What have I done wrong why is my bloomer dough doing this on proving and can I fix it?

[nhssecretary]

I left it for 5 hours to rise
Knocked it back
Shaped it into a sort of roundy oblong
This is the second time it's done it this week

It looks to me that the hydration is wrong. What recipe did you use?

How fresh is your yeast?

The yeast is fast action sainsbos and new
Well within date
I didn't let the salt touch the yeast
Used Paul Hollywood recipe

340 ml of water
40 ml olive oil
500 strong flour
7 g yeast
Salt

Do you think I didn't get the air out of the dough when I knocked it back

i'd say that was far too dry.... dough shouldn't crack like that! You probably have a new batch of "thirsty" flour.

and if it is fast action why are you proving it for five hours?...isn't fast action supposed to be mix, rise, knock back, shape and bake??

I thought it was until it was 3 times the size
I've just starting making bread
It is a new bag of flour I opened this week.
I have only made bloomer 4 times and then I made a foccacia 3 times
Starting baking week before my birthday so like 3 weeks ago?
Ok I have knocked it back again
And shaped
I think I didn't give it enough time with the knocking back and shaping
It looks better now

That looks better doesn't it

The dough needs to be quite wet- my bread improved massively when I used more water. Can I recommend-as I always do- that you look on YouTube at James Morton making mug bread? Apart from the fact that he's very sweet, he really shows you what the dough should look like.

Yes please, what a great idea.
Videos always really help.
Have been enjoying making bread so much.

I'll try more water in the next one.
I have blades to lift it with if it gets stuck.

I'll let you know if it cooks ok

Thank you for your help

Hydration looks fine to me. Try proofing until it's doubled in size. 5 hours is a long time.
How are you forming the dough into its oblong shape? As it looks to me that it's loosing it's structure which could be down to being over proofed and/or the forming.

When you knock the dough back, do it on the work top and then roll the flattish dough into a sausage, tucking the ends in neatly as you go. You're aiming for a neat oblong with the seams underneath and quite a tight 'skin' on the top. So a smooth finish rather than the tears that you have on the second picture.

I would definitely proof it for less time though. Im quite sure it's going over and loosing it's structure.

How long to proof for?
It actually came out really well
It rose a lot

Paul says to shape to an oblong
Tuck the ends and roll like a Swiss roll
I need to practise
It's very therapeutic baking

I love making bread but am not an expert - best way to learn imo is to watch someone and see the look and feel of dough when it's had enough kneading, proving etc so if you can find a cooking class with a specific bread lesson that would be great (often high end restaurants run cookery classes just for bread if you have one near you). If that's not for you tho I recommend the river cottage bread handbook- it goes into minute detail about each stage of the process but it taught me loads and I've never had a failure from that book. One thing I've learned is that bread proves perfectly at room temperature (as long as your kitchen isn't freezing) so no need for airing cupboards etc

It looks to me like a shaping problem.

I watch videos on YouTube from Bake With Jack.

He does great little videos on every aspect of baking bread. He has one about shaping. Have a look at that, it might help.

(I'd post a link but don't know how to do it, 😐)

Thank you so much for the tip on having dough as wet as possible
Here is the latest bread I made today: an enriched white using Leiths recipe

I can't get your photos up, so am answering this from what you have written. I use 450ml water for 700 gms flour and that is not too dry (unless using pure wholemeal), and that equates to 529gms flour for 340ml water, so I don't think that is your problem. 5 hrs proving is way to much though, unless you are living in a fridge. It should be perfectly OK after 1 to 1.5hrs in this weather (more like 40 minutes when we had the hot weather), then knock back, roll up tightly and let it double in size and bake.