If your sourdough has a very thick base which is burnt or just very tough, there's a very simple fix for this. It really is a delicate balance to ensure that the yeast have consumed enough of their food to produce those beautiful pockets of air - but not too much so they can still provide oven spring at baking time. This method works better with slack dough anyway. CAUSE - the dough has been over fermented and/or over proofed and has too much air trapped in the shaped dough. All Purpose flour is ok, however it generally doesn't have the protein necessary to develop a strong gluten network. This can result in your dough feeling wetter and stickier than normal. Both of you mentioned a point in common on the hydration where I made a huge mistake on as I did not account for the hydration of the starter added. Let's dive into each of these reasons and see how you can avoid or correct the situation. Internal temp when I took them out of the oven was, again, 211F Just a tiny hint of tackiness this time around, well within the bounds of acceptability (I.e. I baked a loaf this morning and I dont gone cute it until we ready to eat it. #7 The bread cooled in the oven When the bread looks ready, some bakers turn the oven off and leave it inside for 20 minutes to make their bread less gummy. PROBLEM - Pale crust hasn't browned. And wait longer before slicing. The average total mixing time when using a spiral mixer is around 6 minutes of total mixing (includes first speed mixing time and second speed mixing time). Thanks for the suggestions about leaving the bread to cool longer. In order to have an easier time handling the dough, you need to maximize gluten development. Some doughs are sticker than others because of the type of flour. The yeast is responsible for the rise in the bread and will help create a light and airy sourdough. PROBLEM - My sourdough looked great when I removed it from the oven - it was crusty! Over fermentation is a cause of wet, sticky dough. Placing a baking tray underneath your Dutch Oven should do the trick. You just want to make sure it's not too wet for you to handle. This also provides its sour flavour and. Place the lid on and bake for 30 minutes. Score the top of your loaf using a sharp knife, razor or lame. Will be back to update! So I added 390 flour, plus 45 more from the starter ( assuming your starter is 100% hydration) to get 435 flour. Over time, youll become more confident and comfortable working with dough, so you can gradually increase the hydration and get better at handling it. It can be a mixture of rye and wheat or just rye. I've written a full guide to why sourdough deflates after scoring here. Remove the lid and bake for another 10 minutes to get a brown crust. The only issue with this is that the oil will mix in with the dough and alter the flavor, so dont use a type of oil you dont want to risk tasting in the end product.Some people suggest waiting for dough to rise. I have done wetter doughs at similar times/temps without the gumminess but I take your point - your lower/slower suggestion makes sense to me and I may well try that on my next go-round. If youre going from low hydration (60-65%) bread dough to a sourdough (65-80%) hydration, youre most probably not going to know how to handle it properly. Flour issues. Third, cover and rest the dough for 30 minutes. A tough crust can also be caused by a lower hydration recipe. The crumb is open and definitely "finished" - the bread can be compressed and springs right back. However, if you are just about to shape your dough, adding flour is not an option. Autolyse vs Fermentolyse: Which One Should You Use? Ensure that you have scored enough - you need one good score to ensure that your dough expands. Mix until dough comes away from the sides of the bowl . More often than not a tight crumb with a number of larger holes - but it's not even or open. The gluten network serves to provide structure and strength to the dough but it also plays an important role in containing and holding water and moisture. Also, if you find the outside is brown and the inside is moist, that normally indicates you should lower the baking temp. Bread (well anything really) continues to cook for some time after it comes out of the oven and, although it is hard to resist, if you cut the bread while it is still hot, the starches will not have completed setting and the crumb will be soft and seem a little 'doughy'. It will look like cloudy water. 24.5- 28C) overnight (12-14 hours). You can use wet hands during the stretch and fold stage or even when you need to gently handle the dough in almost any situation. 