Once the dough doesn't tear when you stretch it between your fingers, you're ok to set it aside for bulk fermentation. A tough crust can also be caused by a lower hydration recipe. The answer to this really depends on what is causing your dough to be so sticky and wet. It is possible to make 100% hydration (or even higher) so there's really no such thing as too wet. You might want to leave the bread in the oven for 10 minutes with the oven off and door ajar to help wick away some of the extra moisture. Using too much water for the amount of flour you're using will result in a wet dough that's really hard to handle. Dont try traditional kneading techniques like punch and turn with moist sourdough. This could be a result of problems with a thermostat, heating element, or possibly the timer. If you want to you can spritz your dough with extra water before you put the lid on. From a gummy crumb to a lack of rise and everything in between. Within eight to 12 hours of feeding your starter, you want to see a noticeable increase in volume and it should be putting off a pretty pungent. Lets look at some of the common problems with sourdough bread and how to deal with them. We want to mix the dough until it develops adequate gluten network which is indicated by a dough that is stretchable without tearing but at the same time offers a degree of resistance when pulled apart. 2. 1. I went here and checked the recipe -https://www.abeautifulplate.com/artisan-sourdough-bread-recipe/ it called for 350 BF and 90 WW, for a total of 440, plus 45 from the starter ( which was 100% hydration) for a total of 485. Dough made with a young sourdough starter just won't develop. Use a 65% water content and you should be able to handle the dough and shape it with little to no problem at all. Bread needs gluten development in order to trap gas and rise, but this also helps the dough to become less sticky. If you are new to sourdough bread baking, I recommend reducing the hydration (ie. Once one side is stretched and dusted, you should shape the dough and put it into your banneton. PROBLEM - My sourdough looked great when I removed it from the oven - it was crusty! Third, mix in the soaker, mixing and incorporating the grains and seeds into . Youll find that most recipes are making sourdough with fairly high hydration, which means that the sourdough is naturally stickier, but this doesnt mean that all sourdough has to be sticky. Add the flour and mix well with the dough whisk or your hands until you have a shaggy, slightly sticky dough. How Do You Fix Gooey Bread? Make sure that you're not using too much flour when shaping your dough. Then, mix in 70 grams of active sourdough starter. Gently pull the dough towards the edge. 10 Pieces 5 Inch Bread Banneton Proofing Basket Round Dough Sourdough Proofing Basket Rattan Bakery Baking Bread Bowl with Liner and Scraper Tool Set for Starter Gifts Professional Home Bakers : Amazon.co.uk: Home & Kitchen Gently turn the dough out onto a separate floured flat baking tray (not preheated). Its like an extension to your hand and can be used to improve your technique with the dough. It's wider on the bottom and almost pointy at the top, rather than having a rounded shape. Often the bottom of your sourdough is burning. Alternatively, you'll need to adjust the amount of starter in your dough to suit the temperature of your kitchen. Without salt, the dough becomes sticky and slack in nature, making it difficult to work with. Modified: Dec 27, 2022 by The Pantry Mama This post may contain affiliate links. CAUSES - There are number of causes here, but the main one is that it was not baked long enough for the moisture in the dough to be baked out of the bread. Breadopedia.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. I've written about 6 things you can do to ensure you get good sourdough oven spring (and leave the hockey pucks behind) here. Sourdough differs from most bread in that it contains no baker's yeast, relying instead on a fermented "starter" of water and flour to provide lift. Content posted by community members is their own. If your bread contains rye, it can take up to 24 hours! Instructions. If you're still unsure a good thing to do is to let your bread cool in your oven. SOLUTION - extend your bulk fermentation to enable the yeast in your dough to release some of their energy before hitting the oven. If you are doing decorative scoring, it's still advisable to have one "utility" score and then your more shallow, decorative scoring. You want the bread to be completely cool so you'd generally want to wait at least 3-4 hours and some bakers recommend waiting 24 hours to enhance flavor. Bread mix, all-purpose flour, self-raising flour or cake flour can produce undesirable results when making sourdough. Wet and sticky dough is caused by a few different issues. This site is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. The speed of your actions when handling your sourdough makes all the difference. Place the lid on and bake for 30 minutes. However, it's much better to find out the cause of the problem so you can fix it and prevent it from happening again. Different types of mixers uses different mixing arm which develops the dough at different rates. