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