1. This part is extremely important as its what determines whether you end up with a well-shaped sourdough or a mess. It may just be that you need to leave it in the oven longer with the lid off your. Agree with the previous comments and hotter, longer and let dry, https://www.abeautifulplate.com/artisan-sourdough-bread-recipe/, Lamination butter for croissants - question, Mexican buns aka coffee cookie buns aka rotiboy buns, Farmer's Market Week 18 (Whole Wheat Walnut YW/SD Combo), Red Fife x 4 = Awesomeness!!! Scrape into a greased 9" x 4" x 4" pan; cover and let the loaf rise until it's within about 1" of the pan's rim, about 3 to 4 hours. Thanks!! This is the preferred method used by professional artisan bakers. It is generally healthier and easier to digest. If you're using all purpose flour, it can be a good idea to add some vital wheat gluten to the mix. if(typeof ez_ad_units != 'undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[300,250],'crustylabs_com-box-4','ezslot_1',121,'0','0'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-crustylabs_com-box-4-0');It is completely normal for very high hydration doughs at more than 75% hydration to feel excessively slack, wet and sticky after the mixing phase. No matter how long you leave it to ferment, the yeast and bacteria won't actually grow or change. One fold consists of the folding of all four sides of the dough into its centre. Pale crust after baked. Cover the bowl and set aside for 30-60 minutes. Step 1 - My starter is at 125% hydration. The reason most recipes are so high in hydration is that more water in the dough makes it easier to have a lighter, more open crumb, and a better crust, so its favored by most bakers. When the percentage of damaged starch particles in flour exceeds 10%, your dough will become wetter and stickier over time. Thanks guys!!! STEP FOUR: Pour the starter/water mixture into the flour mixture and stir, using a fork, into a thick, sticky ball. The dough should be a little sticky before you start kneading it. Pinpointing the cause of your wet and sticky dough will depend where in the sourdough process you are. Bread Baking Tools A Must Have For Any Baker, Learn how to make bread and pizza with this, Why Did My Quick Bread Not Rise? 2. Cover the bowl with a clean shower cap or plastic wrap and rest at 80F/26C for a minimum of 1 hour or as long as 2 hours. Sourdough generally contains more water, which makes the gluten more likely to cling to everything. Mix dry ingredients together. Gluten is the foundation for good bread, so you wont get very far if its not developed. I'll come back with the results in a week! These need to be done without hesitation. However under fermented dough will not cook all the way through, so this sourdough bread problem can have a deeper cause. Always taste the mix to be sure that salt has been added before mixing. (12-15% protein content), plus extra for dusting 2 teaspoons fine sea salt Method. Bake for 15-30 minutes until golden brown and dry (not burned). no one but me would notice or care). Thanks. When the dough is excessively over mixed, it first becomes very strong and stiff, then when mixed further, the gluten network starts to unravel and unknits, releasing the absorbed water out into the dough environment, causing it to be wet and sticky. A well developed gluten network has the strength to hold the gases and produce an even crumb. Throughout the shaping, the dough felt aerated and light and bouncy and it was easy to handle after dipping our hands in water. Other ingredients, like honey, may also make your sourdough wet and sticky. The proofing basket is typically made with wood and it is quite porous. You can read more about this trick, Use water mist or ice inside your Dutch Oven to ensure you get a, Leave the sourdough bread in the oven to cool after it's baked (you'll find a. . A simple way to check that your dough is cooked through is to tap the base. Sticky dough isn't necessarily a bad thing, although I appreciate how frustrating it is for a new baker. The uneven crumb occurs because fermentation has not been long enough to allow the gases produced by the yeast to evenly distribute, resulting in some larger holes (generally in the middle). This will ensure that the bread is cooked all the way through. Simply combine your flour and water before any of the other ingredients, fully incorporating the flour. Loaf In a small mixing bowl, mix the flour and salt together thoroughly. Second sign: The dough has become loose and slack, and doesn't seem to hold any kind of shape. More often than not, gumminess is a result of under fermentation (cutting the bulk fermentation time too short). You'll find a full guide to all purpose flour vs bread flour here. It really depends on where you are in the sourdough process. Another tactic is adding flour to the work surface before you start working with the dough. - lower hydration in the total dough formula (already noted above). Rest for 30 minutes @76F. You went with 150 and 150 - which is only 300, then 90 WW and 45 starter, for a total of 435. and so that drove the hydration from 81%, which is still fairly high, to over 90%. As you knead any bread dough, you should notice that it goes from a shaggy mess to more of a smooth mass of dough thats become less sticky. Damaged starch particles also varies from one milling facility to another. Our problem was with the tacky, rubbery, sticky insides of the baked bread (I could press a piece of the inside