Hi,

I've been reading this site for a couple of months and have learned a ton. Thanks everyone for sharing.

I have a question about Hamelman's Vermont Sourdough. I recently got a scale and this was my first attempt at following a recipe with percentages.

I only wanted to make one loaf, so I converted the home recipe to grams and halved it:

My question is...from the threads I read about this dough is that it should be fairly stiff and mine isn't. It's pretty gloppy. After autolyse (45 min) and mixing in the kitchen aid on speed 2 for 3 or 4 minutes, I could see the gluten strands and it did change texture and cleaned the sides of the bowl, but it never really stiffened up. I had to scrape it out of the bowl and after letting it bulk ferment for about an hour and a half, I had to scrape it out again for the folding. It was pretty sticky.

I used KA AP Organic flour and Hodgson Mill's Rye flour. I'm just trying learn how the bread should feel and if this is stiff...wow.

That said, this is my best loaf to date and I finally got some oven spring, I think due to slowing down while following all the steps. I was trying to rush the part from slashing to in the oven because I was afraid it would deflate. I guess as long as it's not over proofed, it will be fine.