I find it helps to use it before it becomes overly sour and broken down, resulting in too much acidity transferred over to the final dough. For this recipe, and as you can see above, I look for it to have risen perceptibly in its jar, have scattered bubbles on top and the sides, have a sour (but not too sour) aroma, and have a loosened consistency. I find I get loaves with an open interior when I use my starter just as it turns ripe. See this starter maintenance guide for more tips on refreshments, flour choices, and more. A big part of baking sourdough bread is learning to read your sourdough starter and feed it when necessary to keep it active and ready to bake with. That said, if you have a schedule that results in a healthy and active starter, stick with it! Every sourdough starter and environment is different, and what works best for me might be different for you - and that’s OK. My ripe sourdough starter, ready to bake with I find my starter is healthiest if I keep it warm, around 74☏ to 78☏, and feed it at least once every day - I typically refresh mine every 12 hours, once in the morning and once in the evening. To get the most out of your starter, feed it with flour and water on a timely schedule. When baking sourdough bread, it’s essential to have vigorous fermentation in your dough - and healthy fermentation begins with your sourdough starter. My dough nearing the end of bulk fermentation The necessity of strong fermentation The takeaway: Choose white flour, rather than whole wheat, and try using a little more bread flour for its higher protein content. So there’s a balance: you can increase the whole wheat flour in your loaf to bring additional flavor and nutrition, but you’ll have to modify your expectations on how open, tall, and lofty your loaf will be. But what you lose in openness, you certainly gain in flavor and nutrition. The sharper bran and germ particles present in whole wheat results in a more closed interior due to their “cutting effect” on the dough’s gluten. Note that the higher the percentage of whole wheat flour, the more challenging it will be to achieve an open crumb. All-purpose flour has all the necessary characteristics to get there as well but if you're struggling, try modifying your formula to use a little more bread flour in your next test. But I find that using King Arthur bread flour, with its higher protein percentage of 12.7%, makes it easier to open up the interior. I typically use flour in the 11% to 13% protein range, and usually at the lower end of that spectrum (for reference, King Arthur all-purpose has 11.7% protein). Using King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour and King Arthur Unbleached Bread Flour will always check both of those boxes. A bold bake! What flour should I use to get an open crumb?įirst and foremost, your flour must have a sufficient protein percentage and be suitable for baking bread. Let’s first look at flour, perhaps the most essential ingredient. Specifically, I’ll discuss those methods as applied to Naturally Leavened Sourdough, which results in a light and wonderfully crunchy loaf of bread. And because there are many ways to the same end, this is precisely what makes bread baking so exciting: you evolve your baking toolkit and discover your preferences over time through experimentation and experience.īelow, I’ll discuss some of the methods I use to open up my bread's interior. It’s possible to achieve an open crumb by mixing with your hands or a mechanical mixer you can have a light loaf of bread with a stiff preferment or a liquid version and you can choose to proof your dough at room temperature or in the fridge overnight. Rather, there are steps and techniques you can employ throughout the entire bread-making process. There are many ways to bake bread with an even, open crumb, and I don’t think there are many hard and fast rules to get you there. Overall, an even interior is evidence of a baker’s skillful touch in balancing all the inputs that go into making a wonderful loaf of bread.Īn appropriately open crumb is evidence of ample and robust fermentation, sufficient dough strength, and proper dough handling. The ideal loaf doesn't have scattered, excessively large holes and dense spots, but rather clear, defined holes consistently dispersed throughout. When I talk about a loaf with an open crumb, I mean a loaf that's light in hand and evenly (and appropriately) open in the interior - one whose light texture contributes to the overall eating experience. But for me, an even and open interior is high on that list. There's a lot that goes into what makes a loaf "eat well" (i.e., makes it a loaf of bread you want to eat!), and everyone has a personal preference. While I always see flavor as the most important quality in a loaf of sourdough bread, close on its heels is definitely texture and overall eating quality.
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