strengthening and maturing your sourdough starter. Maybe try leaving it a bit longer? Let your sourdough bread come to room temperature before you cut into it. The easiest thing you can do to handle your sticky sourdough is to simply make it less sticky by cutting back on the water. Add the flour and mix well with the dough whisk or your hands until you have a shaggy, slightly sticky dough. 16 hour cold (38F) retard, in closed plastic bags. Let's dive into each of these reasons and see how you can avoid or correct the situation. Add a little flour and knead it a few times to make it more manageable. 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. CAUSE - This odd shape is caused by under fermentation. Similarly, if your sourdough starter is too runny you may also end up with a super wet dough. Your email address will not be published. Levain hand-mixed, Rubaud style, for 5 minutes. 16 hour cold (38F) retard, in closed plastic bags. But we are utterly puzzled by the outcome again. Wet and sticky dough is caused by a few different issues. However under fermented dough will not cook all the way through, so this sourdough bread problem can have a deeper cause. SOLUTION - reduce proofing time. Salt is called for in every bread formulation, but it is the one ingredient that we most commonly tend to forget to include into our mix. Cheaters No Knead Dutch Oven Sourdough Bread: so EASY, only 6 ingredients, made in 1 bowl, 5 mins mixing, then just rise + bake time! Generally, flat loaves will still taste ok, they just lack that beautiful airiness we want to see in our sourdough. 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? During this time, the flour has the chance to fully hydrate and gluten network is able to develop in spite of the lack of mechanical mixing. Preheat the oven to 230C fan/456F/gas mark 8 with a baking stone on the middle shelf and a deep tray on the bottom. If you've found this article on handling wet, sticky sourdough helpful, you might also enjoy these: What a great resource you've created here. Most loaves are soggy at the bottom because they've not had the heat but you can simulate that at home by using a hot stone. Undigested sourdough bread can ferment byproducts in your gut when it reaches your colon. SOLUTION - Allow your bread to cool for AT LEAST 90 minutes (much longer for rye bread). It's really important to develop the gluten in your sourdough to ensure you don't end up with a wet and sticky mess. To solve this problem, try taking the bread maker out of equation by baking in an oven. If the dough is too sticky at this point, add a little flour and knead it in. Mix the drier dough until it has developed into the desired dough strength. During shaping, a light dusting of flour is what you need to prevent the sourdough from sticking to your kitchen counter. I wouldn't reduce temperature, but rather increase baking time. If your dough is too dry, add a little moisture and mix it, adding just a little more water if necessary. Then the dough cant stick to them. Factors like temperature, humidity, air pressure and elevation play a role here. Approximate size of sourdough bread: Approximate cooling time: small dinner rolls: 30 minutes: small white loaf (1 lb): 4 hours: large white loaf (1.5 lb): 8 hours: small wholegrain loaf (1lb): 5 hours Oiling our proofing basket will cause the oil to be absorbed and be ineffective in preventing the dough from sticking. Combine the starter, water, rye flour and 1 cup of the bread flour. 480F is not as hot as you could bake. 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). Under mixing and over mixing results in insufficient gluten strands to trap water inside the dough, causing the dough to be wet and sticky. full guide to all purpose flour vs bread flour here, Baking sourdough when it's really hot or really cold. Step 1 - My starter is at 125% hydration. But as it cooled, the crust wrinkled and collapsed what happened? Semolina (used for dusting pizza dough) however is much coarser in texture and it really comes down to your personal preference; if you like the coarse texture by all means go for it. Its very important to avoid tearing the gluten as this causes it to become sticky again. 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. Shape into batards. Take the temp before cutting into it. I hope this guide helps you to troubleshoot your sourdough bread problems and ultimately bake a better loaf! This is the dry mixture. Be confident in your actions. 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. 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. Place the bread pieces on a parchment lined baking sheet in a single layer. Ensure that your dough is well fermented prior to shaping. Dusting with flour is useful for some parts of the baking process for preventing sourdough from sticking, but it is not the best method for every application; other methods for preventing sourdough from sticking is to wet your hands with water, oiling the work surfaces and using parchment paper for baking. Once you get it all set to go try this delicious Sourdough Focaccia recipe yum! This increases the chances of tearing, which can make your life more difficult when shaping or kneading it. 