How can I improve oven spring and ear formation with low gluten flour?
For easier dough handling, try using a hydration level of around 60%. For every 100g of flour, just use 60g of water. This adjustment can really help improve your oven spring and ear formation, especially when working with lower gluten flour. Also, consider using a stiff starter with 50-60% hydration to help slow down gluten degradation. You've got this!
Answered by Hendrik, The Bread Code
From the book
In the stiffer environment the yeast thrives more. This means you will have more CO 2 production and less acid production. In my tests this is a game changer especially if you are using weaker gluten flours. The wheat flours in my home country of Germany tend to be lower in gluten. For wheat to build gluten, warm conditions are preferred [ 39 ]. When following recipes from other bakers, I could never achieve similar results. When following timings my doughs would simply collapse and become super sticky. Only when I started to buy more expensive wheat flour my results did start to change. As not everyone can afford these special baking flours and due to their limited availability, I stumbled upon the stiff sourdough starter. I made several tests where I used the same amount of starter and flour. I only changed the hydration between all the starters. I would then proceed and place a balloon on top of each of the jars. The stiff starter jar was clearly inflated the most. The regular starter followed in second place. The liquid starter finished in third place with far less CO 2 production.
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