sourdough bread sticky after baking
The bassinage technique is used to help build the dough up to the desired high level of hydration in stages. The water almost wholly stops the sticking, so you dont have to worry about messing up your dough. Large mixing bowl Measuring cups and spoons Bread thermometer ( fancy or a budget one) Scoring lame Extra (nice to have): Kitchen scale Dough scraper and bowl scraper (yes, they are different) Cooling rack Baking stone (you don't need a dutch oven if you use this) Learn how to make bread and pizza with this awesome book. It is normal when working with dough of very high hydration for it to feel quite wet and sticky after it has finished mixing. If your dough is too dry, add a little moisture and mix it, adding just a little more water if necessary. 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. This makes it easier to handle. 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. 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. 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. Put the lid on and place into the hot oven. Being slow or having any hesitation can lead to the dough adhering to something it shouldnt, which would make your life a lot more difficult. So I added 390 flour, plus 45 more from the starter ( assuming your starter is 100% hydration) to get 435 flour. Sourdough made with bread flour can take up to 6 hours to cool properly. Levain hand-mixed, Rubaud style, for 5 minutes. It will look like cloudy water. In our previous attempts, we thought it was undercooked, hence the longer baking time for Charlie this time round. Your dough might be too sticky because you added too much water when making the initial mix, too. 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? Sometimes removing the bread out of the Dutch oven and baking it on the shelf for the last few minutes has a positive effect. Over time, youll become more confident and comfortable working with dough, so you can gradually increase the hydration and get better at handling it. You want to be quick when moving or shaping the dough to prevent sticking. Heres What To Do. Alternatively, you could add a little oil to the work surface and your hands. Second, mix the dough using a previously fed, active and bubbly sourdough starter, water and a mixture of bread and whole wheat flour. Mix together the flour, sourdough starter and 250ml/9fl oz water in a bowl. BE CAREFUL, IT'S HOT! Q: My dough is too slack and is not developing good strength. Gently pull the dough towards the edge. Next, add 8g fine sea salt. 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. Hot water strengthens the gluten in the flour. The stickiest of doughs are the ones that dont have a developed gluten network. Oiling our proofing basket will cause the oil to be absorbed and be ineffective in preventing the dough from sticking. 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. This is a one of the most frustrating sourdough bread problems to have. It may just be that you need to leave it in the oven longer with the lid off your. Simply combine your flour and water before any of the other ingredients, fully incorporating the flour. This is really only an issue once you've done bulk fermentation and you are trying to shape your dough. Sourdough made with bread flour can take up to 6 hours to cool properly. You/we need a hydration % of the levain too, to figure out how much flour and how much water is in the levain. 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. Add the dry mixture. If you are new to sourdough bread baking, I recommend reducing the hydration (ie. 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. Hi @Semolina, we waited only an hour before cutting into it, hasty on our part! . If youre using a lot of wholewheat, youre going to be left with a very sticky dough, especially if its paired with high hydration. This is the dry mixture. Oiling works just as well as dusting to create a non-stick surface which prevents your sticky dough from sticking and tearing. Pate Fermentee VS Poolish VS Biga VS Sourdough Starter. You can try to prevent the problem by being more careful when proofing the yeast. Shape into batards. In this case, extra flour wont save it. Just dont freeze it. 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. 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. Thanks so much. Ensure that your dough is well fermented prior to shaping. If your kitchen is too warm, the dough can become a sloppy, wet mess. High hydration can be anything with 70% water content or higher. If baking in a pre-heated oven, turn on the oven to at least 200C/392F, once heated, add two big glasses of water to a dish on the bottom shelf Bake in a preheated 425F oven for about 45 minutes, until bread tests done. If you are working with regular dough, ready How to Fix Super Sticky Dough. This will give the sourdough a chance to find new pockets of sugars and starches to consume. Bread mix, all-purpose flour, self-raising flour or cake flour can produce undesirable results when making sourdough. Im the face behind The Pantry Mama and I want to help you bake delicious sourdough bread, no matter what your schedule. 