Many start at 400 F and drop to 375 F at some point during the baking. Let your sourdough bread come to room temperature before you cut into it. First, good effort, but where did you get the recipe from? . The higher hydration the dough, the stickier its going to be. As you knead any bread dough, you should notice that it goes from a shaggy mess to more of a smooth mass of dough thats become less sticky. 1 our is defently to short. The water and other wet ingredients are absorbed into the flour. What to do: This is a heavily over proofed dough. Similarly, the reason we use baking parchment paper when baking is to minimize the use of additional flour in the baking process. Final internal temp 211FSliced after cooling for 4 hours. The good news is, there's always a way to fix your sourdough bread problems for your next bake! When it comes to transferring your dough, kneading it, or shaping it, youll have a much easier time with the assistance of some additional water. If you've just completed autolyse and you feel that your dough is too wet, it is possible to add some more flour at that that stage. Then, I use my wet hands to pick up a side of the dough, stretch it up, and fold it over. It affects pretty much every part of the process. If you're using all purpose flour, it can be a good idea to add some vital wheat gluten to the mix. When using the autolyse method which call for the initial incorporation of only flour and water without salt, we may sometimes forget to include salt in the final mixing phase. When youve kneaded the bread dough enough, stretch it while looking at a light source. You can read more about this trick, Use water mist or ice inside your Dutch Oven to ensure you get a, Leave the sourdough bread in the oven to cool after it's baked (you'll find a. You can read my five best tips for strengthening a sourdough starter, Extending your bulk fermentation time to allow your dough to rise and ferment properly. A tough crust can also be caused by a lower hydration recipe. Thanks guys!!! Home Why Is My Sourdough Too Sticky? Cover and let the dough double in size, about 12 to 16 hours. The usual choice of flour for dusting includes bread flour, rice flour, semolina; all these flour works just as well for preventing sourdough from sticking. Young sourdough starter lacks the established yeast colonies necessary to raise bread. Dusting with flour is useful for some parts of the baking process for preventing sourdough from sticking, but it is not the best method for every application; other methods for preventing sourdough from sticking is to wet your hands with water, oiling the work surfaces and using parchment paper for baking. Using too much water for the amount of flour you're using will result in a wet dough that's really hard to handle. After sourdough fermentation, the lactic acid bacteria produce acetaldehyde. Your sourdough starter is not ready to bake with yet and needs some time to mature or you need to take steps to strengthen it. If you're having trouble understanding the timing of bulk fermentation, I've written an easy to follow guide. Your email address will not be published. How Do You Fix Gooey Bread? Rest for 30 minutes @76F. I think it's quite common to get some stickiness if you are slicing fairly soon after the end of bake. If you're not sure about some of the terms used in this article, you might find this sourdough glossary helpful. Begin mixing the flour in with a spoon or fork, then continue mixing with your hand, until all the flour is incorporated and you have a shaggy dough. If you want to you can spritz your dough with extra water before you put the lid on. CAUSE - Spreading can be caused by a few factors including under fermented or over fermented dough as well as poor shaping technique. We actually followed this recipe twice, the first time was in the exact proportion mentioned with a hydration of 81% and "Betty" turned out tacky and moist. Maybe 80% final hydration if your levain is more "liquid" than 100% Hyd. Another reason we want to minimize dusting is because the additional flour from dusting is not well hydrated and when baked can leave unsightly gray streaks on your sourdough bread that taste raw. Dough is sticky and wet from under mixing as insufficient gluten network is developed to hold in the water molecules. Also, if you find the outside is brown and the inside is moist, that normally indicates you should lower the baking temp. Sourdough does not stop cooking when you take it out of the oven. If using a stand mixer, change to the dough hook. This allows them to get an understanding of how to handle basic dough before moving onto something more tricky. Factors like temperature, humidity, air pressure and elevation play a role here. Often the bottom of your sourdough is burning. Modified: Dec 27, 2022 by The Pantry Mama This post may contain affiliate links. Cover with cling film and let rest in the fridge for 12-15 hours. Generally, a good hydration starting point is 75% or so when working with bread flour, 80% or so with whole wheat. Start by swapping out 12-15% of the white flour for whole grain flours; then increase to 25% (and so on) if you are happy with the results. Now it is the sourdough starter or its use that is suspect. Make sure that you do your best to avoid this mistake by learning about sourdough fermentation timing and knowing when it's ready to move onto the next step. Mix until no dry patches remain. If baking in a pre-heated oven, turn on the oven to at least 200C/392F, once heated, add two big glasses of water to a dish on the bottom shelf (12-15% protein content), plus extra for dusting 2 teaspoons fine sea salt Method. You ideally want to achieve a window pane. It's not until all of this steam has escaped that your bread actually finishes cooking. Flour issues. If the actual final hydration does meet your goal, or whatever formula/recipe you're working from, then the next suggestion for something to tweak would be bake temps and times. Levain