Sourdough: Hard crust, sticky tacky insides after baked!
Hi community, i am new to this forum but have been reading a lot of advice from fellow bakers here while my sister and I are trying out our very first sourdough.. We have gotten to "Charlie" (we name our sourdoughs alphabetically hoping to get it right before the alphabet "Z"), but our sourdoughs were never right. Our problem was with the tacky, rubbery, sticky insides of the baked bread (I could press a piece of the inside between my fingers and it would stick on without falling) no matter how long we bake it for (Charlie was baked for 40 mins in the cast iron and 20 mins on a rack, and the picture attached shows the insides). We would like to share the recipe we used here, hopefully to get some help from the experienced bakers around! Thank you in advance!
150g bread flour, 150g all-purpose, 90g whole wheat flour with 350g water (slightly warmer than room temperature by the touch), with 90g of starter and 9g of salt.
Steps:
Autolyse for an hour before adding the starter (rest 30m) and salt (rest 15m) all by hand using the folding and pinching method. We performed up to 6 sets of stretch and fold during the first two hours of fermentation before leaving it to bulk ferment for the next two hours. Even though our dough doubled in size at the end of four hours with visible strength around the rounded sides, there weren't bubbles on the surface of the dough. Nonetheless we ended the bulk fermentation when the dough doubled in size (at the end of two hours after the last stretch and fold), and performed the pre shaping and final shaping. Throughout the shaping, the dough felt aerated and light and bouncy and it was easy to handle after dipping our hands in water. We retarded the dough for 16 hours. We preheated the oven (which was constrained at 480F) for an hour, and baked Charlie for 40 mins (tried 25 mins for Betty) in the cast iron, and 20 mins on the rack. The exterior was perfectly brown. Sliced through the bread in an hour and it left sticky residue on the knife and the insides was tacky. In our previous attempts, we thought it was undercooked, hence the longer baking time for Charlie this time round. But we are utterly puzzled by the outcome again. Would really appreciate some pointers, thank you in advance!!
First, good effort, but where did you get the recipe from? Generally, a good hydration starting point is 75% or so when working with bread flour, 80% or so with whole wheat. I ran your numbers, and unless my math is wrong, your are above 90% hydration, which is extremely high. To calculate, add up all the flour, including the flour in the starter, then add up all the water, including the water in the starter, and divide the water by the starter. So I added 390 flour, plus 45 more from the starter ( assuming your starter is 100% hydration) to get 435 flour. Water was 350 plus 45 in the starter for 395.
Also, if you find the outside is brown and the inside is moist, that normally indicates you should lower the baking temp. Many start at 400 F and drop to 375 F at some point during the baking.
Two things - the hydration listed (390g flour and 350g water) is way too high for almost any bread that's not 100% whole wheat. Even then the hydration would be on the very high side.
Second, most bakers wait more than 1 hour before cutting into the bread. You want the bread to be completely cool so you'd generally want to wait at least 3-4 hours and some bakers recommend waiting 24 hours to enhance flavor. Cutting the bread while still warm will create a gummy interior as the crumb hasn't finished setting.
Good luck! It looks like a nice loaf.
Thanks @Barryval and @ifs201! Both of you mentioned a point in common on the hydration where I made a huge mistake on as I did not account for the hydration of the starter added. The recipe I followed was from "a beautiful plate". To achieve a 75% hydration I will attempt again with the following:
390g of flour mix to 282g of water, adding on 90g of starter (at 100% hydration as I always to a 1:1 flour water ratio feed). So that should work out to (282+45)/(390+45)=75%.
I'll come back with the results in a week! And this time we'll be sure to wait longer before slicing up "Danny"! Thanks guys!!!
Sticky and wet crumb means the crumb is too wet; there is too much water in the finished product.
Wetness can be corrected by:
- lower hydration in the total dough formula (already noted above)
- higher baking temperature
- longer baking time
- longer waiting period before cutting --> this to me seems where you should start. How long did you wait before slicing the loaf in the photo?
Hi @Semolina, we waited only an hour before cutting into it, hasty on our part! We will hold on to the knife the next time and be sure to wait longer. Thank you for the pointers, will be reducing the temperature to allow a longer bake the next round! Will be back to update! Thanks!!
1 our is defently to short.
I understand in the beginning you want to see the inside but do yourself a favor and wait at least 3 ours.
I baked a loaf this morning and I dont gone cute it until we ready to eat it. Maybe tomorrow but it can also be the day after tomorrow. It will only improve the flavor.
I went here and checked the recipe - https://www.abeautifulplate.com/artisan-sourdough-bread-recipe/ it called for 350 BF and 90 WW, for a total of 440, plus 45 from the starter ( which was 100% hydration) for a total of 485. You went with 150 and 150 - which is only 300, then 90 WW and 45 starter, for a total of 435. and so that drove the hydration from 81%, which is still fairly high, to over 90%. I hardly ever bake with BF or AP, but I think you might want to try something in the range of 75% to start.
Thank you for going the extra mile to check the recipe! We actually followed this recipe twice, the first time was in the exact proportion mentioned with a hydration of 81% and "Betty" turned out tacky and moist. Charlie was a little better probably because we increased the bake time, but the higher hydration did it in. We will be trying out as what you have suggested for a 75% hydration for the next one, will be back to post our results! Thank you so much for the guidance!
Thanks for the tip! We will hold back from slicing it too early the next time!!
I wouldn't reduce temperature, but rather increase baking time. And wait longer before slicing. 480F is not as hot as you could bake. I bake at 525F, sometimes 550.