high hydration dough looks like chewing gum?
has anyone encountered and know what causes chewing gum-like dough?
i am working with quite high hydration (90%) for a fully whole-grain sourdough loaf with freshly milled hard red wheat and have managed to get the dough to a stage where it lacks any sort of structure whatsoever, but can stretch like crazy. i'm talking hot glue/spider webs/natto/etc. type strands. the dough is also extremely sticky at this stage and will adhere to just about any surface.
i kneaded the dough with a food processor this time while experimenting with a technique described by stella parks over on serious eats: dividing the dough in half to account for the small size of my food processor, then processing each half for roughly 75 seconds or so.
is this saggy, stringy, sticky dough a pitfall/concern to look out for when working with hydration above 80%? additionally, is there a method that works to remedy or avoid it altogether? i added 30g more flour but nothing really seemed to change.
Greetings! I'm not familiar with this method, but given the really high hydration of your dough, your best bet might be to toss it into the fridge for a very long ferment. It should be a lot easier to handle and shape. It's hard to know where you are in your recipe without more details. If it stays like runny peanut butter, I've heard of folks using a loaf pan rather than tossing the dough. Good luck! Let us know how it turns out.
hi! thanks for the suggestion! i had actually intended for this bread to be a pan loaf. unfortunately, it turned out horribly ahaha (in part because i switched to baking in my toaster oven rather than full-size to save on electricity... and sacrificed temperature accuracy....). powerful sour flavor that i've never gotten before even in country loaves so there's probably a good lesson to learn out of all of this...
it didn't rise much, even when baked in my pullman tin with the lid on. oh well
This dough is over kneading and will never be usable. Start over. 90% is a reasonable hydration for 100% wholegrain dough. Next time, process for 15 seconds, feel the dough, 15 more, feel again, etc. When the dough is glossy and stretchy- stop. A food processor can breakdown dough very quickly.
look at this post
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/54803/chasing-thin-crispy-not-thicktough-dough#comment-396185
thanks for the link and suggestion! i'll definitely pay closer attention to the consistency as i'm processing, rather than blindly following the recipe instructions.
do you know if fully whole wheat dough will also produce such a nice glossy finish? or do you recommend simply checking for adequate windowpaning
it turns glossy right before it falls apart. Don’t go that far ;-)
and about presoaking that you ask below, yes to presoaking to soften the bran.
roger that! thank you sumi!
I had to go back and look at some recipes that use a food processor. Two things stand out:
Here's a sample from a whole wheat recipe, albeit at a lower hydration than yours: “Attach the short plastic dough blade. Measure the white flour into the work bowl and add the yeast mixture. Pulse to blend. Remove the cover and add 2 cups of whole-wheat flour and all of the other ingredients. Close and turn machine on to thoroughly blend. Add the remaining flour through the feed tube, pulsing after each addition, until the dough begins to form and is carried around the bowl by the force of the blade. Keep the machine running and knead for 45 seconds.”
For your next batch, you might want to switch blades, shorten the mixing/kneading times, and maybe lower the hydration. A food processor works the dough so fast and so violently that there is very little time between “just right” and “ruined”. Good luck!
Paul
ah, sounds much more incremental than my procedure! if i wanted to incorporate an autolysis period (as i did on this occasion), do you think i should just autolyse, then chuck the entire dough ball into the food processor and then pulse until it's the right consistency? or rather, skip autolysing altogether because the food processor is violent enough to beat all the water into the dough?
If you autolyse the dough, you can just knead it by hand for a few minutes, and it's done. This is much gentler on the dough, and avoids the risk of over-kneading. With a 90% hydration, I would recommend a few minutes of gentle Rubaud method for kneading: I find it easier for a high-hydration dough. There's a nice Trevor Wilson video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgz0oAhgwyg&list=PLLurzJ8auZzYft6AIolysfoePkEr6ZPcY&index=9&t=262s