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daysi's blog

daysi's picture
daysi

Hello all!!

Has anybody ever tried to make the recipe at the back of the package of Rogers Rye flour??

Well, I am making it right now, it's on its first rise. As always there is something wrong with my dough, it was very very super wet, the recipe calls for 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 cups of white flour in addition to the 3 cups of rye flour. Although the recipe does not call for sifting the flour prior to measuring, I did it, (for the first time, I took the time to sift the flours). By the way I used 3 1/2.

I have no idea if the pre-sifting has anything to do with this disaster, but after mixing all the ingredients I was ready to start kneading, and as I said the dough was waaaay too wet, it was all stuck to my hands and to the table, there was no way I was able to form a ball, after kneading for 5 min I decided to add more WF, I ended up using about 2 cups more and still the dough was super sticky I had to lift it with the scraper 'cause it would not leave my hands and the board, Anyway I put it to rest I don't know what the final product is going to be like, so in the mean time why is this happening to me I mean why is the dough so so so wet?

did this happen to any of you as well.

Thanks

daysi's picture
daysi

 

I baked white bread and WW bread last week, and both doughs lacked elasticity, one I kneaded in the same bowl I mixed the ingredients in, and the second on the counter. For more stretching of the dough I did and kneading for the recommended time (10 min) they still seemed to be very tough. Both of them during the first rise double in size, after shaping and panning them they stop rising. Here are a few pictures I hope you can get an idea of what I am talking about and could perhaps give me some advice. By the way both tasted very good, the white bread had a crusty crust and a soft crumb, and the WW bread had a bit of a hard crust mmmm not that hard, probably "dry" is a best description, the crumb is very soft a bit dense though.

this is the white dough, I forgot to picture the WW but it was pretty much the same.

The breakage is what happened when I pulled the dough... windowpane test? hum....

 

daysi's picture
daysi

 

Hello everyone, I have been following this site for the last couple of months, I learned about sourdough starter and though of giving it a try. The first recipe I used called for 4 days at room temperature and then keep it in the fridge, it was bubbly up to the point when I put it in the fridge then I tried baking with it and the dough didn't rise. So I discarded it. a couple of weeks later I decided to try again, so I used another recipe I found here which called for 8 days at room temperature, I saw bubbles and "active" for the first three days and then nothing happened, the bubbles disappear and by day 7 I added white wine vinegar (what I had available at that moment) so the following day it was alive, then I decided to start baking bagel (recipe found here as well) it called for 100% hydration, now I am not a baker at all, I love homemade, and that's why I am here (in fact I'm a nurse, so I do not understand this hydration language) anyway I did my Google research and understood what I had to do, so I took 1/4 cup of starter and mix with 1/4 cup of unbleached AP flour and 1/4 cup of filtered water. Next day my starter was dead...  :( I went ahead and baked with it but cheated by adding yeast (ha-ha!) because I knew what the result was going to be. anyway even with the yeast my bagels came out very hard like a rock, at first the dough was way too wet, when I boiled them one of them fell apart, and the baking was supposed to take 8 min, mine took like 1 hour.

What am I doing wrong? I discarded the rest of my dead starter, but I see the pictures of perfectly and delicious looking breads I don't want to give up, please give me some advice.

By the way one thing that kills me really kills me about starter is the fact that I have to discard so much flour and I am not the type of person that would do it, I actually collected it and tried baking with mine but the same thing happened, it  didn't work. Also I don't own any baking books, I see many of you praise somebody call Reinhart, sorry I don't know him. I guess he is an excellent baker, I should buy his books.

Thanks for any advice 

 

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