Thank you again Ma’am…
Peace…
TOTALLY SWEET MA"AM…
thank you so much… !!!
You’re welcome! I messed up on which recipe had photos of the foil tent – it’s this one:
I did the foil tent from the einkorn recipe above this morning on an Oat Porridge sourdough bread (the recipe from the book, more or less. I milled oats into a medium-fineness flour and didn’t cook them).
The tent worked great to prevent bursting without me having to score. I preheated the oven to 450F and did the first 20 minutes with the tent. Now the oven temp is 425 and I think it’ll go 30 minutes more, not sure.
When the foil first came off
The dough continuing to rise after the foil came off
Thanks again!