June 5, 2013 - 4:58am
tartine bread too sticky
I am really getting frustrated trying to make this excellent bread. Everytime (3) I try to transfer my dough to my baking device it sticks to my floured banneton. When it finally comes out my boule breaks apart leaving me with deflated dough and a horrible mess to clean up. I am obviously doing something wrong. Is it something to do with my shaping technique? I have to admit that I do a better job when I am forming a less hydrated dough. My hands always stick to this dough in spite of my attempts to flour them and Iam concious of the fact that I do not make as tight a boule as I could.
Help would be appreciated.
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I use rice flour on my bannetons, I find that it makes removing wetter dough a relative breeze.
I will try this on the weekend. It seems to be that Chad Robertson suggests a mixture of rice and wheat flour to line the bannetons. I probably ignored the advice because I did not understand it. I assume that rice flour is not absorbed as well into the dough? Thank you for your reply.
Quite correct, and you'll be amazed how well it works. I know that some use a mix of rice and semolina, but I've always been happy with straight rice; I only reflour it once every 3-4 loafs, at best. If the bread is really wet, you might want to clean it a bit more often. ;)
You can search TFL with "tartine sticky" and probably find a dozen+ responses to this frustration. Grenage is spot on with the rice flour recommendation. Flour your dough liberally (as needed) with regular AP during shaping. But don't be afraid to generously dust its 'good' side (that which contacts the brotform), as well as the brotform itself of course beforehand with that 50:50 rice:AP flour mix.
New brotforms can be a problem, since they haven't yet developed the 'non-stick' flour coating sported by veteran forms. I use a tall restaurant-style parmesan (or so Kraft calls it) shaker to dispense the rice:wheat flour dust (seen @ Theresa @ NW Sourdough YouTube I think). Others use large aluminum kitchen salt shakers for it (finer dust that way).
Over-fermented doughs always stick more than properly or under-fermented ones -- catching the timing takes experience. So shortening your final proof a half-hour +/- might help, with minimal flavor sacrifice.
You can also lower Robertson's ~77% hydration to something more manageable (read: less sticky) like 73-75% until you and your brotform have more miles behind you. Neither will result in major flavor or texture consequences and it isn't a moral failing to put on training wheels of lower hydration for a few turns around the block.
It is indeed a painful yet all-too-common frustration to lovingly nurse a dough just to the ready-to-load point and see it destroyed during a constipated descent from the brotform. Been there plenty of times (and posted to TFL about it early on).
Tom
Funny - when I let the loaves proof in the garage overnight - (in Freezing Cleveland).
Or I retard in the fridge overnight - It doesn't stick.
Room temp proofing gets sticky....
David
Thank you all for your advice. It took me another two trys but I finally got my dough to slide freely out of my banneton (brotform). The reward was a wonderfully tasting bread that drew lots of compliments from my very supportive friends and family. My only beef is that my crumb does not have the irregular holes that I see in other people's pictures. Who said that bread baking is easy?