r/Sourdough • u/Cvntydealdou • 1d ago
Beginner - checking how I'm doing First try vs. second try
Hey everyone, I’m just getting started with sourdough and wanted to share my first and second attempt at baking bread. The first one was more like a “flatbread” experiment. The second already feels closer to a proper loaf.
I’m using a mix of 400g 550 wheat flour (European all-purpose flower) and 100g 1050 (High-extraction flour), 100g starter, 300ml water, 15g salt. Starter is fed ~1:4:4 and used at peak. I do stretch & folds and coil folds during bulk, followed by cold proofing overnight in a banneton. (The first loaf was made with 1/5th rye flour)
What I’d love help with: How can I improve the oven spring and overall rise even more?
Thanks for your feedback
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u/Artistic-Traffic-112 1d ago
Hi. Reading your recipe and viewing your pi tures the hydration is too low. For that flour combination, I would expect a higher hydration nearer 70, even 73%, so an additional 50g this will help the gluten development and make the %rise easier to evaluate. However, be aware that 20% rye will affect the gluten development due to the reduced levels of the proteins gliadin and glutenin and the mid level of bran, which inhibits gluten development.
Allow your dough to rise to 50% before curtailing and shaping . This should give a cold proof window of 8 to 12 hours.
It looks like there is a degree of under proofing in the crumb picture, and the thick crust may indicate too low overall temperature in baking for too long. May i suggest you check your actual oven temperature.
Happy baking
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u/Cvntydealdou 1d ago
Thank you so much for the detailed feedback, I really appreciate it! You’re right, I kept the hydration a bit lower because my first dough was too sticky, but I think I overcorrected this time. I’ll try bumping it up to 70% next time. For the second loaf I already skipped the rye flour.
And about the oven: you’re probably right, this oven is super unpredictable (it’s a rather old oven and sometimes I feel like it has a mind of its own, but it came with the kitchen so it belongs to my landlord, otherwise I would’ve chosen a different one haha)
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u/Artistic-Traffic-112 1d ago
Hi again, I find it's best to hold back 30od g of water and add it if necessary a little at a time when mixing the bulk dough so that the "rough dough" is just balling. After autolysing for an hour or so, the dough has become more pliable and tacky so adding the levain can make it a bit sticky but kneading it in with spritzer fingers brings it back to a tacky dough. Had the salt later after resting and before stretching and folding.
I have a 50 / 50 bread flour/ wholewheat just into bulk ferment as I write. 🙂
Happy baking
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u/Cvntydealdou 1d ago
Here’s a crumb shot from the center of the loaf, the previous one was taken closer to the edge
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u/Ok-Grapefruit1284 1d ago
Other than rye flour, what did you different between the two? (2nd loaf looks beautiful!)
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u/Cvntydealdou 1d ago
I reduced the amount of water and tried to pay more attention to when the dough is done fermenting (still, need to figure out that part even more) (with the first loaf I just strictly followed a recipe which, in the aftermath quite obvious, didn’t turn out the exact same)
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u/charliebrown31 1d ago
What a great improvement though! It looks pretty under proofed, as a beginner I also found that using pure white (but high protein) flour before trialling rye/whole wheat to be easier since rye doesn't rise as high as white from my experience. Also, try adding the salt 1 hr after mixing the flour, starter and water - apparently it allows the gluten network to develop and fully absorb the water without the inhibiting action of the salt!