Emboldened by a new sourdough starter from my friend Don, I prepared a loaf on Sunday for baking on Monday morning. I left the loaf in my new proofing basket overnight in the oven at 84 degrees F. I woke at 5 AM to find that the sourdough rose to overflow the basket. About 2/3 of the dough remained in the basket.

I salvaged the  dough to make 3 “loaves” from three pieces. I lifted the main flat loaf out of the basket onto my baking stone in a preheated oven (465 degrees F). Two other loaves became rolls: one roll from what fell from the basket and one roll from what I scraped out of the basket after dropping the flat loaf.

Here’s the result.

The taller, darker roll was a little doughy. We didn’t try the smaller roll. I sliced the flat loaf into pieces of sourdough biscotti. Is that a thing? It is now!

More analysis to come on the cause of this mishap.

UPDATE

Possible variables contributing to this failure:

1. The proofing basket was too small for the batch of dough I kneaded. Less sourdough needed?
2. Proofing the sourdough in the oven overnight at 84 degrees F caused the overflow. Perhaps room temperature is preferable (68-70 degrees F).
3. My sourdough was too wet (may have needed more flour). I had a hell of a time removing the remaining dough from the proofing basket.
4. I should have been ready to bake as soon as the dough rose to the top of the basket (probably between 12 midnight and 2 AM when I was asleep).
5. I let my sourdough rest for 2 hours after kneading before placing it in the proofing basket. It doubled in size during that time. Perhaps I should have let it rest for only 30 minutes before moving to a proofing basket?