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Final internal temp 211FSliced after cooling for 4 hours. There are plenty of methods for developing gluten, so its up to you to try out different variations and figure out which is best for you. This is the dry mixture. I would like to share with you what I have learnt from the many hours spent researching and testing these baking techniques myself. Making sure you get bulk fermentation correct - you'll find my best tips, You could also make sure that you spray plenty of water onto the outside of the dough before placing it in your Dutch Oven. More often than not, gumminess is a result of under fermentation (cutting the bulk fermentation time too short). If you only want decorative scoring, you will need to push your bulk fermentation to the limit. Gluten development is strengthened by adding salt to your dough, so don't forget to do this! The easiest thing you can do to handle your sticky sourdough is to simply make it less sticky by cutting back on the water. Sometimes the issue is the kneading technique. A mistake that nearly sourdough bakers have made is simply leaving the dough for too long. One set of strong Stretch & Folds. SOLUTIONS - These are the things you can do to try to avoid your dough splitting naturally: PROBLEM - your sourdough bread has an uneven crumb. Autolyze reduces the wetness and stickiness of the dough and makes mixing and handling of the dough much easier. The water absorbed from the damaged starches is then gradually released and the dough that was initially dry and strong becomes wet, sticky and weak over time. Sometimes white bread, while initially fine, after a few days becomes sticky inside as if its going back to a dough-state, though not quite. However, sourdough hydration levels can be pushed past 100% with the right technique which we will discuss in the subheading below. 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. And then mix in the other ingredients and forge ahead. Be sure you open with an autolyse, a step far easier than it sounds. It will only improve the flavor. Autolyse for an hour before adding the starter (rest 30m) and salt (rest 15m) all by hand using the folding and pinching method. This excess water is not retained inside the dough but rather coats the doughs surface causing it to be wet and sticky. It has more energy than it should have left when it hits the oven - meaning you might get a great oven spring - but it destroys your scoring (and will more than likely be gummy inside). If you do have a watery starter, you'll need to adjust the amount of water in your dough or set about finding a solution to thicken it up. Place a lidded pot (Dutch Oven) in the oven to preheat. Now it is the sourdough starter or its use that is suspect. 150g bread flour, 150g all-purpose, 90g whole wheat flour with 350g water (slightly warmer than room temperature by the touch), with 90g of starter and 9g of salt. Third, cover and rest the dough for 30 minutes. Perhaps your sourdough is too sticky when you start working with it. Flour blended and autolysed for 2 hours@85F. This helps keep the dough from sticking. Required fields are marked *. 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%. A strong, mature sourdough starter will reward you with amazing sourdough at your next bake. This is particular difficult if you're working in humid conditions. You can still bake it and eat it, but it will be a solid mass, not the light, airy sourdough you were expecting. 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. You should also wet your hands with cold water before folding the dough. Makes 1 x 800-g/1-lbs. The chains of gluten give your dough strength and structure. A hollow sound indicates that it's cooked. The bassinage technique is used to help build the dough up to the desired high level of hydration in stages. Be careful to use the right type of flour for your recipe and play around with the hydration level if you need to. Here are some of the problems that can cause wet and sticky sourdough: Many people say "just use wet hands" if your dough is super sticky or wet. SOLUTION - Depending on the cause of your spread, you can implement the following fixes: PROBLEM - Dough splits in places other than where you've scored or even splits messing up your decorative scoring. You wont be able to shape it when its wet. Copyright 2021 The Pantry Mama 2021 - All Rights Reserved, 5 Ways To Strengthen A Sourdough Starter: Give Your Starter A Boost, Sourdough Discard Crackers Recipe with Parmesan + Rosemary, Easy Sourdough Discard Sandwich Bread Recipe, Sourdough English Muffins {with a discard version too}. 