Dont forget about your dough or leave it in a warm area for too long or youll end up regretting it. There are lots of things that can go wrong when baking sourdough bread. Don't close the oven door or the crust will become soft and wrinkly. Add of the water and dissolve or break up the sourdough with your hands. Some Student Reviews: by Pam H - Outstanding. Then the dough is less likely to stick to them. . Avoid using cake or pastry flour for dusting as it contains a higher starch content and tends to lump up more than bread, rice or semolina flour. . If your kitchen is too warm, the dough can become a sloppy, wet mess. How Long Does Cookie Dough Last in the Fridge. So that should work out to (282+45)/(390+45)=75%. It's not until all of this steam has escaped that your bread actually finishes cooking. 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. In a large bowl, combine 350 g of water with the sourdough starter, stir to dissolve the starter. If you are doing decorative scoring, it's still advisable to have one "utility" score and then your more shallow, decorative scoring. Cutting it too soon stops your sourdough from completing the cooking process and results in a gummy, wet texture when you cut it. To solve this problem, try taking the bread maker out of equation by baking in an oven. If your dough does not develop a sufficient gluten network, it will be wet, sticky and have no structure. Bake in preheated, covered DO at 475F for 20 minutes, then uncovered at 450F for 20 minutes. CAUSE - There are a few reasons your crust is too pale. 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. Sourdough does not stop cooking when you take it out of the oven. It is often easier to make. 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. CAUSE - cutting into your bread too soon! 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. This makes it easier to handle. We know that flour is essential, but you need to make sure that youre using it correctly for the best results. 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. How Do You Know When Your Sourdough Starter Is Ready To Bake With?. 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. Stir together until the starter is dissolved and the water looks cloudy. It will look like cloudy water. Step 1: feed the sourdough starter About 12 hours before you plan to mix the dough, to a clean jar add; 10 grams unfed starter 25 grams water 25 grams flour Cover the jar loosely and allow it to rest and room temperature. 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. Gently pull the dough towards the edge. From a gummy crumb to a lack of rise and everything in between. Mix everything together. In this case, extra flour wont save it. Well, sourdough is a stickier, wetter dough than regular yeasted bread. Some people add too much water to compensate. . 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. Autolyse vs Fermentolyse: Which One Should You Use? How to handle sticky, wet . As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Under mixing and over mixing results in insufficient gluten strands to trap water inside the dough, causing the dough to be wet and sticky. On the other hand, rye sourdough is a bread that starts with sourdough starter instead of yeast but has at least some rye flour. Always shape your loaf on a piece of non-stick, silicone paper, then when it's proved, stick it straight onto the hot stone and reduce the temperature of the oven down to around 180-200C. Let your sourdough bread come to room temperature before you cut into it. 16 hour cold (38F) retard, in closed plastic bags. (Top Reasons). Sourdough Hydration Explained (What, Why, How & When) Wholemeal Sourdough Recipe - The Sourdough School One reason why people add too much flour and mix it in is to try to get the dough more manageable. Turn out to lightly floured counter, divide into 2, preshape. 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. The dough has already fermented and the flour you add won't be incorporated well. PROBLEM - My sourdough feels moist or wet inside, even though it's well fermented. Ensure that you have scored enough - you need one good score to ensure that your dough expands. STEP THREE: Stir down the starter, then mix 1/3 cup of sourdough starter (90 grams) with water (385 grams) using a fork. What has gone wrong to cause this issue? It's really important to develop the gluten in your sourdough to ensure you don't end up with a wet and sticky mess. This arguably makes the dough easier to work with. BAKE YOUR SOURDOUGH Preheat your oven to 450F (230C) half an hour before the end of proving. 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. The stickiest of doughs are the ones that dont have a developed gluten network. Below, Ive listed the main reasons your sourdough is sticky, so have a look through and see how they might be affecting your dough. If you want to you can spritz your dough with extra water before you put the lid on. Place in bannetons. Sticky Sourdough after baking | The Fresh Loaf It will be sticky. If you're not sure about some of the terms used in this article, you might find this sourdough glossary helpful. American flour has a damaged starch percentage of roughly 8-9% while European flour has a lower damaged starch percentage at about 7%. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. One set of strong Stretch & Folds. More noticeable sour taste, possibly unpleasant. If the sourdough is unworkable at the very start, this obviously isnt because the oven temperature isnt set right for your elevation. Having a strong gluten network means that the carbon dioxide produced by the yeast will be evenly distributed. Wet and sticky dough is caused by a few different issues. Excess flour at shaping can mean that your dough does not seal back onto itself, causing tunnels of air to form when baking. This is when you let the dough rest after it is mixed but before you start to knead it. side question: Does the 675 g of water, and 75% hydration include what's in the levain? Meanwhile chop the cranberries. 