My whole wheat loaf today silently "exploded" in the middle of
proofing. One minute there was a nice boule, half an hour later a peak
revealed it spread and ripped open-- not some neat rustic tears, but
most of the skin torn apart to reveal the moist and unseemly guts. Is
this from too dry a skin? Too much starter? Too long a proof? Not
enough kneading? Not enough punching down? Too few rises? Not enough
tightening during shaping? Not enough pre-tightening? I looked in
the archives and saw exploding while baking, but not proofing, but I
can't believe I'm the first one to experience this.

On 4 Sep 2004 13:59:41 -0700, (Jonathan
Kandell) wrote:

>Is
>this from too dry a skin? Too much starter? Too long a proof? Not
>enough kneading? Not enough punching down? Too few rises? Not enough
>tightening during shaping? Not enough pre-tightening?

Hi Jonathan,

My strong guess would be your first...

Did you attempt to proof the loaf in its final position? (That is,
while proofing, was the top of the baked loaf uppermost?) If so, it is
likely that it just dried out and then could not expand to allow for
the expansion of the interior of the loaf.

Have you tried proofing in some sort of lined basket, then inverting
to bake?

All the best,

--
Kenneth

If you email... Please remove the "SPAMLESS."

"Jonathan Kandell" > wrote in message
m...
> My whole wheat loaf today silently "exploded" in the middle of
> proofing. One minute there was a nice boule, half an hour later a peak
> revealed it spread and ripped open-- not some neat rustic tears, but
> most of the skin torn apart to reveal the moist and unseemly guts. Is
> this from too dry a skin? Too much starter? Too long a proof? Not
> enough kneading? Not enough punching down? Too few rises? Not enough
> tightening during shaping? Not enough pre-tightening? I looked in
> the archives and saw exploding while baking, but not proofing, but I
> can't believe I'm the first one to experience this.

It sounds like what I get when I time it wrong (or forget about it) and let
the second rise go too long. Sometimes the outer skin looks OK, if
suspiciously large, but the guts look like something from the Alien movies.

On 4 Sep 2004 13:59:41 -0700, (Jonathan
Kandell) wrote:

>Is
>this from too dry a skin? Too much starter? Too long a proof? Not
>enough kneading? Not enough punching down? Too few rises? Not enough
>tightening during shaping? Not enough pre-tightening?

Hi Jonathan,

My strong guess would be your first...

Did you attempt to proof the loaf in its final position? (That is,
while proofing, was the top of the baked loaf uppermost?) If so, it is
likely that it just dried out and then could not expand to allow for
the expansion of the interior of the loaf.

Have you tried proofing in some sort of lined basket, then inverting
to bake?

All the best,

--
Kenneth

If you email... Please remove the "SPAMLESS."

"Jonathan Kandell" > wrote in message
m...
> My whole wheat loaf today silently "exploded" in the middle of
> proofing. One minute there was a nice boule, half an hour later a peak
> revealed it spread and ripped open-- not some neat rustic tears, but
> most of the skin torn apart to reveal the moist and unseemly guts. Is
> this from too dry a skin? Too much starter? Too long a proof? Not
> enough kneading? Not enough punching down? Too few rises? Not enough
> tightening during shaping? Not enough pre-tightening? I looked in
> the archives and saw exploding while baking, but not proofing, but I
> can't believe I'm the first one to experience this.

It sounds like what I get when I time it wrong (or forget about it) and let
the second rise go too long. Sometimes the outer skin looks OK, if
suspiciously large, but the guts look like something from the Alien movies.