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. Once you get the hang of the sourdough process and the various phases, then start introducing whole grain flours into the mix. The easiest thing you can do to handle your sticky sourdough is to simply make it less sticky by cutting back on the water. Thank you in advance! Skin tension during shaping is developed when one side of the dough sticks lightly on the work surface while the hands pulls the dough inwards from the opposite side, stretching the surface of the dough taut. What Basic Methods Are Used To Make Quick Breads? It's possible that the dough is rising too much during the cold retard which will also cause this issue. It can be leathery rather than crispy. This allows them to get an understanding of how to handle basic dough before moving onto something more tricky. When working with high hydration level dough, the dough gets very close to the point of 100% saturation from the high quantity of water, and it is difficult to get any more water to be incorporated into the dough. Cover and let the dough double in size, about 12 to 16 hours. 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. 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. This will ensure that the bread is cooked all the way through. Well, sourdough is a stickier, wetter dough than regular yeasted bread. 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. Makes 1 x 800-g/1-lbs. 25 minute proof at room temperature. Maybe 80% final hydration if your levain is more "liquid" than 100% Hyd. Mix dry ingredients together. PROBLEM - My sourdough feels moist or wet inside, even though it's well fermented. One fold consists of the folding of all four sides of the dough into its centre. Then, I use my wet hands to pick up a side of the dough, stretch it up, and fold it over. 24.5- 28C) overnight (12-14 hours). Rest for 30 minutes @76F. Also, if you find the outside is brown and the inside is moist, that normally indicates you should lower the baking temp. At first, the dough will be very sticky, but the gluten will develop more and more after each stretch and fold. To achieve a 75% hydration I will attempt again with the following: 390g of flour mix to 282g of water, adding on 90g of starter (at 100% hydration as I always to a 1:1 flour water ratio feed). If your dough is dry, it is because you added too much flour. One should be sticky, and one should be dusted with flour. 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. A. 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}. You can still bake it and eat it, but it will be a solid mass, not the light, airy sourdough you were expecting. Sourdough bread problems are often multi faceted and you will find that they are not always caused by one issue. 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. Allowing your sourdough starter to mature (it needs AT LEAST 14 days to be viable and often several months before it's mature). April 30, 2020. If the dough breaks before you can pull it so thin that you can see the light, resume kneading. After sourdough fermentation, the lactic acid bacteria produce acetaldehyde. no one but me would notice or care). This is when you let the dough rest after it is mixed but before you start to knead it. Then, introduce the remaining water in stages and mix only until the water is incorporated into the dough. Extending bulk fermentation will help to fix this problem. Cut one loaf of sourdough bread into 1" cubes. The only thing you might need to fix with your sourdough is its hydration. Take the temp before cutting into it. If you're using all purpose flour, it can be a good idea to add some vital wheat gluten to the mix. One of the best might just be whipping up a batch of sourdough crackers with just a cup of your discarded starter, a cup of flour, a dash of salt, and about a quarter cup of butter. CAUSE - a tight and or uneven crumb is generally caused by under fermentation, but can also be due to not having a mature or active starter. 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. The loaf will also feel light in your hand, rather than heavy. Cover the bowl and set aside for 30-60 minutes. 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. PROBLEM - You may have baked a loaf of sourdough which appears to have large tunnels of air or just one big hole surrounded by a tighter or dense crumb. Or you need to give the sourdough starter more salt.Another root cause may be the recipe relative to your environment. The difference between wet dough being successful and wet dough being a big sloppy mess is dough strength. A good example of a low protein flour is general wholewheat flour. The next day, preheat the oven to 500 degrees for 60 minutes. Over time, youll learn new techniques and better ways of handling sticky dough and youll find it much easier to handle. - lower hydration in the total dough formula (already noted above). More often than not a thick crust developing on the base is caused by cooking your bread in a Dutch Oven. 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. You ideally want to achieve a window pane. Place in bannetons. How Do You Know When Your Sourdough Starter Is Ready To Bake With? This arguably makes the dough easier to work with. The Number #1 Reason your sourdough bread might be flat is using the wrong flour. Generally, a good hydration starting point is 75% or so when working with bread flour, 80% or so with whole wheat. Gluten is the foundation for good bread, so you wont get very far if its not developed. Now it is the sourdough starter or its use that is suspect. The strength of your dough should build as you perform stretches and folds. So if you're over-shooting the original formula's hydration due to miscalculattion, that would be the first thing to correct. Wet hands are a good idea when handling dough, however you should be able to shape your dough with dry hands very easily. Add the sugar and salt. If the bread dough feels correct but is the baked loaf is fragile and sticky inside, it is under-cooked. Unfortunately, this results in tougher bread. This helps keep the dough from sticking. CAUSE - Spreading can be caused by a few factors including under fermented or over fermented dough as well as poor shaping technique. Sometimes the issue is the kneading technique. 