October 25, 2017 - 3:30pm
Sticky dough after change of location and flour
i have been maki bread with the tartine recipe for years in San Francisco. At 85% hydration, I never had trouble folding/shaping/baking the dough.
We recently moved to Spain. I have been trying to make the same bread here but the dough has been turning into a sticky mess each time I try it. It just melts onto the marble and it becomes impossible to handle it after the folds. I brought down the hydration to 75% but hasn't helped. The climate is similar to San Francisco so I ruled out that possibility. Just curious how else I can fix this problem.
Thanks.
Share
is the change of flour. The flour you're using might not perform so well with such high hydration. Tartine Country loaf is mostly white flour and you might have to drop the hydration to 65-70% before you can handle it. What is the protein % of the flour?
French Flour T65, which is ~10% protein. I cannot go above 67-70% hydration and still get a decent loaf. As Lechem says, check the protein %age and adjust accordingly.
hester
is the issue, since there is also a wider availability in Europe of soft white wheat flours, which are considerably lower in gluten and are not able to raise a loaf of bread. I'm not sure of the specific Spanish flour definitions, but maybe this list from Hanseata's blog will be helpful for you to choose a more workable flour: http://hanseata.blogspot.ca/2012/05/my-pantry-flour-type-translation.html
i do not know the protein of the flour. I buy it from the local baker that uses it for baking bread. I will check next time and try to find a new solution in between. Thanks so much for your comments. You all confirmed my doubts.
take the punishment put on it with sourdough. Try a yeasted loaf with no retarding and see what happens.