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. Don't close the oven door or the crust will become soft and wrinkly. Add 850g water to your mixing bowl and mix with your hand until the levain is wholly dissolved. 16 hour cold (38F) retard, in closed plastic bags. #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. Once mixed, the dough enters the bulk fermentaiton phase where folding also takes place which helps significantly to develop more gluten network as well as to incorporate more water into the dough making it feel less wet and sticky. As the gluten develops, the dough becomes less sticky and more manageable. Similarly, the reason we use baking parchment paper when baking is to minimize the use of additional flour in the baking process. CAUSE - cutting into your bread too soon! Salthand-mixed, Rubaud style, for 5 minutes. The exterior was perfectly brown. 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. PROBLEM - My sourdough feels moist or wet inside, even though it's well fermented. When using the autolyse method which call for the initial incorporation of only flour and water without salt, we may sometimes forget to include salt in the final mixing phase. Second sign: The dough has become loose and slack, and doesn't seem to hold any kind of shape. I've written a full guide to why sourdough deflates after scoring here. Send your . In this article we will look at all the factors that makes your sourdough excessively wet and sticky, as well as various ways we can reduce the wetness and stickiness of sourdough without changing its hydration level. 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. When this has cooled, add the rye sour, yeast mixture, 2 cups medium rye flour and the remaining 4 1/4 cups all-purpose flour. For example, the problem may be a recipe that calls for more hydration than the flour youre using requires. This part is extremely important as its what determines whether you end up with a well-shaped sourdough or a mess. When water is excessively soft, the lack of minerals results in a sticky andslack dough. Too much dusting of flour can also reduce stickiness to the point where sufficient skin tension is not able to be developed. And this time we'll be sure to wait longer before slicing up "Danny"! 25 minute proof at room temperature. Cover and let the dough double in size, about 12 to 16 hours. CAUSE - Spreading can be caused by a few factors including under fermented or over fermented dough as well as poor shaping technique. Add 60g of sourdough starter and set the tare to zero again; then add the salt and water, again, I find it easier to set the tare to zero before adding the flour. When the percentage of damaged starch particles in flour exceeds 10%, your dough will become wetter and stickier over time. Flip the bowl over onto the countertop so that the dough is now on top of the parchment paper. Begin mixing the flour in with a spoon or fork, then continue mixing with your hand, until all the flour is incorporated and you have a shaggy dough. Even with parchment paper, the base of your bread is sitting on the hot base of the Dutch Oven causing it to cook more quickly. Under fermented dough will also cause you to have a pale crust that just doesn't brown up, even when you cook it longer. However under fermented dough will not cook all the way through, so this sourdough bread problem can have a deeper cause. And sometimes the issue is the recipe. Loaf In a small mixing bowl, mix the flour and salt together thoroughly. We all know that drier dough is easier to handle since it sticks less, so use this to your advantage and make a basic low-to-medium hydration sourdough before you try the more difficult higher hydration ones. How to handle sticky, wet . Then, spoon bread flour and whole wheat flour into the bowl. I've been making breads recently which, while they're delicious, seemingly well-baked, and with an open crumb, are a bit tacky/sticky to the touch and during slicing. Turn out on to a surface and knead for 10 minutes or until the 'windowpane effect' is . Cover and bake for 30 minutes. Baking parchment paper is characteristic for its non stick ability without the need for any dusting of flour or oiling. 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. Some doughs are sticker than others because of the type of flour. I wouldn't reduce temperature, but rather increase baking time. Rest for 30 minutes @76F. The two main bread baking systems commonly used today are the sponge/pre-ferment system and the straight dough system. The dough will develop further in strength becoming dry and workable, as it will be able to retain more moisture once it has gone through the bulk fermentation phase and the folding phase. