September 29, 2015 - 3:06pm
Sticky dough
I found todays dough to be super sticky. To my hands, the bowl, parchment paper, the board, anything and everything. Like glue. This loaf shows the trouble I had shaping it due to it sticking to everything. I even floured it but that didn't help.
What did I do wrong?
btw, this is the pain au levain with two sourdough starters from Bread by J. Hamelman. It's my second time with this formula.
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:) Just want to get that out of the way first. :)
it were that. But I pre-measure everything and the salt is put in after the autolyse prior to turning on the mixer. I have tiny little cups for things like salt and yeast and a micro-scale that I use. My mixer makes a scraping noise when the salt is added so it's always memorable.
The dough was difficult to get out of the mixer bowl. I put it into an oiled dough bucket and it wanted to stick to that but it wasn't too bad. I have a wooden board I love but I may have to give it up an work on the counter. I tried to rest the bread on parchment paper but it stuck to that. The bread looks a bit clumsy but the crumb, taste and texture were great. Here's the crumb:
For higher hydration dough, using water on your hands instead of flour will make it stick less.
my dough always sticks to parchment baking paper, it only releases after it has baked a little while.
The baked loaf looks good, crispy top crust with perfect crust colour. Hard to see the bottom crust but I might be inclined to get more heat under the loaf as it's baking. That should give more upward rise in the middle bottom of the loaf. It might just be moving the loaf down a notch in the oven and/or raising the temperature slightly.
Try using wet hands instead of flour for control, a middle sized bowl of water with about 2 to 3 cm deep is good. Dip your fingers in and out and rub some of the water around on your palms. You want to be wet but not drippy. Clean up is a breeze!
Dip one hand at a time when it starts to stick to the dough. With a little playing around you will find the right feel to this technique. The first time I did it was awkward but I soon took to the water like a duck. :)
twice at 50 minute intervals according to the formula. When I did that I used wet hands and dipped them as necessary. This helped while folding. I also used the counter-top for these folds. It did stick to the counter but it was easy to use the bench knife to scrape it loose.
I'll watch some videos over again. I'll see what I can find on sticky doughs.
Thank you.
If your kneading board has never been oiled, you might want to do that with a food safe mineral oil. Clean it first, sand smooth and wipe away any dust before oiling. Be generous and give it time to soak in the oil. Then use the water kneading on the board with only a quick light misting of water.
Sometimes I will also put about a teaspoon of olive oil in one hand and rub them together and lightly oil a working spot on the counter top. Lightly mist before dumping out the dough. Wet fingers to stretch and fold. Scraper always nearby. I will also just let the dough rest (top side up) there on that spot with a see thru bowl over the top to prevent drying. When the dough starts to loose it's height and rise more sideways than up, I flip it over and give it another set of folds.
I did oil it when I first got it. It's one of those large boards that Breadtopia sells.
BTW, I came across some Northwest Sourdough videos and they have a really sticky dough. They use an oblong banneton heavily floured for shaping. I just shaped the dough (tried to) and let it rise. I have a couple of round bannetons but I prefer the longer loaf.
I'll bake up something this weekend and see how it goes.
Thank you for the help.