He swings! It's a brick!!
Ovenproofed. <sigh>
20% levain. 75% hydration. AP flour. Mix, counter ferment four hours, retard 15 hours. All good-ish...
I think I should have shaped and baked cold.
Instead, I toyed with it, stretching and folding four or five times at 30-45 minutes over two or three hours and then vegetable strainer proof for another 45 minutes using an under-floured dish towel that stuck with a vengeance straight out of the Bible.
Wifey suggested I throw it out. I got annoyed since I had a hot oven, some sort of flour/water thing, yada yada... bing... boom...
We had it all! Tears, laughter... no bread. No more dish towel, come to think of it.
The dough is so wet that I'm having a hard time telling if a dough is squishy because of all that water or if it's over-proofed or underdeveloped. Does a poke test really work with high hydration?
Murph
I think you're right, probably overproofed. It takes a while for the dough to cool down once it goes into the refrigerator, so had more 'counter time' than you thought.
Disappointing, I'm sure, but it's experience and will help you make increasingly better decisions.
Others can chime in more ably regarding methods, but one thing in your post made me wonder:
"Mix, counter ferment four hours, retard 15 hours."
When you mix, you're developing the dough, yes? Stretch and folds, slap and folds, mixer and dough hook, whatever. The squishy, wet mix needs to become dough.
And rescue that towel... soak it and the dough will dissolve. Get back on the horse and try again. You can do this!
Cathy
Hi, Cathy!
More counter time than I thought. Thanks for showing me that. I think you're right.
I noticed that while I was messing with it, it built strength and flabbed out in 20 minutes, never really holding its strength. Am I right in thinking that I also destroyed gluten structure in the process?
Murph
Hmmm... thinking about technique and Cathy's comment about making dough...
I think a large part of my problem as a new baker is knowing "dough" when I see it. I think that from now on, I'm going to look for dough and observe what it looks like. And then, when I see it, I'm going to stop taunting it. Instead, maybe a better idea is to bake that sucker!
Ladies and gentlemen, do yourselves a favor and don't be Irish. Praise God for the Irish but we can have issues sometimes, you know?
Murph
No matter, i learn something new with each loaf, that keeps the whole bread baking thing fun :)
I've had to rescue a few dish towels, like Cathy says, just soak it for a while and it'll be fine.
I'm not sure about the poke test hey, i don't use it. I don't think it works on cold dough and i usually bake straight out of the fridge. I tend to eye ball the dough and hope for the best.
I usually do my stretches over 2 - 3 hours and stop when the dough feels strong. Then i bulk ferment until its ready for pre shaping, i can tell its ready when i can see healthy looking bubbles forming on the edges. this usually takes about 2 - 3 depending on the weather.
From what you describe, i also think it was over proofed.
Keep at it Murph :)
It depends on the amount you used and your room temp, but four hours on the counter seems long for a yeasted loaf. Otoh, it seems short for SD.
Also, given that you did S&Fs so close to baking, I wonder if part of your issue may have been that you knocked a lot of the air out of your dough.
when it comes out cold from bulk, I like ti pre-shape it immediately and then gently shape it 1 hour later. Then watch it like a hawk for a 90% proof for a white bread. Other than the unnecessary and very long counter manipulations when it came out of the cold, it sounded pretty good. Your are getting the hang of it and it won't be long before you start cranking out some fine bread =-keep after it and
Happy baking