How many stretch and folds? - dough elasticity and extensiblity
I understand that good sour dough should be both elastic and extensible. I should be able to stretch it far without the gluten breaking, but it still wants to tug back.
I bake in the UK using 90%white flour 10% Wholemeal and a 30-60 min autolyse with starter incorporated. the problem i find is after 2/3 fold the dough does not want to be folded, by the third turn of the bowl its formed a ball at the bottom that does not wanted to be folded. so i never know weather i should give the dough the full 4 folds most US SD recipes call for.
at this stage should i follow the recipe, or my instinct and stop folding. will over folding close the crumb structure off?
PS is it cheating/ bad to mix the ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer with a paddle attachment
... my "low impact" bread making method :-)
Even for yeasted breads, I mix it all together with salt & starter (no cheating, use hands - if I'm going to use a mixer, I just let it run for 10 minutes with a dough hook and be done with it). then leave for half an hour, then a few "rock & roll" type kneads and it's done. Yes - it tightens up very quickly. For yeasted leave it an hour or so, for sourdough it's left overnight then the shape & prove and bake bit.
I don't chase big open holes in the crumb though and my hydrations are in the 60-65% mark.
Some more piccies & words here:
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/44111/easy-sourdough-part-1
-Gordon
(also in the UK)
If your dough becomes a tight round ball during the stretch and fold step, then I'd say that you stretched and folded it the perfect number of times! Sometimes dough takes three stretch and folds, sometimes dough takes four. Use your good judgment! No, you ain't cheating! You're just developing your modus operandi, like all bakers do.
...your S+Fs. If you're quick and forceful you won't need as many as if you're gentle and slow. It's more a matter of learning to recognise when a dough is ready (as yours was). Just takes a bit of practice, nothing more. One word of warning: if you overdo the S+F the dough tears, destroying the nice cell structure you've spent all that time developing.
And there are other factors. For example, if you machine mix, then you'll definitely need fewer S+F than the sometimes wacky amounts called for. And, if you haven't already done so, it might be time to start learning about protein levels in flours and how they influence gluten development (just do a search on TFL for more info.).
I guess learning is all about using judgment :) the flour I use us uk bread flour just under 14% somtimes I go down to plain or dilute for a softer crumb. Are you implying the higher the protine content the faster it devlopes and thus less SnF ?
Also, the level of hydration (water/liquid) will effect how many times you need to S & F and how easy it is. What is your current hydration for the dough in question?