FWSY overnight country blonde
I've been working my way through FWSY and have arrived at the levain doughs.
During the week if I bake, my schedule doesn't end up fitting too well with his suggested times. As an example I've been mixing the dough at around 7PM, leaving it out until 10/11PM, putting it in the fridge, removing it at about 8PM the next evening and allowing it to warm up, shaping it at 10PM, baking it somewhere between 12PM and 1AM.
When I take the dough out of the fridge on the second day and allow it to warm up it is incredibly gassy (a good thing, I suppose, since it means it has been fermenting). What isn't mentioned in the book is how 'rough' to be with the dough after its bulk fermentation.
Since the dough is fairly wet, my strategy so far has been to quickly shape it and put it in a banneton to prove before baking but during the 2/3 hours it proves for, it becomes even more bubbly and light causing issues when trying to get it into the oven.
My question is, if I've left the dough for longer than suggested (even taking into account my use of the fridge), should I be firm with the dough during shaping to remove the majority of the gas, ensuring a tighter dough ball which should hold its shape better? (This was certainly the advice in old yeasted dough recipes, with the knocking back stage, but with sourdough recipes theres often a sense of 'be gentle' since the gas can take so long to develop).
Thanks in advance!
I guess it depends partly on how many big holes you want in your finished bread. That said, I find the best way to handle dough in this state is to gently stretch it out into a rectangle then poke it all over with my fingers (like dimpling focaccia) to redistribute the gases and chase some of the bigger bubbles to the side. I then shape it by (generally) folding it over a few times and sealing the edge with the heel of my hand. This further chases big bubbles to the seam where you can pop them.
You can shape it the way Forkish does (see the video here), but if there are big bubbles I would still do the 'poke it all over with fingers' bit before the folding.
Or you can just shape it very gently and have largish mouse holes in it, if you like it that way!
You remarked that "During the week if I bake, my schedule doesn't end up fitting too well with his suggested times."
If you do a search or two around here, you will find that for a variety of reasons many of us have struggled with Forkish's suggested times. Perhaps you are surviving a bit with all of the time your dough spends in the refrigerator, but you might be able to make his breads and deviate fairly significantly from the time intervals that he lists. That might help fit your schedule.
Happy baking.