today’s sourdough was a failure

I thought I could make it, but I was wrong.

Using all purpose flour in this sourdough loaf was a disaster. They say the Canadian all purpose and bread flours have similar protein content and many bakers are successful in getting decent loaves with all purpose flour, but today I proved myself that was not the case for me. Bread flour it is!

Dough was fantastic, but as soon as I took it from the proofing basket, it spread and leveled. I was hoping maybe once it is in the oven things would get better. But the loaf did not rise, usual oven spring was not existing, and it took longer (1 hour 15 min at 350F) to get a browned crust (I suspect because it was such a shallow loaf that its crust was further away from the top of the oven, which made it longer to brown), and as a result is as dry and hard as brick.

I will eat it, but honestly use the bread flour if it works better for your loaves.

 

starter was one of the best I have seen lately; I was hopeful about this loaf. Alas…..

initial shaggy dough with 3 cups all purpose flour, 1 cup+1tbs of starter, 1 1/3 cup water, 2 tbs sugar, and 1.5 tbs salt. it was dry and did not form well at the beginning, which was somehow alarming

after 4-5 stretch and fold; it turned out to be working; dough was in a much better shape and moist

after 18 hours rise at room temperature dough has risen quite well and I was very pleased with this 🙂

quickly shaped and placed in a bowl lined up with a clean cloth and sprinkled with generous amount of flour

after 6 hours of proof at room temperature in a plastic bag (makes the green house effect)

when taken out of the bowl; it does not look bad but it started to spread after that

my signature (aka favorite scoring)

final product baked at 350F non-pre-heated oven for 1 hour 15 min

there are some air pockets, but it is a good example of a brick loaf 😦

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Added after the post: On a second thought, this loaf may as well be just over-proved. The first rise was quite long (around 18 hours) and I wonder if this has something to do with this leveled loaf (aka less gluten structure)… if you have any opinion, please do comment.