Pain de Campagne is too wet
Hi,
I'm trying to make my second Pain de Campagne loaf. I'm following dmsnyder's recipe which I've linked to below but I just get a dough which is impossible to shape due to its high hydration. In my first attempt I used white flour instead of KAF French flour, later I found out that French flour is closer to whole wheat than white so now I'm using whole wheat and still getting dough with the same consistency. The ratios I'm using for my sourdough starter are 1:2:2 where the flour is white.
I had amazing rise after the 21 hours fermentation in the fridge, the dough had risen up and was touching the cling film.
I must be missing something major and I'm hoping TFL can help.
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/8454/pain-de-campagne”?page=1
Pic of the dough:
Thanks!
I get 76.5% hydration, assuming the starter is 50/50.
That is what Forkish comes out to, and my dough is not that wet, usually.
When it is, I dust with flour liberally while I am doing the folds, to reach the right consistency.
I don't know what really happens, except that the starter, despite putting in 50/50 amounts, will not necessarily be 50/50 when you are done blooming.
Perfect combustion or consumption of a hydrocarbon (sugars) is water and C02.
It could also be the hydration level of the flour, it might be a little high in this batch. Sacramento is VERY dry in the summer, and very soggy in the winter. Flour tends to pick up some of that, or dry out as the case may be.
Really, really annoying while doing biscuits, let me tell you. Can't afford to mix more liquid/flour into the dough.
Is there anything I can do now or should I scoop it into a bread tin and prove?
With more flour till the dough feels right. Then go onto final proofing till ready.
Worst that will happen is it will be too ugly to share with others... gee darn!
Or croutons... ugly bread makes great croutons
European flour needs less hydration then north American flour. Also it takes time to learn how to handle high hydration dough. Now after taking a look at the recipe this dough is 76% hydration. Why not reduce it to 65% hydration and start off by using strong bread flour. After that you can slowly increase. So why not try this...
Formula
Active starter ........................100 gms (100% hydration - 50g flour + 50g water)
Strong bread flour.......450 gms
Whole Rye Flour..................50 gms
Water......................................307 gms
Instant yeast............................1/4 tsp
Salt............................................10 gms
When forming the dough give the gluten a head start by giving it a knead for 10-15min. Then carry on as normal. Just because a recipe says so many stretch and folds doesn't mean that will be the case for you. Go by feel!!
into the dough, they are great soaker uppers. Add 1/4 to 1/2 a cup, knead in and let them soak in the dough. Don't forget to add a little more salt too. Then shape and let rise.
I'll keep that in mind for next time. It's already proving. What can I do to prevent it from happening next time? Abe's advice about reducing the hydration is a good step but only if I'm doing everything else correctly. Is the fact that I'm getting a decent rise a sign I'm doing things right?
One more thing: the recipe says that it should have doubled in 21 hours but mine doubles in just 9 and I do keep it in the fridge. I leave it in the fridge for the whole 21 hours but is it normal to grow this fast? My fridge temp is 5 C.
You may want to play close attention to your dough temperature. If the dough is warm going into the fridge, the fermentation will be faster.
Starter : 150g bread flour @ 100% hydration (so prepare this the night before along the lines of 30g starter + 65g water + 65g bread flour = 150g taking into account a 10g loss with fermentation). Then go onto the recipe...
Recipe:
250g bread flour
100g wholemeal flour
50g whole rye flour
6g salt
240g water
150g mature bread flour starter (see above)
1. Mix flours + salt in one bowl - dry mixture
2. Mix water and starter in another bowl - wet mixture
3. Add the dry mixture to the wet mixture and combine
4. Knead for 10min and then cover for 10min
5. Do 4x stretch and folds with 10min rests in-between covering each time
6. After the last stretch and fold cover again and let rest for 1 hour
7. Shape into your banneton or brotform (this dough is 800g ish so hope it fits your banneton size if not then we can scale)
8. You can either leave out for 20min then refrigerate till the next day and bake straight from the fridge or go onto step 9...
9. Final proof till almost doubled in size - about 85-90%. Will take 3-6 hours depending.
10. Score and bake as usual.
Is a long time... next time I'd try half that.. I've had "blobs" too.. I believe it's over fermentation.. but I'm an amateur so I'll defer to the others..
Pain de Campagne is literally "country bread" or to put it another way; bread for the peasants. In ye olden days, growing pure wheat was expensive - mostly because rye would grow along side it, so the fine wheat would go to the cities and the poorer quality mix wheat and rye be used to make (what might have been viewed a the time) as an inferior bread.
Now we make it because for some it has a nicer taste and texture to pure white bread!
There's no real magic to it - take your basic white bread recipe, throw in a handful of wholemeal flour and another of rye flour and off you go. Not too much rye though - maybe 10% of the total flour weight in rye to start with. And that's it. It's just bread at the end of the day.
I make mine with exactly the same process as most of my overnight sourdoughs - it gets about 9 hours ferment then 1.5 hours proving then into a hot oven. Job done.
-Gordon