Sourdough

[Canary42]

Since my April post on this topic, I have embarked upon home baking sourdough loaves.

After two failures with starters, I now have a good one going which is now well over 1 month old.

I have made several passable and very tasty loaves from this over the last month, but the most recent one went wrong somewhere, but I don't know where.

Is there anyone with sourdough baking experience who can tell me why it would end up with enormous cavities, looking like this :-

https://ibb.co/VvPhJYz

[Mamyalynne]

Some comments from a Baker on this link.

https://sourdough.com/forum/big-holes-sourdough

[gness]

As well as Mamya's link have a look at...The Sourdough Whisperer. Your loaf looks tasty.... :-)

[Canary42]

Thank you both. Although not conclusive, there are one or two strong possibilities there.

Trial and error from now on until I crack it.

P.S. Yes gness, it was still tasty, but slicing and buttering were both a bit tricky.

[MartinMillar]

Not kneading the dough long enough which results in a weak gluten mesh
Too much flour use in final shaping.
Not giving enough time to the first rise ( the bulk fermentation) or Underproofing.
Not scoring or slashing the bread or not deep enough slashes
The oven is not hot enough when you first put the bread inside
High hydration level in your dough
Using too much yeast or leavening agents
Dough temperature is too high
Not enough tension in your dough when shaping
Use heavier flour or whole flour

[allenlondon]

Sourdough always seems to have holes, home-made even more than shop-bought.

I wouldn’t worry about the holes - does it taste good?

[Atheist]

Martin, with sourdough you don't add yeast.

[weecalf]

Maybe you just did not throw it in the bin soon enough ?

[woofgang]

yes you do atheist (add yeast) but its wild yeast from a culture.

[Atheist]

Woof; you don't add yeast in the sense that I think Martin meant. You grow a culture and then use that to start your bread. You don't add too many teaspoonfuls of yeast, you take it as it comes. I'm not sure that you could control the yeast level. My sourdough efforts have not been very successful, so I'm no expert. I think it probably comes from experience. The more you do it, the better you become. Anyway, some people might like holes.

[MartinMillar]

I know you don’t add yeast in the traditional sense

[Atheist]

Martin, probably sourdough is the traditional sense. Anyway, I do know what you mean.

[gness]

Slicing and buttering is tricky, Canary.....but filling the holes with seasalt Irish butter is delicious...:-)

[woofgang]

great blog post here. https://breadtopia.com/challenging-sourdough-starter-convention/
Breadtopia and King Arthur are my two favourite bread websites.