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DoughRise

Open Crumb Plan

Field note 03 / open crumb

Open crumb isn't luck.
It's data

Tell us your flour, kitchen temp and target. We'll give you the hydration, bulk time and tension plan for an open crumb, free, in about twenty seconds.

Get my open-crumb plan, free See how it works
  • 3 questions
  • No card needed
  • Answer in ~20 seconds
An open, aerated sourdough crumb, evenly risen with a light structure A dense, tight, gummy sourdough crumb that never opened up Before / dense After / open
Drag to compare Same flour. Different data.

Before Structure: Tight · Bulk: Incomplete · Likely under-fermented After Hydration · Temperature · Time · Tension: dialled in

The method

From ruined loaf
to bread in three steps

  1. Step 01

    Tell us
    your bake

    Flour, the hydration you've handled before, and your kitchen temperature. That's all the plan needs.

    INPUT 3 fields

  2. Step 02

    Get your
    target plan

    A target hydration, a bulk fermentation window and a tension plan tuned to your kitchen, not a generic recipe.

    OUTPUT 1 plan

  3. Step 03

    Bake the
    open crumb

    Follow the hydration, bulk window and folding schedule, plus the full plan emailed to keep by the oven.

    RESULT 1 open crumb
Start the plan FREE no card

Free open-crumb plan

Get your
open-crumb plan

Three quick questions about your flour and kitchen. You get the hydration and bulk target on the spot, then the full Open-Crumb Plan to your inbox.

  • 01 What flour you're using
  • 02 The hydration you've handled before
  • 03 How warm the kitchen is
Specimen intake
1 What flour are you using?
2 Highest hydration you've handled confidently?
3 How warm is the kitchen?

Pick one from each row to get your plan.

What a real answer looks like

It knows your kitchen because it learns your bakes

You give the Coach the same details you'd give a baker who knew what they were doing. It gives you a target back, in seconds, tuned to your log.

You

I want a more open crumb. I'm at 75% hydration with strong white flour, kitchen's about 21°C.

Coach

Push to 80% next bake. At 21°C, bulk for about 12 to 15 hours, watching for a full 75 to 100% rise, not the usual halfway mark. Three to four coil folds in the first two hours will build the strength that hydration needs to hold its shape.

HYDRATION 75% → 80% TEMP 21°C BULK ~13h

Sound familiar?

Five things that break a bake
Five things the Coach watches

  1. Dense, gummy crumb that never opens up.

    AI Troubleshooter reads your bulk time, temp and hydration and names the cause.

  2. Loaves that get a little flatter every week.

    Bake plans adjust timings to your kitchen so you stop losing ground.

  3. A starter that just won't double, no matter what.

    Starter insights track peak time and flag when it's sluggish.

  4. "Is this over-proofed, or under-proofed?" every single time.

    Proof Photo Check gives you a verdict from a photo of the dough.

  5. Advice online that contradicts the last thing you read.

    Your bake log means the answer comes from your data, not a stranger's kitchen.

The one to try first

Photograph your dough
Get a verdict

The poke test is a guess you learn over years of ruined loaves. Show the Coach your dough instead. It reads the rise, the surface and the bubbles and tells you plainly: shape now, or give it longer.

Verdict Ready to shape. The dough has risen about 60% and the surface is domed with fine bubbles. Wait much longer at this temp and you'll tip into over-proof.

See the Coach in action
The DoughRise Coach photo analysis screen, showing an 8.4 out of 10 Excellent verdict, a five-point radar breakdown of crumb, spring, scoring, shape and crust, and the written analysis for each metric

When you're ready

The Coach is £14.99 a month. One open crumb pays for it

DoughRise Coach

£14.99/mo

Everything in Pro, plus the intelligence that diagnoses your bakes from your own log.

  • AI Troubleshooter for dense, flat and gummy loaves
  • Proof Photo Check, shape-now-or-wait verdicts
  • Personalised bake plans tuned to your temps
  • Starter insights and peak tracking
  • The full bake log, ferment timer and 25 calculators
Get the Coach

Cancel any time. No card to use the free calculators.

Just want the logs and saved formulas? Pro is £9.99/mo →

Before you decide

The honest answers

Isn't AI baking advice just generic?
Generic AI doesn't know your flour, your kitchen temperature or your starter's peak time. The Coach does, because it reads your bake log. The more you log, the sharper it gets. It's the difference between a stranger guessing and someone who has watched your last twenty loaves.
Will it work for my flour and my kitchen?
That's the whole point. The plan is built around your inputs, temperature, hydration, timings and flour type, not a one-size recipe. A cold London flat and a warm summer kitchen get different answers, because they are different problems.
How much does it cost, and is the plan really free?
The 3-question plan and all 25 calculators are free, no card needed. If you want the Coach's ongoing troubleshooting, photo checks and bake plans, that's £14.99 a month. Pro, with the log, timer and starter tracker, is £9.99. One loaf you don't bin usually covers it.
Can I cancel any time?
Yes. No lock-in, no contract, cancel in a couple of taps. There's also a full refund if it turns out not to be for you. We'd rather have happy bakers than trapped ones.
Do I need to be good at baking already?
No. If anything the Coach helps most when things keep going wrong. You bring the bake, it brings the maths. You'll pick up the why as you go, which is the part that actually makes you better.

Stop binning loaves

Stop guessing
Diagnose the next loaf

Three questions. The likely cause. The fix. Then bake something you're proud to cut into.

Get my open-crumb plan, free See pricing when you're ready
  • No card needed
  • Cancel any time
  • Full refund if it's not for you
"I built this after too many loaves went in the bin. The maths was always the answer. Nobody had put it in one place."
Benjie, founder, London