Finally figured out why my sourdough was splitting after 8 months of frustration

My loaves kept splitting along the bottom during baking no matter what I did. Tried different scoring patterns, steam methods, even switched flours. Turned out my dough temp was dropping too fast during the cold proof in my 35 degree fridge. Been holding it at 40 degrees the last 3 bakes and no splits. Anyone else deal with weird cracking issues from fridge temps?

2 comments

2 Comments

ward.mason1mo ago

Yeah but have you checked if your fridge is actually cycling warm air in during defrost cycles? Mine was doing that and it threw off the whole cold proof.

beth_ward801mo ago

34°F isn't warm, @ward.mason. That's still comfortably above freezing.