Chapter: Debugging crumb structures

This adds methods how you can debug your crumb
structure and see what might have gone wrong
during the fermentation process.

.gitignore

@@ -5,3 +5,7 @@
 *.synctex.gz
 *.toc
 *.pdf
+*.bbl
+*.bcf
+*.blg
+*.run.xml

.vscode/spellright.dict

@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+
+preshaping
+Preshaping
+Underfermented
+underproofed
+underfermented
+underfermentation

book/book.tex

@@ -8,9 +8,11 @@
 \usepackage{filecontents}
 \usepackage{longtable}
 \usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
+\usepackage[backend=biber]{biblatex}
+\addbibresource{references.bib}
+\usepackage[skip=5pt plus1pt, indent=0pt]{parskip}
 
-
-\graphicspath{ {./images/} }
+\graphicspath{ {./images/}{./troubleshooting/crumb-structures/} }
 
 
 \title{%
@@ -111,7 +113,9 @@
 \section{Frozen}
 
 \chapter{Troubleshooting}
+
 \section{Debugging your crumb structure}
+\input{troubleshooting/crumb-structures/crumb-structures}
 \section{Baking in the tropics}
 \section{My bread stays flat}
 \section{I want more tang in my bread}
@@ -121,4 +125,7 @@
 \section{Liquid on top of my starter}
 \section{Why does my starter smell like acetone}
 
+\printbibliography
+
+
 \end{document}

book/references.bib

@@ -0,0 +1,17 @@
+@article{raffaella+di+cagno,
+ author    = {Di Cagno, Raffaella et al.},
+ title     = {Proteolysis by sourdough lactic acid bacteria:
+              effects on wheat flour protein fractions and
+              gliadin peptides involved in human cereal intolerance},
+ journal   = {Applied and environmental microbiology},
+ publisher = {Dover},
+ volume    = {68,2}
+}
+
+@misc{too+hot+baking,
+  title        = {Avoid baking too hot},
+  author       = {Hendrik Kleinwächter},
+  howpublished = {\url{https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUtn4HKAiBs}},
+  year         = {2021},
+  note         = {Accessed: 2022-03-24}
+}