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. Acetaldehyde is a known stomach irritant and causes watery diarrhea. High temperatures can cause premature over fermentation, which will result in wet, sticky sourdough. How long did you wait before slicing the loaf in the photo? To solve this problem, try taking the bread maker out of equation by baking in an oven. After 30 minutes, take the parchment paper with the dough on it and place the entire thing in the preheated dutch oven. Combine the starter, water, rye flour and 1 cup of the bread flour. If using a stand mixer, change to the dough hook. Then remove lid and continue to bake for another 20-25 minutes. If you see anything inappropriate on the site or have any questions, contact me at floydm at thefreshloaf dot com. 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. It's really important to develop the gluten in your sourdough to ensure you don't end up with a wet and sticky mess. Then, spoon bread flour and whole wheat flour into the bowl. Second, most bakers wait more than 1 hour before cutting into the bread. 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. Step 4: Bake. For example a gummy crumb can be caused by a starter that's too young and or under fermented dough. A strong, mature sourdough starter will reward you with amazing sourdough at your next bake. 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. If you can see the light through the dough, youre done the kneading. If the sourdough is unworkable at the very start, this obviously isnt because the oven temperature isnt set right for your elevation. 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 Flour issues. Add the honey or maple syrup, pumpkin pure, pumpkin spice and salt. An under fermented sourdough loaf will have a shiny, pale crust that lacks crunch. Learn how to make bread and pizza with this awesome book. 1. Once you get it all set to go try this delicious Sourdough Focaccia recipe yum! 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. Place the bread pieces on a parchment lined baking sheet in a single layer. BAKE YOUR SOURDOUGH Preheat your oven to 450F (230C) half an hour before the end of proving. Once you get comfortable, you can gradually increase the water content of your dough and see how you manage it. It should be room temperature. If you find that your sourdough sticks to most things, take a look at my guide on how to stop sourdough sticking to everything. This step hydrates the flours and helps with gluten development and dough structure. Turn out on to a surface and knead for 10 minutes or until the 'windowpane effect' is . The crumb is open and definitely "finished" - the bread can be compressed and springs right back. 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. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Mix until no dry patches remain. It will stay very wet and sticky, rather than strengthen with each stretch and fold. It's not until all of this steam has escaped that your bread actually finishes cooking. 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'. 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. 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. 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. Step 1 - My starter is at 125% hydration. PROBLEM - Gummy sourdough (dense, moist crumb) is the most common sourdough bread problems facing home bakers. 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. Work on your shaping techniques. After every fold, you will notice a significant improvement in dough strength and significant reduction in the wetness and stickiness of the dough. 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. No matter how long you leave it to ferment, the yeast and bacteria won't actually grow or change. . 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. 25 minute proof at room temperature. 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. 8 oz active sourdough starter, 12 oz warm water, 5 oz rye flour, 12 oz bread flour. We can use the mixing time below as a sanity check to determine if we have indeed under mixed or over mixed our dough; if you fall way out from the range in the table, increase or decrease mixing time to stay within these guidelines. If you wet or oil the work surface, the dough will just glide over the work surface and not able to be pulled taut during shaping. 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. If the recipe is overly generous with the sourdough starter fermentation time, you end up adding too much-trapped air to the recipe and get a sticker dough. When mixing, hold back a portion of the intended total water quantity called for in the formulation. Autolyze reduces the wetness and stickiness of the dough and makes mixing and handling of the dough much easier. First, good effort, but where did you get the recipe from? Bake the Bread. Autolyse for an hour before adding the starter (rest 30m) and salt (rest 15m) all by hand using the folding and pinching method. I ran your numbers, and unless my math is wrong, your are above 90% hydration, which is extremely high. Cover and bake for 30 minutes. SOLUTION - Allow your bread to cool for AT LEAST 90 minutes (much longer for rye bread). Instructions. The flour will absorb water and become incorporated during the stretches and folds. Steaming. If you cant shape it, the sourdough is too sticky. Carefully make it round again pushing the seams underneath. Thanks for the suggestions about leaving the bread to cool longer. 