August 16, 2015 - 3:10pm
High hydration dough shaping (video)
You know when you see a video which gives you techniques that you didn't pick-up from books?
"High hydration dough shaping" from the San Francisco Baking Institute was one of those for me:
Using the dough scraper in the pre-shape and final shape of high hydration doughs isn't that obvious when your previous experience is with much firmer dough made with commercial yeasts… or at least it wasn't to me.
I put this learning into use this weekend and had a much easier time with my dough!
It'd be interesting to know whether others are using these techniques regularly, or find them useful.
Happy baking! Colin.
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i found it about 10 days ago and found it really helpful too! still have to work on my shaping but yeah, great to actually see someone doin' it
Thanks, Leslieruf. Like you, I need more practice, but this helped a lot, so I've shared it in the hope that others find it useful too.
Thank you....I am a very visual person so actually seeing it done helps 100x more than reading it.
Thank you for that great tutorial. Too often the shaping of the loaf is neglected.
Ford
Many thanks to you both. I think there is a lot to be said for video tutorials, and there are some really good ones available for free. Happy baking! Colin.
Hello. This is my first post. Hope somebody still reads this old thread...
I've been baking loaves for a few months. So far 36, all around 70% hydration.
I have had a share of bad results but recently managed to start getting a relatively good crumb consistently. But I still cannot get my dough to look like the one in this video, or in the many videos about the subject.
I have been using 10% whole grain flour and 90% strong white flour (5 Stagione Superiore). I knead using slap and fold, 3 sets of 4' with 2' rest inbetween sets.
Then I have been performing 4 folds, with 50' rest between them.
Today I managed for the first time to, circling the scraper around, to get some tension in the dough, simliar to the video. But I still cannot pull the dough without it sticking to the table. This way I cannot do the proper shaping with these envelope type folds, or do that final rolling movement to get it ready for the banneton. It is very hot in here (Rio de Janeiro). If unattended, the dough reaches easily 30C. Because of that I keep puting the dough in the fridge when it gets too hot. I'd appreciate some pointers.
Hi there!
Maybe you need a little more gluten development? Try kneading the autolyse a little halfway through, then again at the end before you mix the levain in. Also I would suggest slightly more folds, with less time in between them (aim for 6 good stretch and folds, 20 minutes rest between) and make sure you are really stretching the dough vigorously as far as it will go each time.
Also, make sure you have enough salt in the dough - I would recommend 8 grams per kilo of dough.
As your climate is so warm, you may need to reduce the hydration of your loaf a little. However don’t be too surprised if your dough sticks to the scraper and your hands, unlike the beautiful stuff in this (excellent) video: mine does, and I always have to use wet hands and tools to make it work ;)
Hi, Martin (I'm José, by the way),
thanks for taking the time.
I have thought about adding more folds. The reason I haven't done it yet is that I was trying to mimic this loaf here
For my standards, at least, that was a heck of a loaf.
I am taking the dough out of the container, putting it on the table and stretching and folding like on this video here:
https://youtu.be/HlJEjW-QSnQ?t=354
I know she does 4 such folds and a lamination, but she also does not knead at all, which led me to adapt it to slap and fold + 4 folds (I tried with lamination, but the good loaf was done without it). The one thing I cannot get my dough to do is the 'roll over' stuff, but apart from that, it does look a lot like the video.
My last loaf, done in the exact same way, turned out like this:
My next loaf is on the way. I'll try to perform at least a 5th fold, but am not so hopeful, since I had also tried 5 folds in the past and also a lamination, as in the video (instead of the 2nd fold, of a total of 5).
Hola José
man, that loaf you’re trying to copy looks awesome.
ok your latest one looks really nice but I guess you’d like it to have spread less? Try refrigerating it fully-proved, uncovered, in the banneton for an hour before you turn it out, slash it and put it in the oven - it will reduce that spreading :)
I have even tried putting it in the freezer for 30', but it did not help. I am pretty sure that my problem is that I cannot get enough tension to shape my loaves. I might have gotten lucky with the couple of good ones, but in general it is a 'tense' moment when I have to shape them. I will try to use rice flour on the table, as someone have suggested. Let's see if that helps.