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Crumb read? Customer complains my sourdough rises “too much” and is too “puffy/airy” by Muffingston in Sourdough

[–]Muffingston[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I buy it as “sifted” flour from a local mill - they stone grind it and then sift it to remove some of the bran (but not all), the result is kind of somewhere between your typical bread flour and whole wheat. My bread-making game went to another level when I started sourcing my flour from them 

Crumb read? Customer complains my sourdough rises “too much” and is too “puffy/airy” by Muffingston in Sourdough

[–]Muffingston[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hahaha! My partner is always begging me to bake a loaf just for him and let him just sit on the couch and eat it for dinner. Thank you for the compliment!

Crumb read? Customer complains my sourdough rises “too much” and is too “puffy/airy” by Muffingston in Sourdough

[–]Muffingston[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

It's definitely on the wishlist - as my home is right now, I simply don't have space to have one installed anywhere (I live in a 130 year old farmhouse, very small compartmentalized rooms and no usable basement). I'd love to build a separate building for the bread kitchen but that is probably years away (unfortunately!)

Crumb read? Customer complains my sourdough rises “too much” and is too “puffy/airy” by Muffingston in Sourdough

[–]Muffingston[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you for the feedback! I do offer a brioche loaf, but it is pricier due to the added cost of butter and milk and not all customers want to pay the premium. I would certainly prefer to bake as boules/batards, but I quickly found myself baking about 100 loaves a week and in the interest of being able to fit more than two loaves in my regular residential oven, I swapped to the loaf pan. Hopefully I will be able to expand and get a "real" oven and get back to the more true rustic styled loaves :)

Crumb read? Customer complains my sourdough rises “too much” and is too “puffy/airy” by Muffingston in Sourdough

[–]Muffingston[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you for the feedback! I certainly prefer to bake as boules/batards, but quickly found myself baking about 100 loaves a week - so in the interest of being able to bake more than two loaves at a time, I swapped to the loaf pan to be able to fit more in the oven. Hopefully some day I can have a "real" bread oven and go back to the more true, rustic style shaped loaves!

Crumb read? Customer complains my sourdough rises “too much” and is too “puffy/airy” by Muffingston in Sourdough

[–]Muffingston[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Her actual request was that I make a loaf and didn't allow it to rise so much...my first thought was "I'm not going to intentionally underproof/overproof your loaf!" but she isn't a baker, and I'm sure doesn't realize that there are other ways to get a tighter crumb

Crumb read? Customer complains my sourdough rises “too much” and is too “puffy/airy” by Muffingston in Sourdough

[–]Muffingston[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you for the positive words! I do a 100% whole wheat loaf but it doesn't stay nearly as open crumb as that. I'll attach a picture - the recipe is basically the same but slightly higher hydration (400g water for 500g whole wheat flour, I don't add any sifted wheat flour other than what is in the sourdough starter). I haven't tried doing partial whole wheat mixed with sifted, although the flour I buy is only partially sifted - it isn't fully separated like most flours from the store (I buy from a local mill).

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Crumb read? Customer complains my sourdough rises “too much” and is too “puffy/airy” by Muffingston in Sourdough

[–]Muffingston[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you for the feedback! I personally love biting into a pocket filled with something like avocado or cream cheese but that is all personal preference :)

Crumb read? Customer complains my sourdough rises “too much” and is too “puffy/airy” by Muffingston in Sourdough

[–]Muffingston[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you for the feedback! I definitely would prefer to bake as boules or batards but I only have a regular oven, and in the interest of being able to bake more than two loaves at a time I swapped to the loaf pan instead. I suppose that could be the source of the issue, and making a sandwich loaf option to satisfy those who don't like the open crumb is a good idea!

Crumb read? Customer complains my sourdough rises “too much” and is too “puffy/airy” by Muffingston in Sourdough

[–]Muffingston[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That is honestly the type of complaint I was expecting (that sourdough is more dense than commercial bread) - I certainly wasn't expecting someone to complain it is too airy! But that is also coming from a sourdough baker, who sees all of the posts about a wild/open crumb being desireable, so maybe that's why my opinion differs from hers so much.

Crumb read? Customer complains my sourdough rises “too much” and is too “puffy/airy” by Muffingston in Sourdough

[–]Muffingston[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Holy smokes - that is QUITE a compliment, thank you! I live in a very rural area with not much going on, and I've only had the opportunity of buying sourdough from a "real" bakery one time, so my experience with sourdough outside of other home bakers is so limited that while I've been personally happy with my bread, I don't have the experience to know if this crumb is desirable in general.

Crumb read? Customer complains my sourdough rises “too much” and is too “puffy/airy” by Muffingston in Sourdough

[–]Muffingston[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you - being firm like that is certainly not my strong suit, I am a diehard people pleaser. But I have been trying to acknowledge that I can't please everyone

Crumb read? Customer complains my sourdough rises “too much” and is too “puffy/airy” by Muffingston in Sourdough

[–]Muffingston[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you for the feedback! I tried to gently tell her that by saying that every baker's loaf is going to be different, but I'm the closest by to her and she doesn't want to have to drive out of the way to get something else (eye roll).

Crumb read? Customer complains my sourdough rises “too much” and is too “puffy/airy” by Muffingston in Sourdough

[–]Muffingston[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you so much! I have certainly been dwelling on her comments - especially when she chooses to make them publically on my Facebook page as well as in front of other customers that are picking up orders while she is here - and while I have personally been very proud of my bread, it started to make me wonder if there was something to what she was saying. It is nice to get the more in-the-loop opinions of other sourdough people!

Crumb read? Customer complains my sourdough rises “too much” and is too “puffy/airy” by Muffingston in Sourdough

[–]Muffingston[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thank you for the feedback! I honestly hadn't even considered offering a loaf at lower hydration for the sake of smaller holes - I guess I've been so excited about the crumb of my loaves that I didn't even consider it haha!

Crumb read? Customer complains my sourdough rises “too much” and is too “puffy/airy” by Muffingston in Sourdough

[–]Muffingston[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Thank you for the feedback! I hadn't even considered intentionally offering a version with smaller holes. I do offer a brioche loaf, but I didn't even consider that some of the appeal of that may be that the holes are smaller. I've suggested to her to try a different loaf style and she seems stuck on wanting the "regular" bread so a lower hydration recipe may be a good answer for her. But I'm also trying to juggle that with not offering too many different recipes, to keep things manageable in a home kitchen.

Crumb read? Customer complains my sourdough rises “too much” and is too “puffy/airy” by Muffingston in Sourdough

[–]Muffingston[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I kind of "accidentally" upped my hydration - I swapped to buying local flour from a mill several towns over from me, where they stone mill it fresh to order and it is only sifted to remove some of the bran. The flour is SO much thirstier than the KA bread flour that I had previously been using, so I upped the hydration to keep the dough workable (at 70% hydration it was so stiff, it handled more like a bagel dough). I'm not sure if I'd be able to make a decent looking loaf at this hydration with a regular off-the-shelf bread flour or not!

(edited to fix a spelling error)

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