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. - longer waiting period before cutting --> this to me seems where you should start. It really depends on where you are in the sourdough process. It can be leathery rather than crispy. This is called having over-proofed bread. It's best to choose a higher protein flour, such as a bread flour. Your email address will not be published. CAUSE - There are a few reasons your crust is too pale. Remove the potion from the refrigerator before chopping and boiling it. . 3. I have, however, always let my bread cool for at least 4 hours, until its at or very near room- temperature, and it continues to be sticky - even when left in the oven to steam out for a little while after baking is completed. Nothing smells better than the wheaty aroma of freshly baked goods; I enjoy it so much that I decided to quit my day job as a management consultant to teach others about the delicate art of baking! Thanks for the tip! I bake at 525F, sometimes 550. The next day, preheat the oven to 500 degrees for 60 minutes. After 30 minutes, take the parchment paper with the dough on it and place the entire thing in the preheated dutch oven. Bake with Jack 199K subscribers Overfermentation Video Number 116: https://youtu.be/XdYkdI_vgxQ Send your bread making problems to breadsos@bakewithjack.co.ukInclude your name, your location, a. In this blog we will explore what causes wet, sticky dough and how to fix the issue so you can bake amazing sourdough bread. This arguably makes the dough easier to work with. As gluten develops more readily in a drier environment, this method allows the extra hydration to be easily incorporated into the dough. A. Different types of flour all have the ability to absorb different amounts of water, so the flour youre using might be making stickier sourdough than it should. Take the bowl off the scales and mix well, it will look rough and lumpy, but never fear it will soon start to look like bread dough! Bread has been baked too soon after shaping / under proofed. 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. Try placing your dough in warmer area of your kitchen (75F-80F is ideal) - monitoring your final dough temperature to keep it as consistent as possible - or consider investing in a bread proofing box . 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. Hi, I'm Kate! CAUSE - Your sourdough is lacking oven spring, which means your dough is not growing in the oven as it should. Bake in preheated, covered DO at 475F for 20 minutes, then uncovered at 450F for 20 minutes. Cheaters No Knead Dutch Oven Sourdough Bread: so EASY, only 6 ingredients, made in 1 bowl, 5 mins mixing, then just rise + bake time! Two things - the hydration listed (390g flour and 350g water) is way too high for almost any bread that's not 100% whole wheat. We actually followed this recipe twice, the first time was in the exact proportion mentioned with a hydration of 81% and "Betty" turned out tacky and moist. When using a proofing basket, line it with a clean cloth and dust its surface with flour by using a sieve to ensure an even coating. Would really appreciate some pointers, thank you in advance!! High temperatures can cause premature over fermentation, which will result in wet, sticky sourdough. The majority of the time, I see this because the dough needed less water or more kneading upfront (or stretch and folds during bulk fermentation ). full guide to stopping your sourdough bread from collapsing here, Flavored Sourdough: How To Make Additions To Sourdough Bread. Extend your bulk fermentation time. When water is excessively hard, it tightens the gluten as well as decrease fermentation rate. Evenly roll out your small 2- to 4-ounce balls into small circles a scant quarter inch thick. The recipe technically calls to bake the bread in a preheated dutch oven (I use a casserole dish because I don't own a dutch oven), but the dough is so sticky that if I preheat the dish and transfer the dough to it once it's preheated, I find that the dough deflates and I get a flat loaf. Some recipes are simply wetter and stickier than others. Any suggestions would be GREATLY appreciated.Thanks!Jeff. . Shape into batards. Sometimes removing the bread out of the Dutch oven and baking it on the shelf for the last few minutes has a positive effect. During shaping, a light dusting of flour is what you need to prevent the sourdough from sticking to your kitchen counter. Theres nothing wrong with using less water or adding more flour to your dough if its unmanageable, but you just need to be careful not to dry the dough out by adding too much flour. Bread doesn't rise when baked. Steps: Autolyse for an hour before adding the starter (rest 30m) and salt (rest 15m) all by hand using the folding and pinching method. If your sourdough has a very thick base which is burnt or just very tough, there's a very simple fix for this. 480F is not as hot as you could bake. Its very important to avoid tearing the gluten as this causes it to become sticky again. After fermenting for too long, the gluten in the dough begins to break down, which leaves you with a thick, gloopy mass of flour and water with no way to make good sourdough.