Spent 6 months over-proofing my sourdough without knowing it

I was baking sourdough every weekend for half a year and couldn't figure out why my loaves kept spreading flat instead of getting that nice oven spring. Then I went to a workshop at King Arthur Flour in Norwich, Vermont and the instructor pointed out my dough was jiggly and had bubbles popping on the surface before I even shaped it. She had me poke it and the indent stayed - she said that means it's over-proofed and the gluten structure collapses. Has anyone else had a moment where you just realized you've been doing a basic step wrong and it explained all your bad results?

2 comments

2 Comments

janac513d ago

Gotta love when a bakery class ruins six months of bad habits in five seconds. Your mileage may vary but I've had that same gut punch over simpler stuff too.

michaeljones3d ago

You know, I used to think over-proofing was just a myth people blamed their flat loaves on. But that King Arthur class sounds like it would have me rethinking a lot of my old baking habits.