book/troubleshooting/crumb-structures/crumb-structures.tex

@@ -0,0 +1,310 @@
+The crumb structure of your bread provides insights on how well
+your fermentation process has gone. You can also spot common flaws
+of improper technique. This chapter will provide you with information
+that you can use to debug your baking process.
+
+\subsection{Perfect fermentation}
+
+\begin{figure}
+  \includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{open-crumb}
+  \caption{The bread has a somewhat open crumb with areas
+  featuring a honeycomb structure.}
+  \label{fig:open-crumb}
+\end{figure}
+
+Of course the perfect fermentation is debatable and highly subjective. To
+me the perfect sourdough bread features a crisp crust paired with a fluffy
+somewhat open crumb. This is the perfect balance of different consistencies
+when you take a bite.
+
+Some people are chasers of a very open crumb, meaning you have large pockets
+of air (alveoli). It's subjective whether that's the style of bread that you like,
+however to achieve it you need to ferment your bread dough perfectly on point.
+It takes a lot of skill both in terms of mastering fermentation and technique
+to achieve a crumb structure like that.
+
+Me personally I like a bread like that, just with a slightly less wild crumb.
+The style of crumb I like is called the {\it honeycomb crumb}. It's not too open, but
+just enough open to make the bread very fluffy. To achieve the previously mentioned open crumb you
+have to touch your dough as little as possible. The more you interact with your
+dough the more you are degassing your dough. Excess touching of the dough
+results in the dough's alveoli merging together. The crumb will not be as open.
+That's why achieving such a crumb works best if you only ferment
+one dough at the same time. Normally if you have to preshape your dough,
+you will automatically degas your dough a little bit during the rounding process.
+If you skip this step and directly shape your dough you will achieve a more open crumb.
+A good rule of thumb is to not touch your dough for at least 1-2 hours before shaping,
+to achieve an as open crumb as possible.
+
+\begin{figure}
+  \includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{honeycomb}
+  \caption{A whole wheat sourdough with an almost exclusive honeycomb crumb structure.}
+  \label{fig:honeycomb}
+\end{figure}
+
+
+Now this is problematic when you want to
+make multiple breads at the same time. Preshaping is essential as you are required
+to divide your large bulk dough into smaller chunks. Without the preshaping
+process you would end up with many non-uniform bread doughs. This technique is
+also used when making ciabattas. They are typically not shaped. You only cut the
+bulk dough into smaller pieces, trying to work the dough as little as possible.
+With preshaping you will converge your dough's alveoli into more of a honeycomb structure,
+as large pockets of air will slightly converge. Similarly to the open crumb structure
+you also have to nail the fermentation process perfectly to achieve this crumb.
+A too long fermentation will result in gas leaking out of your dough while baking.
+The honeycomb's won't be able to retain the gas. If you ferment for too short,
+there is not enough gas to inflate the structures. To me this is the perfect
+style of crumb. As someone who appreciates jam, no jam will fall through a slice
+of this bread compared to an open crumb.
+
+\subsection{Overfermented}
+
+\begin{figure}
+  \includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{fermented-too-long}
+  \caption{A relatively flat dough that has many tiny pockets of air.}
+  \label{fig:fermented-too-long}
+\end{figure}
+
+When fermenting your dough for too long over time the protease enzyme starts to
+break down the gluten of your flour. Furthermore the bacteria consumes the gluten
+in a process called {\it proteolysis} \cite{raffaella+di+cagno}.
+Bakers also refer to this process as {\it gluten rot}.
+The gluten that normally is normally trapping the CO2 created
+by the fermentation process of your microorganisms can no longer stay inside of
+the dough. It disperses outward resulting in smaller alveoli in your crumb.
+The bread itself tends to be very flat in the oven. Bakers often refer
+to this style of bread as a {\it pancake}. The oven spring can be compared
+to bread doughs made out of low gluten flour like Einkorn.
+
+Your bread will feature a lot of acidity, a really strong distinctive tang. From
+a taste perspective it might be a little bit too sour. From my own tests with family and
+friends (n=15-20) I can say that this style of bread is typically
+not as appreciated. However, me personally I really like the hearty strong taste.
+It is excellent in combination with something
+sweet or a soup.  From a consistency perspective it is no longer as fluffy as it could be.
+The crumb might also taste a little bit gummy. That's because it has been broken down a lot
+by the bacteria. Furthermore this style of bread has a significantly lower amount of gluten \cite{raffaella+di+cagno}
+and is no longer comparable to raw flour, it's a fully fermented product.
+You can compare it with a blue cheese that is almost lactose free.
+
+When trying to work with the dough you will notice that suddenly the dough feels
+very sticky. You can no longer properly shape and work the dough. When trying to
+remove the dough from a banneton the dough flattens out very much. Furthermore
+in many cases your dough might stick to the banneton. When beginning with baking
+I would use a lot of rice flour in my banneton to dry out the surface of the dough a lot.
+This way the dough wouldn't stick, despite being over fermented. However as it
+turns out the stickiness issue has been my lack of understanding the fermentation
+process. Now I never use rice-flour, except when trying to apply decorative scorings.
+Properly managing fermentation results in a dough that is not sticky.
+
+If you are noticing during a stretch and fold, or during shaping that your dough
+is suddenly overly sticky, then the best option is to use a loaf pan. Simply take
+your dough and toss it into a loaf pan. Wait until the dough mixture has increased
+in size a bit again and then bake it. You will have a very well tasting sourdough
