Tight dough

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Sour_Baker on 21 Sep 2025 at 12:38

Here is the formula:

  • 125g stiff starter (60% hydration)
  • 416g Bread flour (Arrowhead Mills)
  • 299g Water
  • 11g Salt

Im mixing it all in a bowl until combined with no dry pockets, letting it sit for 30 minutes. I do a stretch and fold with this dough and do it around ever 30/40 minutes. 

 

It works fine for a first couple but then the dough seems to be more resistant to stretch the longer it's fermenting. Even at 1 hour rest it doesn't want to do much and the windowpane test is not at 100%, but around maybe 70%. And when I do try to stretch and fold, the dough seems to unfold itself. And then when it's done fermenting and I shape it, the same thing happsn where it wants to unfold itself like it's too tight. This is the first time I've had a problem with this recipe and I've only used this flour a couple of times. At first I though I was underkneading or shaping too tight but that's not it. It seems like it's the flour.

 

Do you think this is pointing to under hydrated?

If you've used them all - and all is the same - it's the starter. If it gets thin - it's over developed. You can use less starter - or fix it. Up to you. Enjoy!

Yes, I think so.  There are often subtle changes in the starter or the flour or weather, season or handling that can influence the hydration of the dough.  If you think it needs more hydration, add a little bit more water.   Easier to add in the very beginning than later on.  Make sure you cover the dough while it is resting to prevent surface evaporation.  

What?  299g of water?  Save the nines for advertising...   Heck.  How about rounding that up to 300g?    :)

You might have a very high % of gluten in the bread flour and prefer to mix it with all purpose flour or other flours. I suggest stirring the flours together before adding the wet ingredients.  

Mini

That's one thing im working on is the change of seasons. I dont have ac here so I had to make big changes during the summer . Such a hot mess. And yeah, I should make it easier and simple by changing it to 300 haha. 

 

Do you think if I would mix flours would I get the air pockets of a higher hydration dough? That's the whole point of this one. Im trying to get soft inside and very light feeling. 

Are two factors that do effect the crumb. I think what Davey meant was they are not the ONLY things to consider. There's also type of flour, optimal fermentation time and a yeasty starter. 

Yeasty starter :)

Yes, vigorous and strong. Bacteria do produce some leavening but they don't perform as well as yeast. So if one's starter is overly acidic and tipped in favour of bacteria, as supposed to the yeast, this will affect the rise and air pockets in the bread. Yeast is more responsible for a strong rise a bigger air pockets. 

To help with a strong starter that favours yeast you can give it a few feeds and each time don't allow it to go past its peak too much. So try and catch it at the peak and before it begins to fall. You can also use bread flour and ferment at cooler temps. 75F is a good temperature for the yeasts to thrive. 

The bubbles in a starter can also indicate hwta's going on. Are they very small bubbles? This might indicate bacteria. Are the bubble larger then this might indicate a more yeasty starter. This can somewhat translate into the final bread. But as always there are many things at play. Starter, temperature, hydration, handling etc. 

A 70% + hydrated bread flour dough + slap and folds produces a lovely lacey crumb. One of my best sourdough crumbs was saving a too high hydration dough going south with slap and folds (took some time but it eventually produced a strong gluten network. The resulting loaf had an excellent crumb and texture.