"If you get huge holes by the crust and it's dense in the center, it's a sign that the oven isn't hot enough," Allen said. It's also always worth making sure your starter is healthy enough to leaven your project. "The trick I use to train people is just to drop a spoonful of starter in a glass of water.
Excess yeast causes extra air bubbles to form, creating holes in the baked bread. You prepared the recipe correctly. The interaction of the various ingredients and the preparation method used for French bread and sourdough bread are intended to create a bread which has a coarse texture and uneven holes.
We get many questions from customers about why their sourdough bread has uneven holes in it. Holes that are too big obviously aren't good, neither are 'tunnel' holes along the length of your sourdough loaf. But uneven holes occurring through your sourdough is good, not bad!
Tip #1: Increase the Hydration Level of your Dough for a Softer Textured Sourdough. The amount of water you add to the dough affects how open the crumb is in the final result (open crumb means bigger holes and a softer texture). The higher the water level, the more open the crumb will be.
If your dough feels dense and tough to handle when you stop the mixer, it is a sign that it is becoming over-kneaded. Over-kneaded dough can become very hard to work with and produce a more flat and chewy bread.
Properly proofed sourdough bread undergoes the oven spring, which is the final expression of the carbon dioxide gasses in the oven. An overproofed dough lacks the necessary carbon dioxide gas for the added boost. The result is a flat, squat loaf of bread with a tight, gummy crumb.
If you have too much of your leavening agent being yeast or sourdough starter it will create too much gasses in your doughs resulting in an uneven crumb. Try decreasing the amount of your leavening agent and giving your dough the proper proofing time.
DOGU: Use a container where you can see the height of the dough from the outside. When you finish mixing, put the dough in that container, and mark where the top of the dough is. The sourdough should reach at least 50 percent higher—so not doubled in size, but 50 percent larger in size before you want to shape it.
Too little folding can result in weak dough. But too much folding can produce excessive tension and compressive forces. An over-folded dough might have a tighter crumb as the layers of alveoli push against each other and coalesce. In the worst case, excessive folding might cause a dough to tear under too much tension.
One of the most common mistakes is having a dough temperature that's too low for the starter to feed on all the flour in the dough, resulting in a crumb that's dense, with fewer openings. "Starter is happiest and most active at around 75 degrees. If it's a lot colder, the process will be much slower.
Before final shaping: bench rest
If you were to shape your dough immediately after preshaping, it would be too tight and it could tear.
In sourdough bread, if you do not give enough time for the wild yeast to multiply and reach a decent population where it can cause enough leavening, your bread is bound to be too dense. Another possible reason for a super dense bread could be the death of the yeast due to some reason.
If dough hydration is too high, the dough will be too slack to hold its shape. Try adding a little more flour or a little less liquid to the dough.
A 24-hour rise time will produce much more sour bread than a 4-hour rise time. If using a shorter rise period, 4-12 hours, a second rise is optional. If desired, punch dough down, reshape, and proof a second time.
Stretching and folding is what replaces kneading in many sourdough recipes. Stretching and folding helps activate the gluten in wheat flour, making it easier to work with and shape. If you skip stretching and folding, chances are you will end up with soggy dough that doesn't hold its shape before or during baking.
Sourdough rising is so much slower than commercial yeast so it might look like there is nothing happening during the bulk ferment, but there definitely is. It's hard to know exactly how long it needs or when it has proofed enough (or too much!) but this is something that can be learned with practice.
Temperature Too Warm
If your kitchen is too warm, the dough can become a sloppy, wet mess. High temperatures can cause premature over fermentation, which will result in wet, sticky sourdough. You need to make sure that you keep your kitchen at a temperature between 24C - 28C (75F-82F).
Adding baking soda to the dough gives it boosted rising power, but because it's such a strong alkaline, it neutralizes the acids in the sourdough, which also neutralizes the sour flavor.
Method 1: Put the dough and pot in the center of a cold oven. Set the oven to 450°F, turn it on, and set a timer for 30 minutes. When the timer goes off, remove the lid and allow the bread to continue baking until it's a dark golden brown, probably an additional 25-30 minutes.
If you love simplicity, just set the Proofer to 81°F and know that it will work well for most breads. Sourdough works in a range of 70-85°F (21-30°C). Warmer temps of 85°F (30°C) will help promote acidity in sourdough, while cooler temps of 70-75°F (21-24°C) will favor the yeast and help create milder flavors.
You'll end up with a loaf that doesn't expand or bake well, and that is also misshapen and very sour. While some people (including us) like that biting flavor, others may find it too sour. Mistakes are inevitable when it comes to proofing bread, but there's no need to throw out dough if it proofs too long.