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. PROBLEM - Gummy sourdough (dense, moist crumb) is the most common sourdough bread problems facing home bakers. Bake the sourdough bread. Perhaps your sourdough is too sticky when you start working with it. Then the dough cannot stick to the surface. High temperatures can cause premature over fermentation, which will result in wet, sticky sourdough. When water is excessively soft, the lack of minerals results in a sticky andslack dough. You want to be quick when moving or shaping the dough to prevent sticking. 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. Over time, youll learn new techniques and better ways of handling sticky dough and youll find it much easier to handle. water) slightly (eg. In my other courses, I teach how to bake all sorts of sourdough breads, but in this course, I won't load you down with lots of information, just enough so it is easy and fun to bake your first loaf of sourdough. When the oven floor is clean, but before the equalizing soak, the temperature is ideal for pita bread, which cook in a minute or two. 25 minute proof at room temperature. 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. 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. One set of strong Stretch & Folds. Once you get the hang of the sourdough process and the various phases, then start introducing whole grain flours into the mix. This just means that you are taking the sides of the dough, stretching them up, and folding them over the dough 4-8 times, or until the dough is too tight to do any more. Let the integrated flour-and-water mass sit for up to an hour. If you only want decorative scoring, you will need to push your bulk fermentation to the limit. This is done in intervals over the course of a few hours, so the dough has plenty of time to become more elastic and less sticky. Next, add 8g fine sea salt. - longer waiting period before cutting --> this to me seems where you should start. It is possible to make 100% hydration (or even higher) so there's really no such thing as too wet. The loaf will also feel light in your hand, rather than heavy. 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. Rest uncovered for 25 minutes. Start by swapping out 12-15% of the white flour for whole grain flours; then increase to 25% (and so on) if you are happy with the results. Stretch dough into rough 10"x17" rectangle, laminate and move to clean vessel for bulk. You just get more un-fermented dough that wont stand up. If you want to you can spritz your dough with extra water before you put the lid on. 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. Gluten is the foundation for good bread, so you wont get very far if its not developed. It will look like cloudy water. The stickiest of doughs are the ones that dont have a developed gluten network. A dough scraper is your best friend when handling any kind of dough. SOLUTION - Tunnels can have a few solutions: PROBLEM - My sourdough isn't cooked all the way through. Same with the salt %, it is computed on total flour. #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. Autolyse vs Fermentolyse: Which One Should You Use? If so, fix that, and try it with your standard bake temps/times, And then, if the problem persists, then add to the lower hydration the lower/longer bake temps/times, too. BAKE YOUR SOURDOUGH Preheat your oven to 450F (230C) half an hour before the end of proving. It can be caused by over fermenting or under fermenting your dough, but also by other things like shaping issues. 2. In my other courses, I teach how to bake all sorts of sourdough breads, but in this course, I won't load you down with lots of information, just enough so it is easy and fun to bake your first loaf of sourdough. Throughout the shaping, the dough felt aerated and light and bouncy and it was easy to handle after dipping our hands in water. In this blog we will explore what causes wet, sticky dough and how to fix the issue so you can bake amazing sourdough bread. We will hold back from slicing it too early the next time!! Remove the potion from the refrigerator before chopping and boiling it. You can make a loaf of perfectly good sourdough bread at around 65% hydration if you want to. . Cut one loaf of sourdough bread into 1" cubes. CAUSE - the dough has been over fermented and/or over proofed and has too much air trapped in the shaped dough. Cover and let the dough double in size, about 12 to 16 hours. This blog contains scientific explanation on all matters related to baking written in simple words; I hope you will find something useful here and leave as a better baker. Heres What To Do, how to stop sourdough sticking to everything, Good Food Good Mood Sign Free Printable. Sticky and unmanagable sourdough. Add of the water and dissolve or break up the sourdough with your hands. How Do You Know When Your Sourdough Starter Is Ready To Bake With?. Instructions. You can then start to increase the hydration if you wish. Loaf In a small mixing bowl, mix the flour and salt together thoroughly. I'll come back with the results in a week! The only solution for this is to toss your dough and put your time into strengthening and maturing your sourdough starter. if(typeof ez_ad_units != 'undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[300,250],'crustylabs_com-box-3','ezslot_2',120,'0','0'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-crustylabs_com-box-3-0');There are other reasons besides having very high hydration levels that can cause your sourdough to be wet and sticky. A mistake that nearly sourdough bakers have made is simply leaving the dough for too long. 310-330 . 