Sourdough Sandwich Bread Troubleshooting

Baking Fails
1

Hi Breadtopia Community,

To the many experienced bakers in this forum. Could you please help me to troubleshoot the issues with this sandwich bread sample?

(please see attached picture)

I began experiencing issues with my sandwich bread a few weeks ago when I started using a brand new commercial convection oven. I never faced anything similar when using my old standard oven. (My new convection oven has its heat elements in the back, and operates in convection mode all-the-time).

Issues

  1. There is always a small portion of uncooked dough at the loaf’s bottom center despite the insertion thermometer showing 207 to 208 F after 37 minutes at 350F (verified with a calibrated second oven thermometer).

  2. Large air pockets appear 3/4 of the way up to the loaf’s top, but only at the middle of it. So only the center slices seem to be affected by it.

I also tried baking at 330 F for 42 minutes or until reaching an internal temp. of 206 F, but the issues were even more pronounced.

Factors worth mentioning:

  • I am using about 150 grams of starter for every 460 grams of bread flour. I found that this ratio improves the taste of my sandwich bread quite a lot. This practice never caused similar issues when using my old standard oven.

  • I mix the dough in a spiral mixer at the lowest speed for 3 to 4 minutes, starting with 60% hydration slowly incorporating the rest of the water/milk until reaching 71% hydration. Then I stop to do a 30 min autolyze. Finally, I add the salt and the butter to continue mixing for another 3 to 4 minutes at low speed for a mild-to-medium gluten development

  • Bulk rest: 3 hours, or about a 20 to 25% rise. Including three (3) stretch-and-fold cycles during the first 90 minutes, or until passing the window-pane test.

  • Shape and form followed by a 1-hour rise (ambient temperature varies between 75 F and 78 F)

  • 1-hour rising time until the dough reaches about 1-inch under the top edge of the pan

  • 10 to 12 hours overnight rest in the fridge. The dough never rises to the edge of the pan before getting it out of the fridge the next morning.

  • After getting out of the fridge the next morning, I let the dough rise for another 30 minutes while preheating the oven. But then again, I don’t let the dough rise over the edge of the pan before getting it inside the oven, and it doesn’t seem to be over-proofed.

One more thing, I was using a KA rotatory mixer along with my old standard non-convection oven. But I am not sure if this factor is even relevant for the purposes of troubleshooting these issues.

Thank you in advance for your help.

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2

I don’t have a convection oven, but in helping someone with a flying crust situation here, I learned that heat distribution can be an issue with convection. Flying crust is not precisely what you have going on, but not totally dissimilar either.

Have you tried putting the loaf pan on a the lowest shelf of the oven? It seems like getting higher heat to the bottom of the loaf sooner is necessary. Another option would be preheating the oven with a baking stone or steel in it (long preheat) and then putting the loaf pan on it to bake.

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3

Thank you for your advice Fermentada. The flying crust is definitely a similar case to consider.

The crumb large openings 3/4 of the way up happened in both lower and higher oven racks, but only in the central part of the loaf.

I have a steel heat plate in one of the lower racks of my oven. It helps with temperature recovery when I open the oven’s door for loading and unloading.

I used to get great results with sandwich bread in my old standard oven at 375F, but I lowered the temperature to 330 - 350 F in my new convection oven because I read that is exactly what one is supposed to do since convection bakes faster.

I will also make some tests increasing the temperature to 375 F and update my post accordingly.

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4

It sounds like you already have the temp even and under control. Raising the oven temp back up sounds like a good next test. I look forward to hearing how it goes.

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5

I’ve recently baked two loaf pans using the convection setting in my oven. I know that recipes always say if you use convection to lower the temperature by 25ºF, but I’ve never found that works for my baking. I did bake both loaves with the loaf pan directly on the baking steel on the lowest rack and followed the recommended temperatures but used fan/convection on.

Hopefully you’ll get a better result this time.

6

Thanks Fermentada. I will post an update after my next bake

7

Thanks Benny.

I am going to bake the same sandwich bread again tomorrow. I plan to try the following changes:

  • Replacing the existing heat plate with a wire rack

  • First batch at 350 F, followed by a second batch at 375 F to compare differences

  • Waiting until bread internal temp. reaches 210F instead of 205-206 F

  • Lowering dough hydration by about 3%

I will post my findings.

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