Hi All -
I'm very much a newbie bread baker. I've been working out of Peter
Reinhart's book 'The Bread Bakers Apprentice'. I've tried several
attempts at his Pain a' l'Ancienne, similar to a Ciabatta without a biga.
Here's my problem, I struggle to get a uniform open webbing in the
bread. This is a slack dough with a high hydration rate. The top of
my loafs will have nice big holes in the crumb but the bottom of the
loaf crumb is a much smaller tighter webbing. The bottom of my
loaves do not get very brown as I start them on parchment then
transfer them directly to the stone mid bake as I rotate them.
I seem to get pretty good oven spring over all. Could this be a
function of placement of my stone in the oven? (too High?) Or could
this be a hydration issue? Longer rise? I also use a steam pan and
spritz, and crank my oven to its max of 500 F. The bread is very
tasty, but I don't feel I'm getting the full "nutty" tones from the
bread that come with the interior caramelization from a very open
webbing. I'm careful not to deflate the dough as I shape it. If the
loaf is too thick will it compress the gas bubbles?
I hope the answer is not "all of the above". I've definitely been
bitten by the bread baking bug and I will not rest until I perfect
this awesome bread.
Tonight I'll try to lower my stone to the bottom rack of my oven.
Thank you in advance for any help.