+bread. If it's a bit too sour, you can just bake your dough for a longer period
+of time to boil some of the acidity during the baking process. You can also use
+your dough to setup a new starter and try again tomorrow. Lastly if you are hungry
+you can simply pour some of your dough directly into a heated pan with a bit of
+oil. You will be making delicious sourdough flat breads.
+
+To fix issues related to overfermentation you need to stop the fermentation process
+earlier. What I like to do is to extract a small fermentation probe from my dough.
+Depending on the volume increase of this probe I can mostly judge when my fermentation
+is finished. Try to start with a 25 percent volume increase of your main dough or sample.
+Depending on how much gluten your flour has, you can ferment for a longer period of time.
+With a strong flour featuring a 14-15 percent protein you should be able to safely
+ferment until a 100 percent size increase. This however also happens on your
+sourdough starter's composition of yeast and bacteria. The more bacterial fermentation
+the faster your dough structure breaks down. Frequent feedings of your sourdough
+starter will improve the yeast activity. Furthermore a stiff sourdough starter
+might be a good solution too. The enhanced yeast activity will result in a more fluffy
+dough with less bacterial activity. A better yeast activity also will result
+in less acidity in your final bread. If you are a chaser of a very strong tangy
+flavor profile then a stronger flour with more gluten will help.
+
+
+\subsection{Underfermented}
+
+\begin{figure}
+  \includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{fermented-too-short-underbaked}
+  \caption{A dense dough featuring a gummy not fully gelatinized area.
+  The picture has been provided by Midori from our community discord server.}
+  \label{fig:fermented-too-short-underbaked}
+\end{figure}
+
+This defect is also commonly referred to as {\it underproofed}. However underproofed
+is not a good term as it only refers to having a too short period of time in the final
+proofing stage of the bread making process. If you were to directly bake your bread
+after a successful bulk fermentation stage you would not achieve this defect.
+Proofing will make your dough a bit more extensible and allows your sourdough
+to inflate the dough a bit more. When faced with an underfermented bread you
+already did something wrong during the bulk fermentation stage, or maybe also
+even before that with your sourdough starter.
+
+A typical underfermented dough has very large pockets of air and is partially
+wet and gummy in some areas of the dough. The large pockets can be compared
+to making a non-leavened wheat or corn tortilla. As you bake the dough in your pan
+the water slowly starts to evaporate. The gas is trapped in the structure of the dough
+and will create pockets. In case of a tortilla this is the desired behavior.
+But when you observe this process in a larger dough you will create several
+super alveoli. The water evaporates and the first alveoli form. Then at some point
+the starch starts to gelatinize and becomes solid. This happens first inside of the pockets
+as the interior heats up faster compared to the rest of the dough. Once all the starch
+has gelatinized the alveoli holds its shape and no longer expands. During this
+process other parts of the bread dough are pushed outwards. That's why an underfermented
+dough sometimes even features an ear during the baking process. This
+is also commonly referred to as a {\it fool's crumb}. You are excited about an ear which
+can be quite hard to achieve. Plus you might think you finally created some big pockets
+of air in your crumb. But in reality you fermented for a too short period
+of time.
+
+\begin{figure}
+  \includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{fools-crumb}
+  \caption{A typical example of a fool's crumb featuring an ear and several overly
+  large alveoli. The picture has been provided by Rochelle from our
+  community discord server.}
+  \label{fools-crumb}
+\end{figure}
+
+In a properly fermented dough the alveoli help with the heat transfer throughout the dough.
+From within the tiny many fermentation induced pockets the starch gelatinizes. With
+an underfermented dough this heat transfer does not properly work. Because of that
+you sometimes have areas which look like raw dough. Bakers refer to this as a very
+gummy structure sometimes. Baking your dough for a longer period of time would also properly
+gelatinize the starch in these areas. However, then other parts of your bread
+might be baked too long.
+
+To fix issues related to underfermentation you simply have to ferment your dough
+for a longer period of time. Now there is an upper limit to fermentation time
+as your flour breaks down the moment it is in contact with water. That's why it
+might be a good idea to simply speed up your fermentation process. As a rough
+figure, I try to aim for a bulk fermentation time of around 8-12 hours typically.
+To achieve that you can try to make your sourdough starter more active.  This can be done
+by feeding your starter daily over several days. Use the same ratio as you would
+do for your main bread dough. Assuming you use 20 percent starter calculated on the flour,
+use a 1:5:5 ratio to feed your starter. That would be 10 grams of existing starter,
+50 grams of flour, 50 grams of water for instance. To boost your yeast even more you can
+consider making a stiff sourdough starter. The stiff sourdough starter will
+boost your yeast activity. The bacteria produces mostly acid. The more acidity
+is piled up, the less active your yeast is. The stiff sourdough starter
+enables you to start your dough's fermentation with yeast dominated activity.
+
+
+\subsection{Not enough dough strength}
+
+\begin{figure}
+  \includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{flat-bread}
+  \caption{A very flat bread without enough dough strength.}
+  \label{flat-bread}
+\end{figure}
+
+When a dough flattens out quite a lot during the baking process chances are
+that you did not create enough dough strength. This means your gluten matrix
+hasn't been developed properly. Your dough is too extensible and flattens out
