The Fresh Loaf

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Trouble shoot my dough please

danjoshward's picture
danjoshward

Trouble shoot my dough please

anyone have an idea what’s gone wrong here. It’s a sourdough 70% hydration. Bulk ferment for 4 hours. 1 fold every half hour. Tried and tested recipe that usually work...

tgrayson's picture
tgrayson

Are you concerned about the lack of structure or evidence of yeast activity?

The times I've experienced when the dough structure didn't develop as it should it's been due to a measurement error. What's happened more than once is that I weigh the water, but accidentally add the water from a different cup. If your dough ended up wetter than you expected, you may need a lot more S&Fs.

danjoshward's picture
danjoshward

Dough structure really is the concern. There was no strength in the dough at all. It couldn’t hold any shape. Or form a crust. It had been incorporating air throughout the bulk ferment. Could be an over proofing issue? 

tgrayson's picture
tgrayson

Not in four hours. I'd still guess on mismeasurement of either the flour or water. Every time you folded, you probably should have done as many as necessary for it to hold its shape.

hreik's picture
hreik

How many builds did you do? Recipe? Etc.  More detail will help us. 

 

Lechem's picture
Lechem (not verified)

Agree with Hester. More info is needed. 

Ford's picture
Ford

Is your water too soft?  Try food grade gypsum (calcium sulfate) at 0.03% (baker's percentage).

Ford

HansB's picture
HansB

If it's a tried and true recipe for you I'd look at what mistakes you may have made this time. I'd dump it and try again if I had a known formula go wrong...

danjoshward's picture
danjoshward

70% hydration, 20% levain, the flour is a 50/50 mix of t55 and organic white bread flour. Autolayse for 30 min. Then add salt. Combine in a mixer with dough hook for 2/3 mins. Then bulk ferment, 1 fold every 30 mins for 4 hours (used to do it for 3 hrs. But have increased to 4 for a few batches and it’s been fine) cheers for any advice guys. Guess I’m after which area the problem is. Ingredients? Method? Or as some has suggested miss-measurement? 

DanAyo's picture
DanAyo

Is there any gluten development? Try to pull a windowpane.

maybe you could try mixing or hand kneading a small amount of flour mixture and hydrate that to 70%. See if you can develop the gluten. Could it be bad flour?

Dan

danjoshward's picture
danjoshward

My first thought was bad flour. There isn’t a lot of gluten development in the dough no! But I’m using the same flour as I always have done?? Alot of doughs are failing the windowpane test to be fair. But other douche have given me nice loaves, just that this one completely collapsed. 

MonkeyDaddy's picture
MonkeyDaddy

and 20% levain.  Could you list your actual formula, please?

You said you "Combine in a mixer with dough hook for 2/3 mins."  In a dough as wet as this appears, that may not have done much for your gluten formation.  You might try mixing with the paddle attachment for a few minutes first, then switch to the hook once it appears to be developing some strength.

Also, is there a chance you didn't take into account the moisture from the levain?  For example, if you had 300g total flour weight and 210g water, that's 70% hydration.  But if you add 60g (20%) of levain, assuming 100% hydration, that would add 30g each of flour and water, making your hydration jump to 73%.  Doesn't seem like a lot, but every little bit of hydration adds a different dimension to the behavior of the dough.

     --Mike

 

danjoshward's picture
danjoshward

It’s 2kg flour to 1350 water and 200 levain (it’s a derivative of the tatine recipe) then I add 100 water and 50 salt. It yields about 4 large loaves. It’s actually 72.5% water to be fair. Iv never used the levain as included in the water ratio though. Like I say. It’s a tried and tested recipe, 90% of the time. Thanks for the comments! 

Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven

come out with 10%  starter.  Isn't 200g starter only 10% of 2000g flour?  A 1:10 ratio?   In 4 hours, not much should be happening yeastwise that is visible. It's in a lag time state.  

I figure 74% hydration. 1550/2100  X100

interesting enough... if 20% levain was used (400g) and that extra 100g water not added. The hydration is 70%.  1550/2200 X100.    

Tell more about the "bad time" the starter had twelve hours before.

danjoshward's picture
danjoshward

Sorry my mistake. It is 400 levain. Again though, Iv never experienced adding the levain on to the hydration percentage? Overall my water (not including levain) content is 1450 to 2000 flour. 

My starter was fed by someone other than me, (don’t ask) and during a 6/7 hour window of which it would usually peak it was pretty flat. 12 hours later I managed to get it back to it’s usual schedule, but I wonder if that might have been the cause? 

DivingDancer's picture
DivingDancer

1)  When you say 50/50 mix, do you mean by weight or by volume?

2)  Can you describe your evidence that your starter is viable?

danjoshward's picture
danjoshward

The flours are mixed by volume. Pretty free hand but even if this was slightly off would it cause such an issue? 

My only thought was that my starter did have a bad 12 hours the day before, however it did seem fine when I made the levain and the levain passed the float test when I made the dough. Could a slightly unhealthy starter be the cause? Thanks 

Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven

when I accidentally grabbed....   taste the various flours. Check for rancid flour.  Then check to see if you grabbed gluten free flour.

Sprinkle with 2% yeast and work in some AP and toss into a tin for a quick rise.