Couche Dampness
Focusing of late on sourdough batards (pain au levain) and baguettes, I wonder if someone can help with transfer issues.
I have had problems of outright sticking (the dough needs to be pried from the couche in order to turn it in preparation for transfer to the baking stone), and a woman at the King Arthur Flour bakers hotline said not enough flour. Today I floured the crap out of it, and while the dough wasn't anxious to flip, it did not seriously stick. However, after the loaves are removed, the couche is quite damp -- much damper than I have experienced at the KAF bakery in class.
So, OK, I am in my home and not a commercial bakery, but it's not excessively humid. I have been proofing in my upper oven on the proof setting (my lower oven is for baking), and perhaps it just traps too much humidity? I've only recently been baking these types of breads regularly, since I really want to get some consistency going, but I recall from years past this has been a wintertime issue as well.
What material is the couche made from? What is the hydration level of your dough? What kind of flour are you using to dust the couche?
Jeff
I would guess that yes, the proofing oven environment is too humid. Another suggestion is to use a mixture of brown rice flour and AP flour as the dusting flour (Chad Robertson writes about this in Tartine Bread), would keep the sticking down quite a bit.
The only time I have come away with a very damp couche is if I do a very extended proof in the fridge, wrapped in plastic. This is a similar closed environment which could have runaway humidity.
I am no expert, but I got my couche from SFBI and it needed a very light dusting the first time, and on the one or two times I had sticking, it was very slight, and the dough did release with a slight tug. As to humidity, I store my couche in a ziplock bag between uses. Since I am usually using dough with hydration in the 80's, it does become damp from use, but then when the oven is cooling down and in the 200's - I just put the couche in for a few minutes to dry it out before I put it in the ziplock bag.
Dusting with rice flour will drastically reduce any sticking and air drying the couche immediately afterwards usually works for me. The couche should be made of a thick cotton linen as well.
Ah. Actually, that's the common denominator. The breads in question are a 1 1/2 to 2 hour proof. No problem with my 45 minutes yeasted baguettes.
This has happened to me as well. I was never able to discover a solution. It's frustrating as heck to put in the time and effort and then have the loaves ruined because they stuck to the couche. I felt like I could never get the couche dry, or clean it of the hard flour bits, despite brushing. In the end, I bought a new couche, and i've been avoiding long proofs by adding a bit of instant yeast. Not a solution, exactly, but it lowers the blood pressure. :^)
Don't give up. The rice flour seems promising. I will also ask KAF and post here.