The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Modified Forking Sourdough for warm weather baking, but...

spersonke's picture
spersonke

Modified Forking Sourdough for warm weather baking, but...

I've mastered (IMHO) Forkish's sourdough with the 2 day time frame. But I found in the summer's warm weather, all the rising periods were much shorter.

So, I reworked the baking schedule so that I can 

--Create starter on evening 1.

--Mix dough 12-13 hours later.

--Fold 1-3 times over the course of the next 90 minutes.

--The dough doubles/triiples in just a few hours.

--I then basket and raise on the counter, baking when they look fully raised. OR I'll basket/raise in fridge, then bake when they look fully raised (2-3 hours)

So, 2 questions/comments:

1.  When I bake after raising on the counter, the dough has sometimes been much to floppy. Why do you think this is so?

2. When I basket/fridge, should I pull the baskets out of fridge and bring to room temp, or can I just place in the hot dutch ovens/stove?

 

Thanks in advance.

Shawn

jey13's picture
jey13

And I'll add that in baking loaves weekly over the last three months, I've had few real successes—so, I'm no expert, but I am getting good at guessing what might have gone wrong, as I've been doing a lot of that ;-)

My guess...if the dough isn't tight and elastic—if it's spreading and such...needs more folds to create more gluten? The folds create gluten, but so do the rest periods. If you've shortened your rising period (the rests after folds)—because, you pretty much have to--then there's less time for the dough to create that gluten after the folds. And so it can't capture all that gas that's trying to bulk it up faster than usual.

So...more folds to create more gluten? 

FYI: Here's a video I found pretty helpful of a guy who created like 9 loaves and filmed each one from essentially under proofed to just right to over proofed. https://youtu.be/387GxA_bOmY

He details what each one feels like and looks like after scoring.  

As for using the fridge, it's my understanding that you can go straight from fridge to oven. 

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

off.  If you shaped proof in the fridge then you have chosen wisely. Bake straight out of the fridge in DO's.  If your room temperature is greater than 64 F then you are in trouble doing anything on  the counter at higher temperatures.

Happy Baking the non Forkish way!