The Fresh Loaf

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Stringy dough

Betht87's picture
Betht87

Stringy dough

Hi there

Looking to do my second sourdough bake today, but I've mixed the dough (or attempted to) and the dough is really stringy and difficult to mix. This is being done by had as a don't have an electric mixer. 

Is this dough ruined? The dough got stringy after 2 hours autolyse.

I'm using this recipe (for 2 batches).

http://www.weekendbakery.com/posts/sourdough-pain-naturel/

Lazy Loafer's picture
Lazy Loafer

Hmmmm, difficult to say when "stringy" is such a subjective word! Normally, as gluten develops in wheat flour bread, long strands of gluten will form. This is normal and a good thing! If it gets tight and difficult to mix or stretch and fold (as described in the recipe), then just leave it sit for 10 minutes or so to let the gluten relax. It should get stretchier after this.

Couple of questions - you say you are following the recipe but it calls for a 20 minute autolyse, not two hours. Why the change?

What method of hand mixing are you using? There are many of them out there, from Trevor Wilson's method on Breadwerx.com to methods used by Richard Bertinet, Chad Robertson and others (you can search for videos on Youtube). The goal is to get the dough smooth, stretchy and supple with all the ingredients well-mixed in (especially the salt), so use what works for you.

Betht87's picture
Betht87

Yes, apologies, I'm not really sure how better to describe it! It's almost like the gluten strings have formed and the rest of the ingredients won't mix in properly because of this. Now I'm on the 4th stretch and fold (with 40 minutes resting in between), the dough isn't rising at all, there are no bubbles and it's really sticky and difficult to manage - hasn't tightened up at all.

I did autolyse for 2 hours because i read somewhere that it seems to be the optimum time to do this process. Do you disagree?

Wondering if it's worth leaving in the fridge overnight for a long, cold prove, to see if it tightens up a bit. I'm concerned about leaving it in the proving basket in case I cant get it out though - it's still very much sticking to my hands when I'm folding it. 

Thanks for your advice

phaz's picture
phaz

Oops, wrong thread. My bad

Betht87's picture
Betht87

It seemed fine when creating the levien. It's one that has been given to me by a friend, it's 50% rye, 50% strong white flour. 100% hydration. Got it out of the fridge two days ago, and have been feeding it twice a day since. It was really active, completely covered in small bubbles. It's started to rise maybe a little bit now, bit doesn't seem to be nearly enough for 1000g of dough. I'm going to leave it in the fridge overnight to see if there's any improvement. 

Lazy Loafer's picture
Lazy Loafer

There are so many factors that affect bread dough that it's difficult to advise sometimes! The length of the autolyse depends on the type and quality of your flour, I think (as do many other things). I usually autolyse for 30 minutes, but sometimes that's with the starter mixed in, and sometimes not. If your flour has amylase added to it (or malt), the enzyme activity could affect the dough if left to sit for too long.

Temperature is, of course, another factor. Yesterday afternoon I made a batch of a dough that I make from time to time (Fig Nut Levain), and after three stretch & folds and about five hours at room temperature the dough didn't seem to be rising much at all, so instead of putting it in the fridge overnight as I usually do to bulk ferment I left it in the cold basement kitchen overnight. This morning it was beautifully risen, soft, stretchy and strong. The final shaped proof was only about an hour after that. So sometimes a bulk ferment (or final proof) in the fridge is good, but not if the yeast activity isn't enough to start with.

Speaking of yeast activity - you say your starter was very bubbly, but did it rise? It's hard to say with a 100% hydration half-rye starter, but it might have lots of bacterial activity and not enough yeast. Maybe it will just take longer for the yeast to colonize the mass of dough, especially if it's not in a particularly warm place.

Anyway, keep trying! It's usually salvageable, even if you have to wait (or add a bit of yeast).

Betht87's picture
Betht87

Leaving it in the fridge seemed to do the job! Firmed up enough to shape. After proving it went really flat when being put in the oven but it raised nicely. The structure looks good, if maybe a little  a bit 'gummy' in the crumb. Thank you for the assistance.