+mostly rather than springing upwards in the oven. This can also happen if you
+proofed your dough for too long. Over time the gluten relaxes and your dough
+becomes more and more extensible. You can observe the gluten relaxing behavior
+too when making a pizza pie. Directly after shaping your dough balls it's very hard to shape
+the pizza pie. If you wait for 30-90 minutes stretching the dough becomes a lot easier.
+
+The easiest way to fix this is probably to knead your dough more at the start. To simplify
+things consider using less water for your flour too. This will result in a more elastic dough
+right away. This concept is commonly used for no-knead style sourdough.  Alternatively you
+can also perform more stretch and folds during the bulk fermentation process. Each
+stretch and fold will help to strengthen the gluten matrix and make a more elastic dough.
+The last option to fix a dough with too little dough strength is to shape your dough tighter.
+
+\subsection{Baked too hot}
+
+\begin{figure}
+  \includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{baked-too-hot-v2}
+  \caption{A bread with very large alveoli close to the crust}
+  \label{baked-too-hot}
+\end{figure}
+
+This is a common mistake that has happened to me a lot. When you bake your dough
+at a too hot temperature you block your dough's expansion. The starch gelatinizes
+and becomes more and more solid. At around 140°C (284°F) the maillard reaction
+starts to completely thicken your bread dough's crust. This is similar to baking
+your bread dough without steam. As the internal dough's temperature heats up
+more and more water evaporates, gas expands and the dough is being pushed upwards.
+Once the dough reaches the crust it can no longer expand. The alveoli merge
+into larger structures close to the surface of the dough. By baking too hot
+you are not achieving the ear which adds extra flavor. Furthermore your crumb
+is not as fluffy as it could be by restricting its expansion capabilities.
+
+If you have an extensible dough with high hydration baking too cold will result
+in the dough flattening out quite a lot. The gelatinization of the starch is
+essential for the dough to hold it's structure. After conducting several
+experiments it seems that my sweet spot for maximum oven spring seems to be
+at around 230°C (446°F). Test the temperature of your oven, because in several
+cases the displayed temperature might not match the actual temperature of your
+oven \cite{too+hot+baking}. Make sure to turn off the fan of your oven. Most
+home ovens are designed to vent the steam as fast as possible. If you can not
+turn the fan off, consider using a dutch oven.
+
+\subsection{Baked with too little steam}
+
+\begin{figure}[h]
+  \includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{no-steam}
+  \caption{One of my earlier breads that I baked at a friend's place where
+  I couldn't steam the dough properly}
+  \label{no-steam}
+\end{figure}
+
+Similarly to baking too hot when baking without enough steam your dough's crust
+forms too quickly. It's hard to spot the difference between the two mistakes.
+I typically first ask about the temperature and then about the steaming technique
+to determine what might be wrong with the baking process. Too little steam can
+typically be spotted by having a thick crust around all around your dough paired
+with large alveoli towards the edges.
+
+The steam essentially prevents the maillard reaction from happening too quickly
+on your crust. That's why steaming during the first stages of the bake is so important.
+The steam keeps the temperature of your crust close to around 100°C (212°F). Achieving steam
+can be done by using a dutch oven, an inverted tray and or a bowl of boiling water.
+You might also have an oven with a built-in steam functionality. All the methods work,
+it depends on what you have at hand. My default go-to method is an inverted
+tray on top of my dough, paired with a bowl full of boiling water towards the bottom
+of the oven.
+
+\begin{figure}
+  \includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{apple-experiment-temperatures}
+  \caption{An apple with 2 probes to measure ambient
+  and surface temperatures of several steaming techniques
+  in a dutch oven.}
+  \label{apple-experiment-temperatures}
+\end{figure}
+
+Now there can also be too much steam. For this I tested using a dutch oven paired with large ice
+cubes to provide additional steam. The temperature of my dough's surface would directly
+jump close to 100°C. The steam contains more energy and can thus through convection
+heat up the surface of your dough faster. I tested this by using an apple inside of
+a dutch oven. Then I would use a barbecue thermometer with a probe directly at the surface.
+I would then change the steaming methods to plot how quickly the temperature
+close to the surface of the dough changes. I tried to use an ice cube inside of a preheated
+dutch oven, a preheated dutch oven, a preheated dutch oven with spritzes
+of water on the apple's surface, a non preheated dutch oven where I would only preheat
+the bottom part. The experiment then showed that the ice-cube method would heat up
+the surface of the apple a lot quicker. When replicating this with a bread dough
+I would achieve less oven spring.
+
+\begin{figure}[h]
+  \includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{apple-experiment-surface-temperatures}
+  \caption{A chart showing how the temperature of the surface
+  of the apple changes with different steaming techniques.}
+  \label{apple-experiment-surface-temperatures}
+\end{figure}
+
+\begin{figure}[h]
+  \includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{apple-experiment-ambient-temperatures}
+  \caption{This figure shows how the ambient temperatures inside of the
+  dutch oven change depending on the steaming technique that is used.}
+  \label{apple-experiment-ambient-temperatures}
+\end{figure}
+
+Generally though achieving too much steam is relatively challenging. I could only
+commit this mistake when using a dutch oven as steaming method paired with relatively
+large ice cubes. After talking with other bakers using the same dutch oven, it seems
+that mine (around 80g) were 4 times as heavy as the ones other bakers would use (20g)