September 30, 2020 - 12:43pm
My dough comes out wet after proofing
I'm making a sourdough and doing all the right steps. But when I dump my dough from the batons into the combo-cooker, it loses all shape and sticks to the cloth in the baton even after flouring liberally. What is going wrong from proof to bake?
Share
too much steam in the proofer?
I didn't use a proofer. I just covered the batons with a clean side towel and left it on the counter. But when I poured the dough into the combi, a good amount fo dough stuck to the cloth in the baton.
a few things could be the issue:
wet dough is likely from a combination of overhydrating the flour, insufficient dough development/strength during bulk, and/or lack of fermentation (gassin' up the dough to help hold it's shape).
posting your dough recipe would be helpful.
doing a cold-proof is also helpful in stiffening the dough, so it will release easier from the banneton. it sounds like you went with an ambient proof, which is always a little trickier when releasing the dough. in either case, a well-developed dough should release pretty easily from a banneton (even with little flour).
doing a few extra s&f, or possibly lowering your hydration would be helpful (would be my guess!)
When flouring the banneton liner?
I didn't have any rice flour so I used AP
I'm thinking it's more to do with hydration and/or gluten formation. Having said that rice flour for the banneton is a game changer when it comes to sticking.
I baked it anyway and it came out looking like this...
IMG-1200.jpg
And more to do with hydration and/or gluten formation.
What is the recipe?
Ok, perhaps the dough isn't developed enough to cling to itself vs cling to the cloth.
The loaf doesn't look too bad.
I sounds like it may have over proofed. At the end of bulk when you shape it, is the dough much less sticky than when you turn it out of the banneton? If the dough over proofs the acid load increases as that happens the proteolytic enzymes become more active and then can start breaking down the gluten network. As the gluten network breaks down, the dough become stickier and the dough will lose its shape.
Here's the recipe I use:
200 grams leaven
Does it feel too hydrated? Is it sticking to your hands too much? How does it behave when being shaped?
It's quite high hydration depending on flour being used. If not using strong bread flour or the gluten isn't being formed properly it will be difficult.
How about a tweak. This looks like the Tartine Country Bread recipe. Try the recipe again but drop then hydration to 700g water. Give the dough an 8-10 minute knead before going into the rests and stretch and folds. And try to find some rice flour if possible to dust the banneton. See how that goes.
Thanks. It is the Tartine recipe but it seemed to work when I first started no problem. I can't remember if I was using bread flour or AP. I think I've been using AP for most of the bakes. I also though my starter was a bit soupy so i scaled back from 1:1:1 feeding ratio to 0.5:1:1, hoping to make it stronger by giving it more to feed on.
I'll use your suggestions for tomorrow's bake. Thanks for the help!
Strong flour with a high protein percentage. If this works then we'll know it was hydration and gluten formation. Then we can see how to proceed from here.
Have you thought about building extra levain and keeping the excess back as starter for the next time? This ensures a strong starter which has had a healthy feed. In fact isn't this what the Tartine recipe suggests? Just another option of how to keep a starter going. You might find this works better for what you need.
The Tartine recipe's hydration was too high for my 12% protein bread flour. i think it calls for 750g, I use 675g now and it works great.
I have absolutely no experience baking at high altitude, but the loaf looks like a couple of mine did when I over-proofed the dough.
How long did you proof the dough after shaping? Did you test it by depressing the dough with a floured finger to see if it slowly returns to shape?
The Tartine recipe calls for 3-4 hours proofing after shaping. I made a loaf, yesterday, and it was ready to bake after proofing for 2 hour and 15 minutes at about 76°.
The high altitude remark must have been in reference to another post.