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Please help!- My wife is obsessed :)

Excelsior Bakery's picture
Excelsior Bakery

Please help!- My wife is obsessed :)

Some weeks ago my wife started to bake sourdough, and I admit very nice it is too. However, I have very little interest in baking sourdough so have not taken any great notice in how she is preparing the dough other than that she always seems to be doing stretch & folds.

Anyway she has just started work and informed me this morning that I will now have to take over and wants around 8 stretch & folds per batch, 3 times a week or more which would be fine except that it limits me from my own daily routine. Previously,  If we went out our dough invariably came with us so it could receive all her love and attention and I put up with that but I'm not prepared to molly coddle it as she does.

It is starting to rule and ruin our life- I suggest we do something- she says I just have to do some stretch & folds first, or we are doing something else and she wants to stop so she can do stretch & folds.

I remonstrated that most seem to do only three S&F which I could grudgingly accept but she is adamant that her recipe calls for 8 so that's what I have to do. Seriously, Please ! is there any proof that the more stretch & folds you do the better the dough is? surely someone must have done some experimentation? It's driving me nuts :(

 

Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven

The more stretch and folds.  One can easily lower the hydration and do only two or three sets or low enough to do it only once.  Refrigerated dough requires less also.    First figure out the hydration of her recipe and go from there.  See if you can come out with the same bread with less work and in tune with your schedule.  Sourdough is flexible.

If you're unfamiliar with the "feel" of sourdough, start with a slightly firmer feel than a yeasted similar dough.  The extra bacteria in the dough make the dough feel "wetter" and more relaxed as it ferments. 

I like the expression "preoccupied" better.    

Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven

seem to have almost too many sets of folds. How many is too many? 

I cannot imagine how it must have been before refrigeration and nearly constant attention given to feeding sourdough starters.  What stress!  It is all too easy to become a slave to a starter.  Same thing for some of these high hydration bread doughs.  Maybe your recently freed wife doesn't yet see the recipe had made her into a dough slave and I think it wise on your part not to let yourself become a slave as well.  So now what?  How to solve this little problem and have more time for yourselves.  

As a "daily bread" I would find a way around such slavery.  At least find a way to reduce the number of folds and the amount of preoccupation the dough is demanding from your life together.  If it is totally impossible to reduce any of the folds then... drop the recipe or find another slave to pass the work onto.  :)   

What about...    Perhaps leave the dough in a mixer, partially close up the bowl to reduce drying and plug into a timing devise?  One that can be set to give the machine a dose of electricity every hour for 15 seconds or just long enough to work the dough once or twice around the bowl.  That would free up a large block of time spent clock watching and fussing.  (The techies reading might get a plug they can access with an app over a mobile phone.)

Can't find or be bothered with a timer? Then I would strongly suggest reducing the hydration of the dough.  It is a simple cost efficient solution.  When I get tired of wresting dough strength back into my dough (stretch & folding) a drop of just 20g to 50g of water per loaf is enough to give me my sanity back.   

Mini with-an-eleven-foot-pole 

 

Stuart Borken's picture
Stuart Borken

Some of the greatest discoveries are made by accident....so, just don't do so many S&F and see what happens.  Probably excellent loaves.  Your dough should not rule your life.  The dough should be worked around your life.

Dixongexpat's picture
Dixongexpat

have her read/watch this...

No-knead Bread - 10 Years Later

Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven

Wow, a great link and video.  

I count one set of 4 folds. Finish!    That crunching is music.   

Recipe off the Video:

(Scott in comments) ...That’s the old recipe, though. Assuming there are no typos in the video text, the ingredients here are:


2-2/3 cup white flour
1-1/3 cup whole wheat
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp yeast
2 cup water

That’s a pretty significant change from the linked recipe, which has
3 cups all-purpose or bread flour
1/4 teaspoon instant yeast
1-1/4 teaspoons salt
1 5/8 cups water.

 

MichaelLily's picture
MichaelLily

I use 80% hydration and no s+f of any kind until I am ready to shape. It is in the mixer for a decent amount of time at the beginning. I used to do the folds, but after omitting them I found no difference at all in the end product.

Danni3ll3's picture
Danni3ll3

and freezing them. I find that wraping them well in a couple of layers of plastic works really well. Thaw overnight in the wrappings and you won't know that the loaf was ever frozen. If you want it warm, it is easy to pop in the oven to refresh it once thawed. This should free up some of your time.