Hi everyone! I just baked my first loaf of sourdough and I fear I've messed it up quite a bit. I'd appreciate any feedback or criticism.
My starter is a wheat starter, about 3 weeks old. It doubles in size within roughly 6 hours. It's summer where I'm at, 28-31 C or (82-87F).
I followed the clever carrot recipe.
I mixed 150 grams starter, 25g olive oil, and about 300g water 460 grams AP flour and about 40g of vital wheat gluten (as we don't get bread flour here.). Combined this into a shaggy dough.
I let it autolyse for 1 hour, and did 3 sets of stretch and folds spaced about 1 hour each. Then I left it alone and it doubled in size in about 6 hours. (6 hours including the stretch and folds time)
I attempted to shape it but messed it up and had to do it again. The second attempt turned out worse and I think I knocked the gas out of it with that one. I then covered it and left it in the fridge overnight (covered) before scoring and baking.
I baked it in a closed pot / cooker thing as I did not have a Dutch oven, cooking at 230C for 20 mins with the lid on and 200 for another 40 with no lid.
My oven was malfunctioning at first so I had some difficulty and lost heat at the beginning I believe as it would keep turning on and off but it did get this much consistent cooking time, 20 mins with lid on and 40 with the lid taken out.
I let it cool on a rack for 2.5 hours before cutting into it.
The bread is not as airy as I would like and the crust is really hard. The bottom is also a little burnt and the parchment paper ended up sticking to it though I was able to scrape it out. I'm mainly unhappy with the denseness of the bread and I'm not sure if the issue is my proofing or shaping or something else. I'd appreciate any feedback. Thanks!!!