hand-mixed, Rubaud style, for 5 minutes. I have done wetter doughs at similar times/temps without the gumminess but I take your point - your lower/slower suggestion makes sense to me and I may well try that on my next go-round. Bread flour. First, it's helpful to have a small bowl of water nearby to dip your hands into before touching your dough. Bread doesn't rise when baked. Be confident in your actions. We preheated the oven (which was constrained at 480F) for an hour, and baked Charlie for 40 mins (tried 25 mins for Betty) in the cast iron, and 20 mins on the rack. . Here are some options for working with wet, sticky over fermented sourdough. Sourdough baking is a never ending journey of learning - and that's what makes troubleshooting it so damn interesting! Agree with the previous comments and hotter, longer and let dry, https://www.abeautifulplate.com/artisan-sourdough-bread-recipe/, Lamination butter for croissants - question, Mexican buns aka coffee cookie buns aka rotiboy buns, Farmer's Market Week 18 (Whole Wheat Walnut YW/SD Combo), Red Fife x 4 = Awesomeness!!! Gently pull the dough towards the edge. I hope this guide helps you to troubleshoot your sourdough bread problems and ultimately bake a better loaf! Sourdough starter is wild yeast and bacteria. More noticeable sour taste, possibly unpleasant. Add the sugar and salt. Your colon naturally contains healthy probiotic bacteria called Bifidobacteria and Lactobacilli. You can read more about this, Take some time to strengthen your sourdough starter (particularly if it's been in the fridge for a while or it's doubling consistently). The hardness of water measureshow much calcium and magnesium ion is present (expressed as ppm). Kneading manually will most likely just make a sticky mess thats stuck all over your fingers and difficult to clean up, but with the stretch and fold, youre touching the dough very little and you wont have to worry about it sticking too much. After fermenting for too long, the gluten in the dough begins to break down, which leaves you with a thick, gloopy mass of flour and water with no way to make good sourdough. There are lots of things that can go wrong when baking sourdough bread. If you are working with regular dough, ready How to Fix Super Sticky Dough. Ensure that you have scored enough - you need one good score to ensure that your dough expands. Autolyse is an important part of the baking process where flour and water is initially mixed without any other ingredients and left to rest for about 20 to 60 minutes. Your guide to solving sourdough bread problems. Let's dive into each of these reasons and see how you can avoid or correct the situation. Turn the oven off, leave the door slightly ajar and place your bread directly on the oven rack. Once you get comfortable, you can gradually increase the water content of your dough and see how you manage it. Rest the dough for 30 minutes. You see, when your hands are wet, the dough cannot stick to them easily, so it just slips right through them. if(typeof ez_ad_units != 'undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[300,250],'crustylabs_com-leader-1','ezslot_6',124,'0','0'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-crustylabs_com-leader-1-0');The table below is extracted from Jeffrey Hammelmans Bread Book that shows the relative mixing time between different mixers and hand mixing to develop the same dough to the same strength. Bake in a Dutch Oven. While sourdough is a wetter, stickier dough than what you may be used to, it should still be able to be stretched, folded and shaped without too many issues. Baking parchment paper is characteristic for its non stick ability without the need for any dusting of flour or oiling. Place in bannetons. It will be sticky. Your email address will not be published. Thanks @Barryval and @ifs201! This method works better with slack dough anyway. Turn out on to a surface and knead for 10 minutes or until the 'windowpane effect' is . For now, you need to know exactly whats causing your sourdough to be sticky and what you can do to help yourself with it. Is rye flour good for . Once mixed, the dough enters the bulk fermentaiton phase where folding also takes place which helps significantly to develop more gluten network as well as to incorporate more water into the dough making it feel less wet and sticky. The dough that is autolysed also contains more gluten strands which is able to trap more water inside the dough. This increases the chances of tearing, which can make your life more difficult when shaping or kneading it. Content posted by community members is their own. I've written about 6 things you can do to ensure you get good sourdough oven spring (and leave the hockey pucks behind) here. The yeast has too much energy when it hits the oven and this excess energy causes a "rush" when your dough hits the oven. You should aim to handle your dough more like that as you get more practice. If your dough is sticky, its going to stick to whatever is dry, so if youre touching it with dry hands, youre going to struggle. Avoid using cake or pastry flour for dusting as it contains a higher starch content and tends to lump up more than bread, rice or semolina flour. Preheat the oven to 230C fan/456F/gas mark 8 with a baking stone on the middle shelf and a deep tray on the bottom. Lets look at some of the common problems with sourdough bread and how to deal with them. Mix well. Instructions. You/we need a hydration % of the levain too, to figure out how much flour and how much water is in the levain. Youll find that the dough sticks much less and youll have a better time shaping it. Steps: Autolyse for an hour before adding the starter (rest 30m) and salt (rest 15m) all by hand using the folding and pinching method. Gluten is the foundation for good bread, so you wont get very far if its not developed. Rest for 30 minutes @76F. The problem with damaged starches comes from the over absorption of water. It will look like cloudy