July 18, 2019 - 2:20am
Type 65 Flour disaster
Had some friends send me some Type 65 French flour. Suffice to say, that EVERY recipe I've tried has resulted in complete disaster. The recipes are for making baguettes at approx. 65 - 68 hydration. The resulting dough is a goopy sticky mess which can't be handled without a great deal of extra flour.
I have even attempted to use the Bertinet method, but the results are NEVER what's expected, the dough doesn't come together and remains a sticky mess.
All ingredients are meticulously weighed.
Where am I going wrong? When I use American flour, the resulting dough is supple and tacky, nowhere near the gooey sticky mess I get with the T65 flour.
Share
Are you doing a long autolyse? How long is your bulk proof before shaping? Shaping baguette with T65 after getting too proofy can be a challenge.
French t65 is what I use a lot for bread and the only time I have a sticky mess is if I would allow for a very long 4-5 hr or more autolyse or a very long proof. Most of my breads are around 69% hydration.
This is my bread from yesterday morning with 100% T65. 5:15 hours bulk before shaping:
Hi Julie,
Autolyse between 0 and 30 minutes.
30-minutes rise, fold
30-minute rise, fold
2hr rise fold
2hr rise cut, shape
Even after the initial 30m, when I attempt to fold the dough, it sticks to everything. I'm not talking post-it-note tacky (like it should be), I'm talking about a dough which hasn't been mixed well with too much water.
Even used my tried and tested Peter Reinheart poolish Baguette recipe and the dough is so sticky, the only solution is the addition of a great deal of flour, approx 70 - 100gr before the dough becomes "manageable"/tacky.
Did you solve your problem? I live in south India and its very warm and humid. T65 is utterly unusable here. I have only tried one brand so I can't tell for sure.
Maida is the India version of all purpose flour but somewhat softer than apc. Adding 5% vital gluten makes it perform much better than T65 and its workable to a supple dough at 75% hydration. But T65 is horrible even at 65%, so I added some oil and a few tablespoons of flour which probably took the hydration less than 55% and it still remains sticky that it will coats my fingers when kneading. I suspect that malt flour which is part T65 is quite bad after a certain humidity threshold. The other issue could be the manufacturer/retailer packing/storage moisture levels. I even tried storing the flour in freezer for a batch hoping for it to release some of its moisture. No luck