"Trevor J. Wilson" > wrote in message ink.net>...
> It's nice to see that you were able to achieve a nice crumb structure,
> even with your lower hydration dough. There seems to be a common belief that
> only by using very wet doughs can a baker achieve an open irregular texture.
> In my experience this is just myth.
> Certainly a wetter dough may have more potential to create an open
> crumb, but it is not the main deciding factor. I've made bread with great
> open irregular crumb texture using very stiff dough (60% hydration). I've
> also made bread with dissapointingly tight texture using very wet dough
> (80%).
The difference there can be also due to the degree of dough handling.
Some bakers tend to mould the firmer dough less tightly than they
would with a softer dough.And that can influence crumb appearance
also.
Another is the molding of the dough that does not have enough
intermediate proofing time, can contribute to irregular dough
structure, while another dough piece that has attained sufficient rest
if molded ( due to its extemsibility and less prone to
buckiness)will result in a more even crumb grain.
> In my experience, it's the bulk proof that is most important in
> determining crumb texture. I'm curious what other bakers have to say on this
> matter.

An extended bulk fermentation (but not excessively) will still result
in uniform crumb appearance if the dough is divided and given enough
intermediate proof before molding.

On the other hand IF the dough has fermented long enough( much beyond
the expected bulk dough fermentation time) then there is a higher
level of gluten degradation due to gradual increase of proteolytic
activity,so the resulting gluten bubbles during proofing will tend to
exhibit a coalescence:

I mean some of the gas cells are weakened and this fragile cells
break and combine into two or more gas cells resulting in a (bigger
holes) irregular crumb structure.



Roy