Avoid sourdough sticking during shaping
Hey guys, newby here.
I've made bread a handful of times before, but today was my first time trying my hand at sourdough. I was following some instructions on the web for making the loaf, which ended up with an hydration of 77% (including starter).
I was wondering, in the shaping step, using the stitching technique, I avoided flouring the surface before first placing the dough in the working surface, so that after flipping, the top of the dough was wet enough to stick to itself. However, when attempting to flip it, it was sticking a lot to the surface, and I was barely able to flip it.
So my question is, should I still flour the surface when first placing the bulk ferment in the work surface (but lightly to preserve some wetness of that side of the dough)? Or was my problem more of a "lack of practice" kind of thing?
Thanks in advance
Mk, if you want a high hydration and do not want to add flour to the surface you can use a dough knife to help to move the bread around. A metal bread knife is extremely useful in baking, especially with high hydration dough.
much easier. Some people flour their hands but getting them wet works much better in my book. As time goes on and y get better at making bread you won't need to flour or wet your hands - the dough will quickly shape itself no worries with experiences hands that move lightly at light speed.
Happy baking
I find it works for me to lightly dust the top of the dough before the flip, so only the top side will be floured and not interfere with stitching, etc. But helps with sticking. And yes, a bench knife.
bench knife and wet hands and above all confidence. Be present and know where you're going. Youll get it in no time
My suggestion is to work with a much lower hydration dough and gradually work your way up. One of David Snyder's first San Joaquin Sourdough recipes was 72% hydration which is pretty much what I use for my variant. It's low enough that stickiness is not a major issue.
I am basically a newby myself, I have been baking one or two loaves a week for the last five months, slowly making progress. I started with 66.7% hydration dough. I think that this was a good "learner" hydration, I got to try out a lot of things for the first time, and it was relatively forgiving. After a couple of months I went up to 70% hydration. It doesn't sound like much a difference but it was! I worked with it and got comfortable with it (maybe too comfortable) and just a couple of weeks ago I finally went up to 72% hydration. 72% seems more similar to 70% than 70% was to 66.7%. Thinking of advancing all the way to 73% tomorrow...