March 17, 2018 - 9:44am
Final proof is always very loose
I make bread using the Ken Forkish FWSY approach. Whether it's white, wheat, bread from poolish or levain, when I take the loaves out of the banettons just before baking, they are actually pretty hard to pick up. If I lift a loaf with both hands, the dough seems to spill over the sides, and it seems that if I don't rush them immediately into the dutch ovens, they would spill all over. It's hard to get the right shape sometimes. Should I shape them better, letting gas out, to get a tighter loaf, and just deal with it?
In the final product, my loaves are all pretty great in the taste department. It just seems that when I see others moving the loaves to the oven they don't "pool" as much as mine.
Brian
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Why are you touching the dough after it's out of the banneton? The purpose of using the banneton is to shape the dough into the final shape of your bread. You're supposed to just flip the dough out of the banneton and into your dutch oven, score it, and bake.
Brian, I have been experiencing the same thing lately. Wished I had a solution for you. I’ve been working with a sour sourdough bread and it ferments at 76F for a long time. I suspect, in my case, that the doctor is degrading (breaking down) from the long exposure to hydration.
I also think it might be due to high humidity, affecting the final hydration. I may try to reduce the water a little.
I haven’t had this problem n the past. I’ll be watching your post for possible help.
Dan
Apart from many of his recipes being high hydration he's also overly generous with the fermentation time. Watch the dough and not the clock. Sounds like it's over fermented.
I've baked his entire book in a blog.. it's all about his time lines.. go by how the dough looks and feels and you'll be fine.. he runs his dough development times much too long!
I'm making a bread with poolish today, and I will not let it over-rise. "Do it by feel" is a little hard to figure, since I don't have a reference point for how it should feel. Perhaps on my next day off I will beg the local French bakery for a demonstration. They make a lovely boule, which is my favorite bread for every day eating.
iPat - I used to dump everything from the banneton to the dutch oven, but saw others shaping the loaves a little first. I'll dump today's straight from the banneton and score in the dutch oven before I bake.
Thanks to all for your advice. I will post my results here once the bake is done.
Hey Brian, I am eagerly awaiting your reply concerning your present testing. Have you discovered anything?
I took 100g Bread Flour, 70g water, and 2g salt for a test. After 1 1/2 days the dough still had not degraded as much as the same percentages, but including 4% Levain. It seems the levian is doing a great deal of damage during longer room temp ferments.
Any thoughts, anyone?
Dan
So after learning a lesson in my earlier experiences with FWSY I found that after the final proof i I place parchment paper over the banneton, turn it over and gently lower it to the counter where I don’t uncover until the Lodge combo cooker comes out of the oven. Then I gently take the banneton off and using the parchment paper I lift the loaf into the Lodge. I leave the parchment paper in. I use the parchment paper from King Arthur. Never did like the flipping over method. I’ve seen too many of my loaves flatten out to some degree. Don’t like that.