between my fingers and it would stick on without falling) no matter how long we bake it for (Charlie was baked for 40 mins in the cast iron and 20 mins on a rack, and the picture attached shows the insides). Hi community, i am new to this forum but have been reading a lot of advice from fellow bakers here while my sister and I are trying out our very first sourdough.. We have gotten to "Charlie" (we name our sourdoughs alphabetically hoping to get it right before the alphabet "Z"), but our sourdoughs were never right. Once you get it all set to go try this delicious Sourdough Focaccia recipe yum! Alternatively, you could add a little oil to the work surface and your hands. Okay, so maybe sourdough is never going to be extremely easy to handle, especially when it has very high hydration, but you can get to a point where youre very comfortable with handling sticky sourdough. You just need to reduce the heat on the base of your Dutch Oven or baking tray. If youre using a lot of wholewheat, youre going to be left with a very sticky dough, especially if its paired with high hydration. Only oil the proofing vessel if it is made of a non-porous material such as metal or glass, if it is made of a porous material like wood, then line the proofing vessel with a cloth and dust the cloth with flour. One reason why people add too much flour and mix it in is to try to get the dough more manageable. You can read more about this, Take some time to strengthen your sourdough starter (particularly if it's been in the fridge for a while or it's doubling consistently). This allows the dough to absorb the water into the flour and start to form gluten strands that hold the bread together. Flour blended and autolysed for 2 hours@85F. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Hi @Semolina, we waited only an hour before cutting into it, hasty on our part! When you have finished Sourdough Bread Baking 101, you will have the confidence to not only bake using your own sourdough starter, you will be ready for more advanced sourdough baking techniques which will enable you to bake all sorts of sourdough artisan breads. Place a small oven-safe cooking pot (6x6-inches) with a metal lid into the oven and preheat to 450 F. Gently place dough with parchment paper into the pot. Let the integrated flour-and-water mass sit for up to an hour. Another tactic is chilling the dough for a while. A new bake this morning. Content posted by community members is their own. 3/4 cup (170g) active sourdough starter 1 tablespoon honey 1 teaspoon salt Instructions Add all ingredients together in the bowl of a stand mixer with dough hook. It will only improve the flavor. More noticeable sour taste, possibly unpleasant. The speed of your actions when handling your sourdough makes all the difference. Many start at 400 F and drop to 375 F at some point during the baking. The only time I wouldnt recommend using wet hands is during shaping. Sourdough made with bread flour can take up to 6 hours to cool properly. The two main bread baking systems commonly used today are the sponge/pre-ferment system and the straight dough system. Sourdough that has hydration levels of more than 72% tends to be sticky and tears apart easily when it is handled. Bread flour. Wet and sticky dough not only sticks to the work surfaces but also to our hands, increasing the risk of tearing and making it very difficult to work with. Mix with the paddle on low speed until it forms a thick batter. As Ive already mentioned, gluten is essential to prevent too much sticking. Next, add 8g fine sea salt. Bread needs gluten development in order to trap gas and rise, but this also helps the dough to become less sticky. A tell tale sign that you haven't let your bread cool properly is having a "sticky" knife when you remove it from your bread. The solution is to give it a few more folds after you add the dash of flour so that the flour mixes in fully and makes it more manageable. One should be sticky, and one should be dusted with flour. Turn out the loaf out onto a floured peel, make a cut in the top with a grignette and slide it onto the baking stone. - longer waiting period before cutting --> this to me seems where you should start. Add 850g water to your mixing bowl and mix with your hand until the levain is wholly dissolved. And sometimes the issue is the recipe. You should aim to handle your dough more like that as you get more practice. Instructions. Sourdough made with bread flour can take up to 6 hours to cool properly. If you simply cant handle sourdough with medium-to-high hydration, its better for you to either gradually knead in more flour or start off with less water in the first place. As gluten develops more readily in a drier environment, this method allows the extra hydration to be easily incorporated into the dough. Heres What To Do, how to stop sourdough sticking to everything, Good Food Good Mood Sign Free Printable. