The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Tartine Country Bread Sticking Problem

SOSP's picture
SOSP

Tartine Country Bread Sticking Problem

I'm having some trouble with my Tartine Country Bread recipe sticking to my Brotoform during the final rise.  This causes the top of the loaf to stick to the brotoform and tearing.  I lose (obviously) all of my tension I've built up during the process and get really tasty flat pancake bread.  I've tried about 6 times and each time I've had the same results.  Previoulsy I used a less hydrated (60 - 70%) stiff starter and never had this issue.  I know the 75% is pretty sticky, but I feel like I've adequately dusted the brotoform to not have sticking issues.  I've used just KA White Unbleached to dust.  I haven't lined my brotoform with a towel, but I've had the same issue when I lined a regular bowl with a towel.  Any ideas?  My wife did wash my brotoform prior to me starting this Tartine recipe experiment in the fall, could that cause these issues?  Is 50-50 Rice and Wheat flour going to make a difference here?  Should I always use a towel with this much hydration?  

Any help would be great appreciated.

dosco's picture
dosco

SOSP:
I'm wondering the same thing.

I did read somewhere here that linen towels are the way to go because the dough is less inclined to stick to linen than cotton.

I don't have linen yet (I saw some at Crate and Barrel a couple of days ago). My current process is to place parchment on a board, then dust it with flour, then put the loaf down (I've been mostly making batards), then place a rolled up kitchen towel along each side of the batard. The towels are Williams Sonoma brand (i.e. cotton) and I flour them heavily. I've found that I like to use whole wheat flour to dust the towels and parchment ... thus far is seems to work and is relatively easy to cleanup.

But, I do want to know the answers to your questions, because I've been wondering the same things!

Regards-
Dave

Bakingmadtoo's picture
Bakingmadtoo

I have been making tartine bread lately and have used rice flour in my bannetons and have no problems with sticking. I do tend to retard my dough over night and bake first thing in the morning without bringing my loaves up to room temperature. I have noticed dough is more sticky and more likely to stick to my bannetons when it is at room temperature.

WoodenSpoon's picture
WoodenSpoon

a towel, linen or otherwise might be asking for trouble because the soft dough will be inclined to fill in all the little nooks in the fabric while the wicker of the basked will just absorb some surface moisture but not the dough itself.  Whenever I use my bannetons for higher hydration dough I find that placing a peel/parchment covered sheet pan on the top then flipping the basket and peel/pan at the same time and letting the upside down basket rest atop the peel works real well as it allows the dough to slowly become unstuck under its own weight. rice flour also works nicely and 75% is going to be tricky no matter how floured your basket is.

kensbread01's picture
kensbread01

I don't use a cloth because I want the most affect of the brotform to show in the final bread.   But I do use a parchment to flip on to... give it a little shake and out it comes.  Then I drop the parchment into the 500F cast iron and trim the edges of parchment with a scissors.  Works every time.

tchism's picture
tchism

I use rice flour with all my bread and find it works great. With that wet of dough I would most likely use my cloth liners. I don't think the nooks in the cloth would be much of an issue if you get much oven spring.

SOSP's picture
SOSP

Thanks for all the suggestions.  I'm going to make up two boules tonight and let them kick it the fridge overnight and see how it goes.  I'm going to try one in just my brotform with just rice flour, and turn it over onto a cutting board with parchment paper, prior to going into the DO.  The second one, I'm going to just do in a ceramic bowl with one of my wife's linen napkins and rice flour and do the same with letting the loaf work itself out onto the parchment.  I'll let everyone know how it works.