Without scoring, the steam will find its own weak point and burst through the crust as it hardens, this creates unwanted bulges and blowouts in your bread. The goal of scoring is to guide the way dough rises in the oven in a way that helps it maintain its shape and allows it to take full advantage of oven spring.
If you don't score your loaf, it will still expand, but in a jagged pattern. Or it will find a less desirable weak point: This crack along the side of my loaf is common in breads baked in a bread pan BECAUSE the dough exploits a weak point along the side created by the shaping process.
By performing cuts, you are creating weak sections on the crust that will make the dough understand where it needs to rise from. If you don't score your bread, your loaf will have no IDEA where it should rise from and it will just burst and open at its weakest point.
If you skip stretching and folding, chances are you will end up with soggy dough that doesn't hold its shape before or during baking. Developed strands of gluten help hold the bread together as it bakes, and contributes to a strong upward rise (called oven spring) rather than spread during baking.
The weakest spots in the dough's surface — whether intentional or accidental— will give way and crack open. Most bread bakers score the dough with a blade (or lame) to create a weak point and direct the rapid expansion. Without this step, dough can open in unexpected areas and in a rather chaotic manner.
Without scoring, the steam will find its own weak point and burst through the crust as it hardens, this creates unwanted bulges and blowouts in your bread. The goal of scoring is to guide the way dough rises in the oven in a way that helps it maintain its shape and allows it to take full advantage of oven spring.
Scoring your sourdough bread with a bread lame is essential to the baking process. Slashing the dough with a sharp razor after the final proof and before baking allows the dough to expand in the oven and let the gasses release.
What to look for in an over proofed loaf. Similar to the signs of over proofed dough, an over proofed loaf will be very flat, without much rise or retention of shaping. Over proofing destroys the structural integrity of the bread, so loaves that have gone over are unable to hold their shape in the oven.
Overproofed is when the dough has rested too long and the yeast has continued making carbon dioxide while the strength of the dough (gluten bonds) have begun to wear out. The dough will look very puffy, but when you touch it or move it you may notice it deflate or sag.
Too little folding can result in weak dough. But too much folding can produce excessive tension and compressive forces. An over-folded dough might have a tighter crumb as the layers of alveoli push against each other and coalesce. In the worst case, excessive folding might cause a dough to tear under too much tension.
You can score sourdough bread too deep. You don't want to go deeper than half an inch, even for the primary score. If you score too deep will affect the integrity of the gluten and shaping on the dough and it will not spring up in the oven.
Steam will always find the weakest point in the dough in order to escape. In addition, if you score your dough too deeply, there ends up being too much dough for the steam to be able to lift. Think of the score like a shelf that you're creating, not just an incision that you're making.
Sourdough bread has two rises. The second shorter than the first. Dough that's not left long enough for either of the two required rises, will result in sourdough bread that's flat. The length of time for the first rise will usually vary from 4-12 hours.
If dough hydration is too high, the dough will be too slack to hold its shape. Try adding a little more flour or a little less liquid to the dough.
Scoring bread is easiest with a sharp implement. You can use a sharp paring knife or kitchen scissors to snip lines into the top of the unbaked bread boule. Or you can use a tool that professional bakers use to score, called a bread lame. It's essentially a razor blade affixed to a handle for easy maneuvering.
*If you want to give yourself a slightly firmer surface to score, place your banneton full of dough into the freezer for 30 minutes before turning it out, scoring and baking. (If your dough is too wet or over proved, it is likely to still spread even with this tip).
Overproofed sourdough dough loses all structure, so it's stretchy and slack when turned onto a work surface. The dough is also stickier than usual due to the lack of remaining gluten structure.
Poke the dough lightly with your finger and take note of how the surface of the dough bounces back. If the indent comes back quickly and disappears, the loaf is not proofed enough and needs an additional half-hour (or more) proofing time. If the indent doesn't bounce back, your loaf is over-proofed.
CAUSE - gummy sourdough can be caused by a starter that's too young or inactive and or under fermentation. More often than not, gumminess is a result of under fermentation (cutting the bulk fermentation time too short).
Some types of crumb include: fool's crumb (a mix of very tight and big holes), honeycomb or lacy (evenly spaced and moderately open), and wild (a mix of moderate and very large holes).
The second proving has given the bread more elasticity, and made it harder to deflate the air. Second rises may add significantly to the total time it takes to complete a loaf of bread, but the step can be essential to achieving the taste and texture inherent to a number of popular breads.
Autolysing is combining the flour and water for a period of time before adding the sourdough starter and salt. It has a few benefits: enzymes are released that make the sugars more available for when you add the starter, it softens the bran in a whole grain dough, and it gets the gluten development going.
A more mature starter will have a better established colony of lactobacillus (the good bacteria that give you the distinctive sourdough flavor). So as your starter matures and ages, it will develop a much stronger sourdough flavor.