I hope this guide helps you to troubleshoot your sourdough bread problems and ultimately bake a better loaf! When the percentage of damaged starch particles in flour exceeds 10%, your dough will become wetter and stickier over time. Ensuring that you a strong gluten network is also essential in aleviating this issue. Mix until dough comes away from the sides of the bowl . If the dough breaks before you can pull it so thin that you can see the light, resume kneading. CAUSE - There are a few reasons your crust is too pale. A Guide to Troubleshooting Sourdough Bread - The Pantry Mama This is mainly because sourdough is higher hydration, meaning it contains more water. water) slightly (eg. All Purpose flour is ok, however it generally doesn't have the protein necessary to develop a strong gluten network. 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. It will stay very wet and sticky, rather than strengthen with each stretch and fold. Insufficient gluten development is what makes the dough so sticky, so if youre using a low protein flour (protein in flour creates gluten), it wont be able to create as much gluten in the dough and it will, therefore, be stickier. This isn't the worst that could happen :), but I would really like to understand why the stickiness, and how to get rid of it. Some Student Reviews: by Pam H - Outstanding. When water is excessively soft, the lack of minerals results in a sticky andslack dough. Salthand-mixed, Rubaud style, for 5 minutes. Why Is My Bread Still Sticky After Baking And Other FAQs Now it is the sourdough starter or its use that is suspect. Then the dough is less likely to stick to them. Sourdough made with bread flour can take up to 6 hours to cool properly. It is possible to make 100% hydration (or even higher) so there's really no such thing as too wet. Bake in a Dutch Oven. How Do You Fix Gooey Bread? Mix together the flour, sourdough starter and 250ml/9fl oz water in a bowl. Makes 1 x 800-g/1-lbs. Your email address will not be published. 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. Making good sourdough bread is something that takes plenty of practice, but you can learn how to handle it fairly quickly. Required fields are marked *. That's one of four for the set. 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. A new bake this morning. 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. Place a long piece of parchment paper over the bowl with the dough. Pour the hot water from the kettle into the tray to create steam and shut the door. As the flour is better hydrated, more water is absorbed by the dough, and less water is coating the doughs surface which makes the dough feels less wet and sticky. Please take that into account. 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. Dough that splits in this way is almost always under fermented. Would really appreciate some pointers, thank you in advance!! Some recipes are simply wetter and stickier than others. 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. Sourdough bread offers a number of benefits. This site is powered by Drupal. 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. 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. You can make a loaf of perfectly good sourdough bread at around 65% hydration if you want to. But you could also use other methods such as kneading or coil folds. 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. 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. Extend your bulk fermentation time. 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. 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. Here are some options for working with wet, sticky over fermented sourdough. The problem is that the crumb is very tacky to the touch and abit sticky on the knife. Bread doesn't rise when baked. You can still bake it and eat it, but it will be a solid mass, not the light, airy sourdough you were expecting. Overnight Sourdough Bread - The Pantry Mama When youve kneaded the bread dough enough, stretch it while looking at a light source. You just get more un-fermented dough that wont stand up. Its like an extension to your hand and can be used to improve your technique with the dough. If the bread dough feels correct but is the baked loaf is fragile and sticky inside, it is under-cooked. Once the dough doesn't tear when you stretch it between your fingers, you're ok to set it aside for bulk fermentation. 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. The flour will absorb water and become incorporated during the stretches and folds. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. 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. There are lots of things that can go wrong when baking sourdough bread. The crumb is open and definitely "finished" - the bread can be compressed and springs right back. Mix, and add some spices, dried herbs, or even some cheese powder. The dough has already fermented and the flour you add won't be incorporated well. These need to be done without hesitation. In this case, extra flour wont save it. We will hold back from slicing it too early the next time!! However, sourdough hydration levels can be pushed past 100% with the right technique which we will discuss in the subheading below. 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. Let the integrated flour-and-water mass sit for up to an hour. If youre using a lot of wholewheat, youre going to be left with a very sticky dough, especially if its paired with high hydration. 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. Boil the kettle too. CAUSE - Logically, the cause of this is not baking your bread for long enough. Once you get the hang of the sourdough process and the various phases, then start introducing whole grain flours into the mix. @halfbakedharvest.com Cheaters No Knead Dutch Oven Sourdough 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. 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. April 30, 2020. Your colon naturally contains healthy probiotic bacteria called Bifidobacteria and Lactobacilli. Sourdough made with bread flour can take up to 6 hours to cool properly. Set aside. Instead of kneading your dough manually for 8-10 minutes, youd be better off using a series of stretch and folds to develop gluten. How Do You Know When Your Sourdough Starter Is Ready To Bake With? 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. How to Preshape Bread Dough | The Perfect Loaf 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. Then, introduce the remaining water in stages and mix only until the water is incorporated into the dough. Steps: Autolyse for an hour before adding the starter (rest 30m) and salt (rest 15m) all by hand using the folding and pinching method. Acetaldehyde is a known stomach irritant and causes watery diarrhea. First, good effort, but where did you get the recipe from? Some things to have on hand to work with really wet dough are: So how do you fix wet and sticky sourdough? Generally, flat loaves will still taste ok, they just lack that beautiful airiness we want to see in our sourdough. Bread mix, all-purpose flour, self-raising flour or cake flour can produce undesirable results when making sourdough. This is called having over-proofed bread. Remove the lid and bake for another 10 minutes to get a brown crust. Heres What To Do. . If your dough is too dry, add a little moisture and mix it, adding just a little more water if necessary. Without these it will be sloppy and hard to handle. When it comes to building the gluten, everyone has a different preference in how to do it. PROBLEM - Gummy sourdough (dense, moist crumb) is the most common sourdough bread problems facing home bakers. 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. 1 our is defently to short. If your bread contains rye, it can take up to 24 hours! Sticky Sourdough after baking | The Fresh Loaf Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. However, if you are just about to shape your dough, adding flour is not an option. 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. 480F is not as hot as you could bake. Same with the salt %, it is computed on total flour. One of the most obvious causes of wet dough is using too much water in the dough. Often the bottom of your sourdough is burning. Rice flour to stop it sticking to the counter. An under fermented sourdough loaf will have a shiny, pale crust that lacks crunch. You'll know you have sufficient gluten development by performing the window pane test on your dough.