Austrian flours and hydration
I am trying to work my way through the recipies in FWSY, but my dough is way too wet. Even using 10% less water than the book suggests, my dough is really a batter. Stretch and fold is impossible. It's completely liquid at 65% hydration.
I blame the flour, but I don't know how to fix the problem.
We have 2x2x3 types of "wheat" flour here. Austrians have two numbers that classifies the flour, 480 and 700, but each type comes in both "white" and "dark" varieties, and each "white" or "dark" variety comes in "coarse", "medium", or "fine". Btw, "dark" is not whole wheat, there's a separate category for that. I believe "dark" means "spelt flour".
I have no idea what is the difference betwen the 480 and the 700 type of flour. I have tried "white" fine flour in both 480 and 700 type, and they seem the same to me (a.i. not good for american bread recipes). There is no protein or ash content written on the packaging.
Coincidentally, the "white" flour isn't very white at all, which I don't particularly mind (I like darker bread). But the fact that it's significantly darker than american AP flour, means it's significantly different in some way so the recipes don't work.
Anyway, I have tried various brands of this "white" flour, and the problem is that the dough is way too wet. As I said, it's a batter. Should I reduce the hydration even lower? How low should I go? Is the problem somewhere else?
Thanks!