Understanding dough
Hi,
I've been making sourdough bread for about month. I've got a recipe /process that gives me good results but I want to understand the process better to help me when things go awry.
For example, I tried an 80% hydration boule using 20%WW / 80% BF with 45 minutes autolyse and 1% diastolic malt. I ended up arriving home from work a lot later than expected and it had over-proved on the BF.
When I went to degass, I noticed it had very poor gluten development. I thought I had got okay gluten development initially, but perhaps I rushed. I cannot remember fully. So it got me thinking of my first question, what happens if you get the gluten development after the BF? Does it still work?
Trying to salvage something, I did 15 minutes of slap and fold ( Bertinet technique) and got it to window pane consistency again.
Left it to prove. Did a couple of stretch and folds in the first hour of the prove as I was worried about the gluten development.
Sometime after I did the second stretch and fold, I noticed the gluten development had gone backwards. So, got it out of the bowl and it had regressed into porrigeyness. But after 10 minutes of slap and fold,it was back together and passed its window pane.
So, can a dough lose its gluten development? I mean that seems counter-intuitive? Is this to do with the high hydration? The overly long BF? Over-working the dough? All of the above?
If I go too long with the BF next time, what should I do?
Especially in sourdough, the acids that build up during BF are beneficial for the dough, as they strengthen the gluten network. However, if they become too much from e.g. a too long BF, the gluten structure starts to degrade and weaken.
If you notice your dough has overproofed, you need to handle it with care to not break the fragile gluten network. I'm not sure if you can do much to save the situation.
Other than that, 80% hydration is pretty high, but still manageable. Be sure to have a well mixed dough when working with high hydration, it makes everything easier to handle. And it can result in a really beautiful, open crumb.
Remember also, the higher the hydration, the faster the dough will proof (water availability).
Good pointers. Thank you.
So if I notice loss of gluten perhaps due to degradation, is working the dough to recreate the gluten elasticity wrong? You seem to suggest it's best just to continue as before and be gentle with dough.
I'm not really sure whether you should reshape the dough. You would need to build up the gases again and food for the yeasts is finite. I can also imagine that it just doesn't magically fix broken or weak gluten strands. In German we have a saying "verschlimmbessern", which means making things worse by trying to fix them, and I think that applies to this situation.
So yeah, just keep going and be gentle with the dough.
If you saw the terrible state of the bread my wife pulled out the oven earlier, you could make a strong case for following your advice.
Many thanks, and love the German expression! Not sure of an English equivalent - which means I'll have to stay learning to say verschlimmbessern! The best I can do is 'you can't make a silk purse from a sow's ear',which I suspect you may have in German also.
Maybe others will comment on the future,
Brendan