Sourdough: How To Shape Batard For Great Oven Spring

If you're looking for how to shape a sourdough Batard for great oven spring, you've landed in the right place! A batard is simply an oblong loaf of bread. It's great for slicing for sandwiches and toast. You'll get several slices with the same shape and size.

A loaf of sourdough bread. Batard or oblong shape.

It Was A Warm Day - Temperature Matters When Shaping Sourdough Bread

I have a few different videos on how to shape sourdough bread for oven spring but I wanted to be sure and post this one because of the warm temperature that day I prepared my dough. It will show what sourdough looks like in very warm conditions. You'll see me struggle with it a little, but eventually, it came together. Varying temperature is just a fact with baking bread. You can think of temperature as an ingredient - it's that important. Warmer room temps will give you active and fast fermentation while cooler temps will slow things way down.

How Warm Is Warm?

Warm for me is anything above 82f while cool is anything below 72. In my kitchen, the sweet spot is about 78f.

Bakers will manipulate temperature to work in their favor. Using warm water when mixing the autolyse is a pretty common one. Another is using a proofing box or an oven light. I use a warm cupboard. The kitchen cupboard that is next to my refrigerator always runs warm and a consistent 78F year round. I use it as a proofing box and proof all sorts of bread and rolls in there. I also soften butter or cream cheese. The items I normally keep in there are in bins so I just slide out the bin and make room for a tray of cinnamon rolls. Then when the rolls are done rising, I put the bin back in.

We all want that oven spring! If you're interested in more batard shaping videos and sourdough recipes you might like BEGINNER TARTINE SOURDOUGH BREAD and SOURDOUGH SCORE GALLERY