Thanks, Charles. I'm beginning to see where I might have gone wrong:
the whole stretch and fold thing is a bit of am mystery to me. After
the first loaf fermented for 2 hours, I refrigerated it for a day, then
let it sit on my kitchen counter for 3-4 hours before baking it. The
second loaf went straight from fridge to oven. With both loaves, After
fermentation (2 hours) I used a bench knife on a to gently stretch the
dough, but I only did it once on each side as the dough consistency
seemed nice and elastic, looked spongy, and I didn't want to overwork
the dough. I put the boule in a banneton, covered it and refrigerated
it (1st loaf for 24 hours, 2nd loaf about 6.) I never did a punch down
-- if I should, at what point does this happen? Many thanks, Jessica



Charles Perry wrote:
> alphabetgirl wrote:
> >
> > Ideas, anyone?
> >
>
>
> As an educated guess, you probably did not bake the bread long enough
> and that will cause the crust to soften after baking as excess moisture
> escapes. Another factor contributing to a dense chewy crumb is that you
> also probably did not allow the bread to rise enough.
>
> When you put the bread in the cooler the fermentation slows way down.
> Also, when retarded dough is removed from the cooler, not much happens
> until the dough warms up and that can take more time than you think at
> room temperature. You can't count the time in the cooler or the time
> warming up as full fermentation time.
>
> You are still leaving out information necessary to help you discover how
> to improve your bread. We know your recipe and mixing routine, but you
> have not mentioned how the rise time is divided.
>
> You should have a starter prep, dough mix, bulk fermentation, stretch
> and fold or "punch down", Scale and rounding, rest, dough forming, rise
> after forming, bake, and finally a cool down. Some may put a stretch
> and fold series right after mixing. some may put a refrigerated rest or
> "retard" in the process. The actual process can be debated, but the
> point is that we don't know what you did.
>
> We are left wondering about several things in your method even assuming
> good starter prep and good mixing with an OK recipe.
>
> Regards,
>
> Charles