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. Evenly roll out your small 2- to 4-ounce balls into small circles a scant quarter inch thick. Add the all purpose/bread flour and whole wheat/spelt flour. But if you leave the flour, water, starter and salt to autolyse, the flour absorbs all the water and becomes fully hydrated. Nonetheless we ended the bulk fermentation when the dough doubled in size (at the end of two hours after the last stretch and fold), and performed the pre shaping and final shaping. Overproofed bread will also have a pale crust because the yeast has used all the sugars and therefore there are none left to caramelise the crust. The two main bread baking systems commonly used today are the sponge/pre-ferment system and the straight dough system. Hi @Semolina, we waited only an hour before cutting into it, hasty on our part! A basic sourdough is made with only wheat flour, sometimes just white flour and sometimes a combination of whole wheat flour and white flour. You'll find a full guide to all purpose flour vs bread flour here. Young sourdough starter lacks the established yeast colonies necessary to raise bread. If your dough is sticky, its going to stick to whatever is dry, so if youre touching it with dry hands, youre going to struggle. Concentrate on shaping evenly and with plenty of tension to ensure your dough rises evenly and doesn't split other than where you've scored. 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. Home Why Is My Sourdough Too Sticky? Some doughs are sticker than others because of the type of flour. Give it around thirty minutes. 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. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. 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. If your kitchen is too warm, the dough can become a sloppy, wet mess. However, it shouldnt be so sticky that it is hard to knead. You don't want to add extra flour as this will affect the texture of the end product (which actually won't be very good at that point). 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. Im the face behind The Pantry Mama and I want to help you bake delicious sourdough bread, no matter what your schedule. I ran your numbers, and unless my math is wrong, your are above 90% hydration, which is extremely high. Score the top of your loaf using a sharp knife, razor or lame. I bake high hydration (88-90%) near 100% whole-grain loaves. Lamination butter for croissants - question, Farmer's Market Week 18 (Whole Wheat Walnut YW/SD Combo), 100% Stoneground Whole Wheat Hokkaido Sourdough Milk Bread, Borodinsky Supreme -- Old School -- 100% Rye. This can result in your dough feeling wetter and stickier than normal. If you are doing decorative scoring, it's still advisable to have one "utility" score and then your more shallow, decorative scoring. Put the lid on and place into the hot oven. When it comes to building the gluten, everyone has a different preference in how to do it. I think it's quite common to get some stickiness if you are slicing fairly soon after the end of bake. Well, sourdough is a stickier, wetter dough than regular yeasted bread. It might be that your sourdough is too sticky because there is insufficient gluten development. SOLUTION - Allow your bread to cool for AT LEAST 90 minutes (much longer for rye bread). Some recipes are simply wetter and stickier than others. First, good effort, but where did you get the recipe from? Also, remember that sourdough is extra sticky when the gluten isnt fully developed. CAUSE - This is typically caused by under fermenting your dough, but can also happen through using too much flour when you shape your bread. Gluten development is strengthened by adding salt to your dough, so don't forget to do this! The sticky side should only touch the dough. Then remove lid and continue to bake for another 20-25 minutes. A starter is a collection of yeast and bacteria that feed on flour. Carefully make it round again pushing the seams underneath. Make sure that you're not using too much flour when shaping your dough. Shape into batards. Extending bulk fermentation will help to fix this problem. Baking the Sourdough: Preheat your oven to 450F (225C) and a baking pan. Third, cover and rest the dough for 30 minutes. They give you what is called slack dough.If the dough is very slack and it isnt because you added too much water, then autolyze. 