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Ok, thanks for the reply! - I've tried several different techniques and can't get such a rise.

I'll borrow my flatmate's casserole pot and see if that makes a difference.

All mixed by hand? or initial mix with a mixer?

yeah by hand. It doesn't always pop like that (see previous posts!). I'm pretty sure feeding my starter on dark rather than light rye has made it a bit more potent than it was.

yes; rye is much stickier in general.

Today I started my first homemade butter project. Just standard flavour to start with but the book does have a bone marrow butter recipe. Oof!

Massive difference with the casserole dish

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Nice one!

What proportion of starter to flour do people here use? I just read this recipe recommending 50%. I have used 40% so far, but my last one (white) over-proofed, so I was going to try and slow it down by reducing it to 30%.

Maybe it's because my starter is new that it fluctuates a lot in activity.

I use 1 unit of starter for 2 units of water and 3 units of flour (which makes it 33.3...% in terms of starter to flour ratio). Works for me.

That makes 71% hydration (assuming your starter is 100%) - same as my white sourdough. It came out well, but I suspect it over-proofed, because it flopped quite a lot as it came out of the basket. This time I'm going to try white flour, 75% hydration, 30% starter, baskets in the fridge overnight.

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Thinking about it I usually use about 50% but then I've had a lot of loaves go over. Used about half of that today and it was much slower and easier to control.

Here's the result. This one's lovely, but I guess I'd like to be able to make a rounder batard. Shorter second proof or better shaping needed I think. Or maybe reduce starter to 20%

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Thanks, just had a go and it's come out of the pot cleanly. I also cooked it for 10 mins less though so just hoping it's done in the middle now.

Been having trouble getting seeded wholemeal to rise as much as my whites were. Much better results this time, nearly a 24 total prove. Quite excited to see (and taste) the crumb.

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Hmm, not bad, could do with a little more aeration still.

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White with 30% cooked oats. Lovely soft crumb.

Got a brioche dough on the go now, it's sloppy as though so not sure how it'll turn out.

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Brioche came out alright, a bit overworked maybe. I'll have to try and do something more interesting with the shaping next time.

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25% wholemeal rye @ 75% hydration. I'm pleased with the crumb on this one. Any tips to achieve a rounder shape? It's a batard btw. I guess I need to try pre-shaping, but there seems to be a difficult balance between shaping effectively and not damaging the internal structure.

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Are you proofing in a banneton? Or I think batards are traditionally done in a pleated cloth.

Yeah I have a 32 x 15 cm basket. Maybe a cloth helps it form a skin on the underside to keep it in shape?

I'm going to try and usethis shaping technique.

Oh yeah, that sounds good. I often drag it across the work surface after that too, with hands behind it and applying a little downward pressure to pull the outer most dough even more taught.

Edit, just noticed that was rye, I don't think you can expect it to rise as much as wheat as it's lower in gluten.

I got a good oven-spring with 30% rye. A much shorter proving time seems to have helped. I also dropped the hydration from 75% to 70% - unwisely changing two variables at once, I don't know exactly how much this contributed to the better shape

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^that looks great for 30% rye. I'd be happy.

Yeah nice work. Might try the same tomorrow. I think rye ferments more rapidly than wheat so a shorter prove makes sense.

First loaf in the new place turned out a little flat, tried starting from a cold oven, though I'm not sure that was the reason as the 2nd one did too.

It has great flavour though. I might have got a bit carried away with my new stand mixer and over worked the dough.

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Even crumb = well worked as ingredients well mixed...