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I finally figured out my sourdough was flat because of one dumb thing I did for 3 years
I was at a bakery in Portland last month and watched a guy pull a loaf out of the oven with the biggest ears I've ever seen, and mine always came out flat. Turns out I had been degassing the dough way too hard during shaping, just punching all the air right out of it like I was mad at it. My old roommate taught me that way back in 2020 and I never thought twice about it. Last Sunday I tried a gentle fold with my fingertips instead and got the best rise I've had in years. Anyone else get taught a bad habit by a friend and just run with it for way too long?
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alice33614d ago
I read somewhere that the whole "punch down the dough" thing actually comes from old commercial baking where they wanted a tight crumb for sandwich bread, so it stuck around in home recipes even though it kills open crumb. There's a guy on YouTube, I forget his name, who did a side by side test with the same dough, one punched hard and one just folded, and the difference was nuts. The gentle one had holes you could see through and the punched one looked like grocery store bread. I was doing the same thing you were, just squishing all the good stuff out because my cousin showed me that way years ago. Now I barely touch it during shaping and my loaves actually look like something.
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