water. I bake at 525F, sometimes 550. I'll come back with the results in a week! Within eight to 12 hours of feeding your starter, you want to see a noticeable increase in volume and it should be putting off a pretty pungent. Once one side is stretched and dusted, you should shape the dough and put it into your banneton. Also, remember that sourdough is extra sticky when the gluten isnt fully developed. This site is powered by Drupal. Its very important to avoid tearing the gluten as this causes it to become sticky again. If your dough is too dry, add a little moisture and mix it, adding just a little more water if necessary. Remove the potion from the refrigerator before chopping and boiling it. A tightly shaped dough that has been stitched when placed in the banneton will hold together better when tipped out for baking. Add of the water and dissolve or break up the sourdough with your hands. I tried your suggestions, kinda - 2 large (880g) loaves baked covered at 465F for 25 minutes, then uncovered at 425 for 25 minutes. Thanks so much. If the dough breaks before you can pull it so thin that you can see the light, resume kneading. A hollow sound indicates that it's cooked. Shape into batards. This blog contains scientific explanation on all matters related to baking written in simple words; I hope you will find something useful here and leave as a better baker. #7 The bread cooled in the oven When the bread looks ready, some bakers turn the oven off and leave it inside for 20 minutes to make their bread less gummy. Charlie was a little better probably because we increased the bake time, but the higher hydration did it in. STEP FOUR: Pour the starter/water mixture into the flour mixture and stir, using a fork, into a thick, sticky ball. All flour has a certain percentage of damaged starch particles, but when the amount of damaged starch particles exceed 10%, dough becomes wet and sticky. Mix until dough comes away from the sides of the bowl . It is often easier to make. SOLUTION - Tunnels can have a few solutions: PROBLEM - My sourdough isn't cooked all the way through. No matter how long you leave it to ferment, the yeast and bacteria won't actually grow or change. If you find that your sourdough sticks to most things, take a look at my guide on how to stop sourdough sticking to everything. Yes you read that right! Mix dry ingredients together. You can try to prevent the problem by being more careful when proofing the yeast. From a gummy crumb to a lack of rise and everything in between. CAUSE - There are a few reasons your crust is too pale. Throughout the shaping, the dough felt aerated and light and bouncy and it was easy to handle after dipping our hands in water. This is the dry mixture. The only time I wouldnt recommend using wet hands is during shaping. The Fresh Loaf is not responsible for community member content. Your dough might be too sticky because you added too much water when making the initial mix, too. When this has cooled, add the rye sour, yeast mixture, 2 cups medium rye flour and the remaining 4 1/4 cups all-purpose flour. Be sure you open with an autolyse, a step far easier than it sounds. water) slightly (eg. Sometimes removing the bread out of the Dutch oven and baking it on the shelf for the last few minutes has a positive effect. Rest uncovered for 25 minutes. On the other hand, rye sourdough is a bread that starts with sourdough starter instead of yeast but has at least some rye flour. Be careful to use the right type of flour for your recipe and play around with the hydration level if you need to. A simple way to check that your dough is cooked through is to tap the base. Id recommend keeping a bowl of water next to your dough at all times so its always there when you need it. One fold consists of the folding of all four sides of the dough into its centre. When you have to stretch and fold or pick up your dough, you can do it with ease if youve got a layer of moisture on your hands. Damaged starch particles also varies from one milling facility to another. Required fields are marked *. Second, to the wet ingredients, add the bread flour, whole wheat flour, and salt. 4.Under-baked bread 5. sourdough after baking. CAUSE - Your sourdough is lacking oven spring, which means your dough is not growing in the oven as it should. High temperatures can cause premature over fermentation, which will result in wet, sticky sourdough. So that should work out to (282+45)/(390+45)=75%. You'll find a full guide to all purpose flour vs bread flour here. Wet and sticky dough not only sticks to the work surfaces but also to our hands, increasing the risk of tearing and making it very difficult to work with. Same with the salt %, it is computed on total flour. Ingredients: 300g water 100g sourdough leaven* (made with your starter) 100g of stoneground organic wholemeal flour 400g organic strong white flour CAUSE - This is typically caused by under fermenting your dough, but can also happen through using too much flour when you shape your bread. This method of developing gluten should prove to be much cleaner and easier, but its up to you to figure out which gluten-development method you like the most. Place the bread pieces on a parchment lined baking sheet in a single layer. What is a Pate Fermentee? 3. I am constantly baking hockey pucks! So you __may__ need a longer bake, which will mean a lower temp. If you find your dough to be relatively dry after mixing, but gets wetter and stickier over time, it means that the flour you are using contains a very high percentage of damaged starch particles; try changing to a different flour brand and use European flour instead of American flour. Help! Even then the hydration would be on the very high side. PROBLEM - My sourdough never puffs up in the oven. More often than not a thick crust developing on the base is caused by cooking your bread in a Dutch Oven. Beginner bakers are best to start off with low to medium hydration dough before moving onto high hydration.