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Lets look at some of the common problems with sourdough bread and how to deal with them. What Basic Methods Are Used To Make Quick Breads? The easiest thing you can do to handle your sticky sourdough is to simply make it less sticky by cutting back on the water. Signs of over-proofing are: A huge puffy ball of dough after the end of the rising time. Sticky sourdough isnt something anybody wants to work with, but it is completely normal and something that you need to get used to if youre going to get good at making sourdough bread. Autolyse is an important part of the baking process where flour and water is initially mixed without any other ingredients and left to rest for about 20 to 60 minutes. Dough made with a young sourdough starter just won't develop. If the dough is too sticky at this point, add a little flour and knead it in. The recommended method to prevent wet and sticky dough from sticking to our hands is to wet our hands with water whenever we are handling the dough; wet dough sticks to dry hands, but wet dough does not stick to wet hands. If the dough breaks before you can pull it so thin that you can see the light, resume kneading. Steaming is one of the most crucial steps when baking bread. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Make sure that you develop your gluten network really well during the stretch and fold stage. When it comes to building the gluten, everyone has a different preference in how to do it. After sourdough fermentation, the lactic acid bacteria produce acetaldehyde. Steaming. The side thats dusted with flour is the only side that you or anything else touches. BE CAREFUL, IT'S HOT! Use a very sharp knife to cut a cross shape into the top of the . Hi, I'm Kate! This happens because it is more difficult for gluten network to be developed in a wetter dough, which makes it more difficult for water to be retained into the dough, and the dough tends to stay wet and sticky throughout mixing. We preheated the oven (which was constrained at 480F) for an hour, and baked Charlie for 40 mins (tried 25 mins for Betty) in the cast iron, and 20 mins on the rack. I think it's quite common to get some stickiness if you are slicing fairly soon after the end of bake. We should fold once every hour of bulk fermentation. Your guide to solving sourdough bread problems. If you find your sourdough bread dough is too sticky when you are dividing and preshaping, it might be because it's over hydrated, under strengthened, or under proofed. The bassinage technique is used to help build the dough up to the desired high level of hydration in stages. If youre new to making sourdough bread, youre bound to run into a few issues at first, especially if youre not experienced with sticky dough. Ensure gluten development and fermentation are correctly executed. Heres What To Do. If the bread dough feels correct but is the baked loaf is fragile and sticky inside, it is under-cooked. Making good sourdough bread is something that takes plenty of practice, but you can learn how to handle it fairly quickly. The stickiest of doughs are the ones that dont have a developed gluten network. A basic sourdough is made with only wheat flour, sometimes just white flour and sometimes a combination of whole wheat flour and white flour. Bread doesn't rise when baked. The higher hydration the dough, the stickier its going to be. Or you need to give the sourdough starter more salt.Another root cause may be the recipe relative to your environment. It can also be called Fool's Crumb where the bread appears to have an "open crumb" however the holes are large and surrounded by an uneven, tight crumb that is not desirable. Step 4: Bake. Rest uncovered for 25 minutes. The only thing you might need to fix with your sourdough is its hydration. Bread has been baked too soon after shaping / under proofed. Rest uncovered for 25 minutes. . Content posted by community members is their own. Since using dry hands can be such a big problem for the sticky dough, Id advise that you get yourself a bowl of water to dip your hands in before you handle the dough. If you see anything inappropriate on the site or have any questions, contact me at floydm at thefreshloaf dot com. First, good effort, but where did you get the recipe from? From a gummy crumb to a lack of rise and everything in between. This is really only an issue once you've done bulk fermentation and you are trying to shape your dough. How Do You Know When Your Sourdough Starter Is Ready To Bake With?. All flour has a certain percentage of damaged starch particles, but when the amount of damaged starch particles exceed 10%, dough becomes wet and sticky. We can prevent wet sourdough from sticking by oiling our work surfaces, using wet hands to handle the dough and dusting the proofing containers. When Im not baking sourdough, I love to hang out with my three boys on our farm, tend to my jungle of indoor plants and drink good coffee. First, in a large mixing bowl, whisk the starter, water, orange zest and juice, and maple syrup or honey. Then, introduce the remaining water in stages and mix only until the water is incorporated into the dough.