Opening the Crumb
In the early days of training, I was producing Rustics with a fairly open crumb. Then, some customers mentioned they don’t like their spread falling through the bread, so I closed it up.
Flash forward a few years, and a good friend asked for an open crumb Rustic. Could I do it again? I thought so, but it was harder than I thought it would be. This is written for the intermediate baker (by an intermediate baker) so if you’d like clarification or if you have corrections/suggestions, I’m all ears.
The General Process
The Flour
I typically use a higher protein bread flour (Yecora Rojo 00) in its most sifted state - “00”. If you think of a whole grain, or whole wheat flour, it’s had none of the bran or shell of the berry sifted out. It’s a bit more nutritious with more fiber, but keeps the gluten network in check because the edges of the bran can literally cut through the gluten strands.
Most “white” bread flour has 65-85% of the bran sifted out. Double zero flour has 100%, or nearly all the bran sifted out, resulting in an exceptionally soft flour and, if it’s not stone ground, a very white flour. But 00 flour has one drawback for an open crumb, I found: fermentation decreases.
It’s a fun myth that sourdough starter rises because of the microbes in the air. In reality, the bits of bran in the flour have microbes piggybacking, which cause the mix to ferment. It could be that some of the air plays a part, but all you have to prove this is add some whole grain to your sourdough and watch the magic happen. Since 00 flour has less to no bran, fermentation is slower and lower.
Since bread also ferments while it’s proofing, the more bran that exists, the better/faster the fermentation. Of course, the downside is that the netting of gluten is weaker and thus not able to restrain the bubbles as well. This is why the holy grail of rustic sourdoughs is a 100% whole wheat with open crumb. Very difficult to produce.
The good news about the flour I use from Barton Springs Mill is that it’s stone ground. So tiny bits of the bran remain even in 00 flour, resulting in a sort of creamy color to the white bread. You get good fermentation as well as exceptionally soft texture.
The original recipe I used was about 4% whole wheat by overall weight. More on that later.
The Process
No big reveal here. I was autolysing 30-60 minutes prior to mixing with the salt. Coil folds every 20-60 minutes, bulk proof for 3-5 hours, overnight in the frigo, then baked right out of the cold.
The Modifications
In short, here’s what I changed and its effect. 1 is low effect, 5 is high
Increase autolyse to two hours, add the salt 30 minutes after the levain mix: 2— little change
Laminate the dough 30 minutes after adding the salt and folding: 3—noticeable change
Strengthened levain—add 10% rye for two days, feed 3x daily: 3— noticeable change
Change final shaping from the “stitch” method to the rolling method: 5— massive change
Remove whole wheat from mix: 3— noticeable change
There were other minor things, such as low tension on the pre-shaping but in truth, the end result probably needed all the modifications. I’m not sure about lengthening the autolyse and delaying the salt, and maybe I’ll test that in the future. The other mods were critical, but if you had to choose two, it would be strengthening your levain and the final shaping. Take a look at @fullproofbaking ‘s fold near the end of this carousel. I add a final stitch after it’s in the basket, which I tested, and it didn’t affect the crumb while helping out the spring.