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. Flip the bowl over onto the countertop so that the dough is now on top of the parchment paper. sourdough after baking. That's one of four for the set. If those figures do not include your levain, then you have at least 77% final hydration assuming a levain of 100% hydration. You can still bake it and eat it, but it will be a solid mass, not the light, airy sourdough you were expecting. Plastic and metal dough scrapers are useful tools and both have their own pros and cons. 3. This site is powered by Drupal. More noticeable sour taste, possibly unpleasant. Autolyze reduces the wetness and stickiness of the dough and makes mixing and handling of the dough much easier. As Ive already mentioned, gluten is essential to prevent too much sticking. You can read my five best tips for strengthening a sourdough starter, Extending your bulk fermentation time to allow your dough to rise and ferment properly. And dont let it sit in the fridge so long that it dries out. This makes it easier to handle. Dough that splits in this way is almost always under fermented. If you've just completed autolyse and you feel that your dough is too wet, it is possible to add some more flour at that that stage. All Purpose flour is ok, however it generally doesn't have the protein necessary to develop a strong gluten network. On the other hand, rye sourdough is a bread that starts with sourdough starter instead of yeast but has at least some rye flour. Jack Sturgess. It's wider on the bottom and almost pointy at the top, rather than having a rounded shape. 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. More often than not a thick crust developing on the base is caused by cooking your bread in a Dutch Oven. Place the sourdough into the pot using the silicone sling or parchment paper as a handle. CAUSE - This most likely caused by under fermentation, but can sometimes be a shaping issue too. Maybe 80% final hydration if your levain is more "liquid" than 100% Hyd. 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. Bake in a Dutch Oven. We know that flour is essential, but you need to make sure that youre using it correctly for the best results. Simply combine your flour and water before any of the other ingredients, fully incorporating the flour. If you can see the light through the dough, youre done the kneading. Then, spoon bread flour and whole wheat flour into the bowl. 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. Switch to a wood spoon. In this article, we're going to talk about some of the causes of what makes this happen, as well as how to sort it out if it does happen. When water is excessively hard, it tightens the gluten as well as decrease fermentation rate. It could be using the slap and fold, stretch and fold, rubaud kneading, or whatever youd like. Oil the mixing bowl, the bowl used for bulk fermentation and folding, and the proofing vessel. Remove the lid and bake for another 10 minutes to get a brown crust. Learn how to make bread and pizza with this awesome book. Second, mix the dough using a previously fed, active and bubbly sourdough starter, water and a mixture of bread and whole wheat flour. Gently pull the dough towards the edge. the yeast has not fermented for long enough and still has too much energy to burn when it hits the oven, the yeast lets off too much gas all at once when it hits the oven. Another tactic is chilling the dough for a while. if(typeof ez_ad_units != 'undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[300,250],'crustylabs_com-leader-4','ezslot_20',129,'0','0'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-crustylabs_com-leader-4-0');If you are proofing your dough in a non porous material such as a metal or glass container, then oiling is preferred over dusting with flour. Another reason we want to minimize dusting is because the additional flour from dusting is not well hydrated and when baked can leave unsightly gray streaks on your sourdough bread that taste raw. After toiling through many failures, I finally reached a level of consistency that I can be proud of - it is amazing the intricacy that is required to produce a great bake. Your email address will not be published. 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. Beginner bakers are best to start off with low to medium hydration dough before moving onto high hydration. 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. Youre aiming for maximum gluten development for the dough to become easier to manage. Send your . In order to have an easier time handling the dough, you need to maximize gluten development. And this time we'll be sure to wait longer before slicing up "Danny"! This makes it easier to handle. "Final" or "overall" hydration is supposed to include both the water and the flour in the levain. This is particular difficult if you're working in humid conditions. During shaping, we want to wet our hands to prevent the dough from sticking to it. Pate Fermentee VS Poolish VS Biga VS Sourdough Starter. 