Hi everyone!
I'm making my second attempt in a couple days at basic sourdough and have 2 specific questions:
1) WETTER DOUGH: I have seen many references to "wetter dough" making larger holes (I know there is a better term for this). By "wetter" are we talking about stickier? When I made BBA Basic Sourdough last week I used just enough water to get the flour to come together with the firm starter. When I transfered it to the board to knead, I had it floured as well and the dough took up that flour and became sticky again and I added more flour. Was this a mistake? Is there a way to prevent the dough from sticking to my hands and the board after the initial flour has been kneaded in? I think my mom puts crisco or lard on her counter before the flour when she is rolling pie dough... would this work here? I also had to knead longer than he suggested (he said 12-15, I think I ended up at about 18-20 min), I chalked this up to my kneading skills being rusty. I was looking for that windowpane and also the temp of the dough to be 81 degrees (which I accomplished with the 18-20 min)
2) KOSHER SALT: I think I read somewhere the kosher salt is 1/2 the "saltiness" of regular iodized salt. If I'm using kosher salt, should I double it? Is their a reason to use kosher salt over iodized, or for that matter, sea salt versus kosher versus regular salt?
Thanks again for everyone's help - I made some sourdough english muffins a couple of nights ago with some of my starter too (also had a question about wetter dough with them as well!)!
-Hilary
1) I have no idea here... whenever I make a wet dough my hands and counter get covered in sticky bread dough that I scrape off and put back into the bread. Eventually as the dough comes together it gets better. Maybe someone else has a secret method?
2) Kosher salt, at least the Diamond brand, has bigger crystals compared to table salt so less fit in a given volume. If you have a scale, go by weight. If not, I would try maybe 50% more and go from there.
I did that yesterday when I was working with a rather wet dough. You may need to keep wetting them, but it eventually does work out, and you could always add a little extra flour.
especially with high hydration doughs. Use a good amount of flour on your work surface and use a dough scraper to stretch the dough. Wet fingers help a great deal when working with wet doughs. I use stretch and fold with all my breads.
Here's a link to the video
http://www.sourdoughhome.com/stretchandfold.html
Larry
I made the firm starter yesterday, so today I'll try to mix the sourdough using less flour than my last attempt. I will try the stretch and fold method and let it rest every bit so that it can accept the water. I'm using 10 oz of flour (it's just one small loaf), so I'm going to aim for 7 oz of water - (70% hydration). I think I'll make it 9 oz bread flour and 1 oz whole wheat.
As for the salt question - I have been measuring everything by weight, so I should be fine - and I think that I'll just use regular salt anyways as no one has seemed to think that it makes any difference.
Thanks for all the helpful comments, I'll let you know how it goes and try to take a photo when it's finished tomorrow. I'm going to retard it overnight in the fridge.
-Hilary