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. It will give you a better understanding of what you can do when it comes to handling your dough at different stages. 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. 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. Remove the pot from the oven using pot holders (please be very careful ). The flour you choose can have a big bearing on how your dough feels throughout the whole sourdough process. If your sourdough has a very thick base which is burnt or just very tough, there's a very simple fix for this. In a separate smaller bowl, add 220 grams of warm water. Wet, sticky dough can be super messy - and preventing mess in the kitchen is always a good thing! And sometimes the issue is the recipe. 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). 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. 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. SOLUTION - extend your bulk fermentation to enable the yeast in your dough to release some of their energy before hitting the oven. But what if your dough is really wet and sticky and you just can't do anything with it? 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. Yeasted Pre-ferment (Poolish & Biga) VS Sponge VS Dough. We will hold on to the knife the next time and be sure to wait longer. Your email address will not be published. If adjusting the bake times is something you want to explore, I'd suggest trying 450 covered for 25 minutes, then 400 uncovered for 25-30 minutes. Your sourdough starter is not ready to bake with yet and needs some time to mature or you need to take steps to strengthen it. Maybe try leaving it a bit longer? What to do: This is a heavily over proofed dough. 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. It could be using the slap and fold, stretch and fold, rubaud kneading, or whatever youd like. This makes it easier to handle. 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%. 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. The good news is, there's always a way to fix your sourdough bread problems for your next bake! Dont forget about your dough or leave it in a warm area for too long or youll end up regretting it. Instructions. A great way to start the gluten development is to simply begin with an autolyse (mixing just the flour and water and letting it sit for one hour or more). Stir together until the starter is dissolved and the water looks cloudy. CAUSE - There are a few reasons your crust is too pale. 1 our is defently to short. You might think it seems dry when you first mix it and add extra water. If you're looking for troubleshooting your sourdough starter - you'll find a list of the most FAQ here. Place a lidded pot (Dutch Oven) in the oven to preheat. Place the lid on and bake for 30 minutes. All Purpose flour is ok, however it generally doesn't have the protein necessary to develop a strong gluten network. It is possible to make 100% hydration (or even higher) so there's really no such thing as too wet. Often the bottom of your sourdough is burning. Rice flour to stop it sticking to the counter. You can try to fix things like high humidity in your house or waiting until the kitchen has warmed to room temperature before getting to work. Thanks guys!!! if(typeof ez_ad_units != 'undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[300,250],'crustylabs_com-leader-1','ezslot_6',124,'0','0'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-crustylabs_com-leader-1-0');The table below is extracted from Jeffrey Hammelmans Bread Book that shows the relative mixing time between different mixers and hand mixing to develop the same dough to the same strength. 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. I bake at 525F, sometimes 550. 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. bread sticky after baking. If you're using a young sourdough starter, there's always a chance that it's just not quite ready to bake with and will cause your dough to be too wet and sticky. It's a good thing for bread dough, but it also means that it makes the mess you're attempting to clean up extra sticky and impossible to clean up . Over-proofed Sourdough Bread When sourdough bread is given too long of a rise time it will result in bread that is over-proofed. When water is excessively soft, the lack of minerals results in a sticky andslack dough. . Thank you for the pointers, will be reducing the temperature to allow a longer bake the next round! 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!!! Add of the water and dissolve or break up the sourdough with your hands. 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. STEP THREE: Stir down the starter, then mix 1/3 cup of sourdough starter (90 grams) with water (385 grams) using a fork. If your dough does not develop a sufficient gluten network, it will be wet, sticky and have no structure. I hope this guide helps you to troubleshoot your sourdough bread problems and ultimately bake a better loaf! This is because of the moisture that remains in your sourdough. If the dough is too sticky at this point, add a little flour and knead it in. While the dough is proofing, preheat your oven to 230 C (450 F) and place your Dutch oven inside to preheat as well. Matching my work schedule. If you're still unsure a good thing to do is to let your bread cool in your oven. When youve kneaded the bread dough enough, stretch it while looking at a light source. Instead of kneading your dough manually for 8-10 minutes, youd be better off using a series of stretch and folds to develop gluten. 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.