September 28, 2010 - 7:57am
Please help me with my 2nd attempt at High Hydration Dough for Baguettes------>
Hello Bakers,
I'm following a high hydration baguette recipe with autolize and 3 fermentation periods 90 min. aparts with a S & F in between. As of this morning the dough "LOOKS" to me that it's still bubbly and not "strong" enough to work with (cut/separate and start to preshape). I guess I have to do a windowpane test first to confirm this, BUT besides this, what can I do if IT DOES FAIL THE WINDOWPANE TEST.
Thank you all in advance,
Ray (won't quit till he sees that open crumb on a baguette) :)
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Ray,
So far you have done the following:
- nix dough
- ferment 90 mins
- S&F
- ferment 90 mins
- S&F
- fermetn 90 mins
What does the dough feel like when you do the S&F. I have worked with some dough that was so high in hydration that you really almost poured it out ot the box onto the table. The table was well floured, you had to use a scrape and work fairly fast and deliberately to manage the scretch and fold and then similarly to get it - a 10# piece- back into the box. We performed a four-way S&F each time with maximum overlap to develop the dough. The second F&S was much easier that the firt since the dough was developing...
Does this sound at all like what you are experiencing. Our dough was still fairly wet and sticky when it came time for dividing and preshape - used a fair amount of flour here too. Try not to encorporate the raw flour into your dough - it will screak the final product. Final shaping took time to become comfortable doing - again doing it over and over and having an experienced baker give you pointers is a big help. You don't have that so just keep doing it. You need to get the final shape as tight as you can without riping and use a couche to give it some support. Use a loading board to transfer it from the couche to the oven stone.
Good luck ... it is definitely worth the effort and much better bread than a normal French bagette - much tougher and chewier crust and yes the crumb will have those nice big open wholes.
Ben
Also, forgot to mention that after 3rd fermentation I had to put it back in fridge overnight as I didn't feel like working with dough at midnight :). Can I keep it in fridge or should I take it out now in order to work with it tonight?
Ray
Ben, thank you for the reply.
I had to run to work this morning and I left it in the fridge, when I took a peak this morning, I saw 2 large air bubbles on top of the dough and I didn't touch it nor do a window pane test, but again it looked still a bit "slurry". After S & F it felt a bit stronger, gummier and not tearing as I pulled/stretched. To your suggestion to add ample flour to the dough when preshaping, wouldn't this defeat the purpose of having a high hydration dough in order to get those large crumb holes. thank you, looking forward to your reply.
Ray (keeps on trying for that near perfect Baguette)
Ray,
I was not advocating adding flour to the dough - in fact, I stated to not incorporate or mix it into the dough (i.e. brush off any access flour from the dough). From my experience you need the flour between the wet dough and the bench to keep the dough from sticking and to provide you the ability to get under it for the strech and fold. Same for the preshape - flour on board to keep dough from sticking.
It may be helpful to see the formula you are using and if possible a few photos of your dough at various stages during the process - in the bowl or tube, on the bench prior to and after fold, etc.
Ben
But I will make sure to snap some next time. Again, the dough was way too tacky and sticky to work with.. it got stuck on the couche and I had to drowse it up with dough in order to do anything with it and not trash the whole thing away.
I do have an admission and I should be ashamed of this. I just realized I used Active dry yeast instead of Instant yeast and I did not mix it with water to let it activate (hence why my loaves did not really blow up) ?
this is the recipe by the way...
500 grams flour
325 grams ice cold water
3 tbspn water plus 1 tspn
1.5 tspn salt
1.5 tspn instant yeast
thank you,
Ray (3 down, more to come)
Ray,
I would like to try this bread at my home - is there a URL to the actual formula or a textbook (I may or may not have it) ? I would like to see the description of the two water sources - 500g ice cold (not exactly great for yeast development) and the 3T + 1 tsp water. You mention autolyze - probably 500g flour + 325 cold water. The other is probably used to disolve the salt and yeast in prior to adding it to the autolyzed mixer. Will know for sure once I see the full formula. And yes, instant yeast will react better in this environment.
Ben
Hi Ben, Please check your private message in a few minutes.
thank you,
Ray