Determine if your sourdough is well proofed
Getting a sense for how well proofed your sourdough is can take some time to develop.
Here is a great side-by-side example of a well proofed loaf, an underproofed loaf, and an overproofed loaf:
Generally speaking, you want your crumb to look ‘airy’ and ‘open’. That means the gas bubbles look like they are as big is they could have gotting without deflating. Another term you’ll hear is the crumb looking ‘lacy’. This is when you can see that each strand of gluten is stretched to it’s fullest capacity.
Here is an example of a past loaf I made that was well proofed:
While you can see some of the bubbles were crompressed, this looks more to do with rough handling (might have slammed the loaf out of the banneton) than overproofing. The crumb is still very open and airy with each bubble looking like it was stretched to it’s fullest capacity.
Compare that to this loaf which is a pancake on top of looking gummy and dense:
