Ken Forkish 80% Biga puddle - help!
Hi all
REALLY frustrated after trying Forkish's 80% biga recipe. If someone could suggest what I did wrong, that'd be amazing.
I followed all flour, water temp, yeast and salt measurements to the letter, but was left with a puddle of dough at the end. I was so frustrated it went in the bin, which is a great waste.
So... I mixed the biga at about 8pm and left it out on the counter until 11 or so. I knew I was heading out for most of the next day, so I retarded it in the fridge overnight. I took it out at 9am and left it at 19 degrees c on the counter until 7.30 pm.
Forkish says the Biga should've tripled in size within 12-14 hours, but (by 7.30pm) mine hadn't even doubled in size.
As time was against me, I combined the sad looking biga with the remaining ingredients and left it all to bulk ferment for 3 hours. I gave it four aggressive turns in the first 90 mins but it didn't hold its shape (I wasn't able to invert the dough 'ball' as it was pretty much liquid) and, upon turning out, flopped into a giant dough puddle.
I assume the main issue is a lack of gluten, so my questions are:
1. Should I have left the biga at room temp for 12 hours THEN popped it in the fridge?
2. Ergo: Did I essentially kill off the small amount of yeast in the biga before it had chance to multiply properly?
3. Does the biga provide the final dough with a large amount of its gluten or are the turns more important?
Any help would be much appreciated! The photos of the crumb look amazing and it's exactly the loaf I've been searching for for the last six months. I'd love to get it right...
many thanks all!
matt
Late to the party. I did this loaf a few weeks ago and it was great. Truly amazing. Try it next time when you can leave it at room temp overnight and so you can tend to it the next day. It's an amazing bread. I'm not sure what went wrong.
As I read your description of how you fermented the biga, you fermented it for 3 hours, then refrigerated it for 10 hours, then fermented at room temperature for another 10.5 hours.
What you got was breakdown of the biga's gluten by the enzymes that start acting once you mix the flour and water. I think you just over-fermented the biga. Your low ambient temperature was somewhat protective, but obviously not sufficiently so. Regarding the biga not doubling: If I am correct, the biga may have doubled but then collapsed.
You didn't kill off the yeast, but they were probably past their peak of activity, having already gobbled up a lot of the free sugar. Also, an over-ripe biga may have a lower pH (more free acid) than is healthy for commercial yeast.
The purpose of the biga is not to provide gluten, but to provide flavor and a population of vigorous yeast. Biga and other pre-ferments also provide acid to the final dough. This is an element in the more complex flavor, but the acid also strengthens gluten bonds.
Hope this helps.
David
Well, the first thing you did wrong was to follow Ken Forkish's recipe :)
He was the object of ridicule here a few months ago for his outlandish starter recipe. As far as I'm concerned his credibility is shot. I wouldn't recommend his methods to anyone.
Your previous posts on Ken Forkish's recipes are very inspiring, with some brilliant photos.
Thankfully, after a few shockers, I THINK I've nailed the process now. Managed his Harvest Bread with Poolish on Sunday, despite enforced lengthening of both bulk fermentation and final rise.
Would you mind answering a quick question? When you're making his levain breads, have you been downscaling his levain amounts? It looks like he makes 1000g of levain but only uses 216g in the final recipe which is insanely wasteful in my humble opinion!
Yes. I do scale down Forkish's levain, usually making 50%. I agree that his method is wasteful and don't find any justification for it in the book. However, I do not agree with the preceding comment about his overall reputation, even though there are other shortcomings in the book besides the levain waste, in my opinion.
I'm glad you are getting a handle on his methods.
David
I've had tremendous success with his recipes including the 80% biga both as written (w added yeast) and as converted to all SD, which (w help from this post http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/12766/building-formulaready-levain-starter) allowed me to build up to the necessary quantities.
Dough was wetter w SD substitution, but it worked and rose beautifully. As all sd, it's a bit more complex in taste than the yeasted version w/o being too sour (which my husband doesn't like... too sour that is).
I have had the same puddle of flour as the original poster. I have followed temps and times both atemps with same results, into the bin it goes.
any hints?