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. This is particular difficult if you're working in humid conditions. Once you get comfortable, you can gradually increase the water content of your dough and see how you manage it. Stretch dough into rough 10"x17" rectangle, laminate and move to clean vessel for bulk. Required fields are marked *. 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. If you find your dough to be relatively dry after mixing, but gets wetter and stickier over time, it means that the flour you are using contains a very high percentage of damaged starch particles; try changing to a different flour brand and use European flour instead of American flour. Thank you for the pointers, will be reducing the temperature to allow a longer bake the next round! Bread mix, all-purpose flour, self-raising flour or cake flour can produce undesirable results when making sourdough. During shaping, a light dusting of flour is what you need to prevent the sourdough from sticking to your kitchen counter. 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. strengthening and maturing your sourdough starter. Ensure that your dough is well fermented prior to shaping. So I suspect a miscalculation, and you might actually be doing 80% final hydration. No More Dense Sourdough - A Sourdough Guide - Home Grown Happiness Add the all purpose/bread flour and whole wheat/spelt flour. Place in bannetons. The speed of your actions when handling your sourdough makes all the difference. Temperature is one of the most important factors when making sourdough. I hardly ever bake with BF or AP, but I think you might want to try something in the range of 75% to start. 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. However, sourdough hydration levels can be pushed past 100% with the right technique which we will discuss in the subheading below. Remove the lid and bake for another 10 minutes to get a brown crust. Cover with plastic wrap and keep covered in a warmish place in your kitchen at around 77F (24C) for 1 hour. The science of making sourdough bread Think about how professional bakers look when handling their dough. Sourdough that has hydration levels of more than 72% tends to be sticky and tears apart easily when it is handled. I tried your suggestions, kinda - 2 large (880g) loaves baked covered at 465F for 25 minutes, then uncovered at 425 for 25 minutes. Be sure you open with an autolyse, a step far easier than it sounds. Add a little flour and knead it a few times to make it more manageable. 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. A Basic Sourdough Boule Recipe - The Sourdough School First, it's helpful to have a small bowl of water nearby to dip your hands into before touching your dough. Thanks!! While sourdough is a wetter, stickier dough than what you may be used to, it should still be able to be stretched, folded and shaped without too many issues. 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. Once the dough doesn't tear when you stretch it between your fingers, you're ok to set it aside for bulk fermentation. Now it is the sourdough starter or its use that is suspect. Your email address will not be published. Score the bread on top with any design you like. If the bread dough feels correct but is the baked loaf is fragile and sticky inside, it is under-cooked. 480F is not as hot as you could bake. CAUSE - Spreading can be caused by a few factors including under fermented or over fermented dough as well as poor shaping technique. If the actual final hydration does meet your goal, or whatever formula/recipe you're working from, then the next suggestion for something to tweak would be bake temps and times. Make the dough. Place a long piece of parchment paper over the bowl with the dough. Young sourdough starter lacks the established yeast colonies necessary to raise bread. A lack of oven spring could be due to a shaping issue, under fermentation or poor gluten development - but more often than not it's a combination of a few things. It may just be that you need to leave it in the oven longer with the lid off your. no one but me would notice or care). Use a 65% water content and you should be able to handle the dough and shape it with little to no problem at all. If youre struggling with high hydration dough, then you should absolutely lower the hydration and see if you get better results. I love adding cornmeal, both for flavor and texture, into my bread doughs: You might get a drier dough, but you wont get the same rise in the dough and a solid crust that you were expecting. It is normal when working with dough of very high hydration for it to feel quite wet and sticky after it has finished mixing. 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%. The bassinage technique is used to help build the dough up to the desired high level of hydration in stages. However, it's much better to find out the cause of the problem so you can fix it and prevent it from happening again. Under fermentation causes a pale crust because it doesn't enable caramelisation of the sugars in the dough. Undigested sourdough bread can ferment byproducts in your gut when it reaches your colon. Simple Sourdough Bread {Using Starter!} - i am baker Rest uncovered for 25 minutes. Sourdough: Hard crust, sticky tacky insides after baked! Your dough should be split into two sides. 