November 4, 2015 - 4:55pm
High hydrations dough sticking to proofing basket...
Does anyone have any tips for a long rise in a round proofing basket (banneton) using high hydration 100% whole wheat doughs (high hydration meaning 80-90%)
If I do a short rise- say 2 1/2 hours, and use LOTS of flour, it seems okay, but go beyond that and the dough seems to start sticking. Last night I did 90% hydration whole wheat baguettes and got sticking for the first time on a well floured and used a half dozen time linen couch...
I'm doing sourdough and 100% whole wheat (ground fine at home on my MockMill).
Any tips?
Thanks.
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First, congrats on going 100% home ground sourdough whole wheat, not many of us follow that path. Since you have a mock mill, get some rice, grind that fine, and use that to dust your banneton. The rice flour will not stick to the basket anywhere near as much as wheat flour.
Do you think it matters if it is brown or white (I only have brown on hand) and I notice the flour I'm grinding on the Mockmill isn't as fine as what is in the store- rice flour I've bought before is very fine. Does that matter?
Maybe I will just pick some rice flour up next time at the store :)
Wouldn't have thought of rice flour! Thanks.
I've tried making sourdough cultures two or three times in years past in Southern California, and have never been happy with my cultures, but back then, who knows, it could have been old flour I used as a starter... I'm now in the San Francisco Bay area, found locally grown wheat at my farmer's market, and used that fresh flour for my starter culture- wow, got a very active culture after just a few days! Even 100% levain, whole wheat loaves are rising great, not bricks like I've experienced in the past... never thought this possible... Still experimenting with hydration levels, sifting some bran out, etc, some loaves work better than others... Got the mill because the wheat berries are farmer's market cost less than the ground flour...
Sheep1, I don't think it matters whether it is brown or white rice, I think I have used some of each. Glad to see your sourdough culture is doing well, and yes it can depend on where you are.
I am still trying to stay 100% and not sifting anything out - most of my problems now are either underproofing or overproofing, but when I get it right, I get a good rise.
A 50/50 blend (by weight) of bread flour and rice flour makes all the difference. I used to have sticking issues, but that blend for dusting my proofing baskets immediately resolved them.
Rice comes in two major categories - glutinous and non-glutinous. Somewhat a misnomer as rice contains no Glutin but Amylopectin which gives the cooked rice its "sticky" qualities. When buying rice flour make sure it is the non-glutinous type. I think it's Peter Reinhardt that calls rice flour his "little ball bearings".
Wild-Yeast
Try using a combination of rice flour and bran. I have a KoMo Fidibus and use a mixture of brown rice flour ground with that and bran that is sifted from fresh ground wheat using a 30 mesh sieve which usually gives about a 95% extraction so that it is mostly the big bits of bran. Can't give exact proportions because it is not measured. I've tried the individual things but the combination seems to work best.
It is frustrating to have a boule that you've nurtured through all the stages deformed by sticking but the bread still turns out tasting good.
Stu
We use rice flour, works like a charm :)