4.Under-baked bread 5. However, sourdough hydration levels can be pushed past 100% with the right technique which we will discuss in the subheading below. What is a Pate Fermentee? A tightly shaped dough that has been stitched when placed in the banneton will hold together better when tipped out for baking. Then, I use my wet hands to pick up a side of the dough, stretch it up, and fold it over. When mixing dough of very high hydration, it can often be excessively wet and sticky and you may find it difficult for the dough to hold in all that water. 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. You should also wet your hands with cold water before folding the dough. Charlie was a little better probably because we increased the bake time, but the higher hydration did it in. 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. Mix dry ingredients together. Extend your bulk fermentation time. PROBLEM - Pale crust hasn't browned. You should aim to handle your dough more like that as you get more practice. Ingredients: 300g water 100g sourdough leaven* (made with your starter) 100g of stoneground organic wholemeal flour 400g organic strong white flour 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 . 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. We can prevent wet sourdough from sticking by oiling our work surfaces, using wet hands to handle the dough and dusting the proofing containers. Rest for 30 minutes @76F. bread sticky after baking. 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. Add the dry mixture. The bread is heavy, hasn't puffed up in the oven and has a moist, dense texture inside. 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. 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. A tough crust can also be caused by a lower hydration recipe. Even though our dough doubled in size at the end of four hours with visible strength around the rounded sides, there weren't bubbles on the surface of the dough. After 30 minutes, take the parchment paper with the dough on it and place the entire thing in the preheated dutch oven. If your sourdough has a very thick base which is burnt or just very tough, there's a very simple fix for this. sourdough before baking. Use mineral water of a known hardness or test your tap water to be sure that your water has the appropriate hardness level for bread baking. If youre not comfortable handling high hydration dough like sourdough, Id advise that you drop the hydration of your dough slightly and see how you handle that. If you're still unsure a good thing to do is to let your bread cool in your oven. 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. 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. 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. If the bread dough feels correct but is the baked loaf is fragile and sticky inside, it is under-cooked. Bread SOS Episode 5: STICKY / TACKY Sourdough Crumb. Flour blended and autolysed for 2 hours@85F. Bread mix, all-purpose flour, self-raising flour or cake flour can produce undesirable results when making sourdough. Dough made with a young sourdough starter just won't develop. Gently turn the dough out onto a separate floured flat baking tray (not preheated). The exterior was perfectly brown. Make sure that you do your best to avoid this mistake by learning about sourdough fermentation timing and knowing when it's ready to move onto the next step. The only thing you might need to fix with your sourdough is its hydration. Sliced through the bread in an hour and it left sticky residue on the knife and the insides was tacky. Ensuring that you a strong gluten network is also essential in aleviating this issue. 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}. It may just be that you need to leave it in the oven longer with the lid off your. Under fermented dough will also cause you to have a pale crust that just doesn't brown up, even when you cook it longer. Bake in preheated, covered DO at 475F for 20 minutes, then uncovered at 450F for 20 minutes. 475 F covered, and 450 uncovered for 20 min seems too hot to me for only a 30% whole grain loaf: 300 g einkorn / (900 g + 90 g from levain) = 300 / 990 = 30.3%. Rice flour to stop it sticking to the counter. This is the most comprehensive and easily understandable explanation of sourdough I have read. Yes you read that right! Water that is too soft causes dough to be sticky and slack from the lack of minerals; reverse osmosis water and soft tap water can cause your dough to be too wet and sticky. The flour you choose can have a big bearing on how your dough feels throughout the whole sourdough process. Cutting it too soon stops your sourdough from completing the cooking process and results in a gummy, wet texture when you cut it. Im the face behind The Pantry Mama and I want to help you bake delicious sourdough bread, no matter what your schedule. This method of developing gluten should prove to be much cleaner and easier, but its up to you to figure out which gluten-development method you like the most.