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. Be confident in your actions. Thank you for visiting! After every fold, you will notice a significant improvement in dough strength and significant reduction in the wetness and stickiness of the dough. Basic sourdough bread | Sourdough Recipe | BakeClub #1 Sourdough Bread Baking 101 - The Baking Network Get a piece of baking paper cut to about the size of your dough ball and plop the dough, seam side down, onto the baking paper. This is the sourdough baking course you need if you are just starting out in sourdough bread baking. The recipe I followed was from "a beautiful plate". The higher hydration the dough, the stickier its going to be. Sticky and wet crumb means the crumb is too wet; there is too much water in the finished product. Over-proofed Sourdough Bread When sourdough bread is given too long of a rise time it will result in bread that is over-proofed. Dutch Oven Sourdough Bread | EmilyFabulous Pumpkin Sourdough Bread - Supergolden Bakes Sourdough bread offers a number of benefits. Over time, youll become more confident and comfortable working with dough, so you can gradually increase the hydration and get better at handling it. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. If you're having trouble understanding the timing of bulk fermentation, I've written an easy to follow guide. 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. In the first few minutes of the bake, the surface of the bread must be kept moist and pliable. 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). Then, I use my wet hands to pick up a side of the dough, stretch it up, and fold it over. Rice flour to stop it sticking to the counter. The gluten structure has become weak and is unable to hold up. When to Cut Sourdough Bread to get Beautiful Even Slices It is possible to make 100% hydration (or even higher) so there's really no such thing as too wet. Let the integrated flour-and-water mass sit for up to an hour. Sourdough bread problems are often multi faceted and you will find that they are not always caused by one issue. 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. However, you should avoid using a mixer to do this, because it can overheat the dough and break down the gluten strands. A starter is a collection of yeast and bacteria that feed on flour. Hi, I'm Kate! 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. Mix with the paddle on low speed until it forms a thick batter. This can result in your dough feeling wetter and stickier than normal. 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. Sourdough can be a little tricky as it can take time for the flour to absorb the water during the autolyse process. 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. 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. I hope this guide helps you to troubleshoot your sourdough bread problems and ultimately bake a better loaf! Troubleshooting Sourdough Bread - Baked The bacteria produce both lactic acid and acetic acid. Modified: Dec 27, 2022 by The Pantry Mama This post may contain affiliate links. Gluten development is strengthened by adding salt to your dough, so don't forget to do this! Instead, stretch and fold it. The Fresh Loaf is not responsible for community member content. This will result in a more. Russian Sourdough Dark Rye Bread Recipe Sourdough Bread Scoring and Slashing Sourdough Bread Baking | Facebook The dough that is autolysed also contains more gluten strands which is able to trap more water inside the dough. Gummy Bread- How did Everything Go Wrong and How to Fix It Content posted by community members is their own. 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. Artisan Sourdough Bread Recipe - A Beautiful Plate In our previous attempts, we thought it was undercooked, hence the longer baking time for Charlie this time round. Youre right, the actual hydration is around 77%, and I understood that from the start. And dont let it sit in the fridge so long that it dries out. I ran your numbers, and unless my math is wrong, your are above 90% hydration, which is extremely high. Bread SOS Episode 5: STICKY / TACKY Sourdough Crumb - Bake with Jack A strong, mature sourdough starter will reward you with amazing sourdough at your next bake. But what if your dough is really wet and sticky and you just can't do anything with it? Thanks. It will stay very wet and sticky, rather than strengthen with each stretch and fold. 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. Sourdough does not stop cooking when you take it out of the oven. 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. This could be a result of problems with a thermostat, heating element, or possibly the timer. By using the tips below, youll be able to learn how to handle your dough without it sticking to you, so you can actually manage it and make great sourdough bread. Why Is My Sourdough Too Sticky? If it sticks at this stage, youll have a much more difficult time and it could throw of the results of your bread. Help! My Sourdough is Too Wet and Sticky - Crusty Labs The water almost wholly stops the sticking, so you dont have to worry about messing up your dough. 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. The sticky side should only touch the dough. Old bread becomes sticky - Seasoned Advice Would really appreciate some pointers, thank you in advance!! 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. Oiling our proofing basket will cause the oil to be absorbed and be ineffective in preventing the dough from sticking. Youll find that the dough sticks much less and youll have a better time shaping it. Why Is My Sourdough Too Sticky? Here's What To Do Some recipes are simply wetter and stickier than others. As Ive already mentioned, gluten is essential to prevent too much sticking. 16 hour cold (38F) retard, in closed plastic bags. For example a gummy crumb can be caused by a starter that's too young and or under fermented dough. 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. Placing a baking tray underneath your Dutch Oven should do the trick. A tightly shaped dough that has been stitched when placed in the banneton will hold together better when tipped out for baking. Can you just add more flour to your sourdough? 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. 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. Second, mix the dough using a previously fed, active and bubbly sourdough starter, water and a mixture of bread and whole wheat flour.