Hi,
I was wondering if anyone had any advice.
I've recently been turning out some quite misshapen and flat loaves but I'm not sure why. My process is below:
100g levain
10g salt
500g flour
370g water
I autolyse for two hours before adding levain. I wait another hour or so before adding salt. Then stretch and fold every half hour for 3-4 hours before shaping and putting in the fridge overnight.
The dough feels quite slack when shaping but I'm able to get tension. My fridge is 1 degree Celsius but the dough increases a lot in size and becomes very bubbly and fragile. It spreads out when I remove it from the banneton. There is some oven spring but the loaf is quite small and seems to be lifting from the bottom.
Does anyone have any idea what's going wrong? Why does my dough become so fragile in the fridge? I've previously baked some really nice loaves at a lower hydration (70%) so I'm going to go back and see if this makes a difference.
I'm also wondering if there is a correlation between bulk fermentation and the overnight cold proof? I have a theory that if I leave bulk fermentation until there are clear signs of fermentation (bubbles on the top and sides, poofy), my dough seems to rise more in the fridge. If I cut bulk fermentation shorter than I think it should be and look for small bubbles on the underside of the dough it seems to hold better. I'm not sure if there is any science to this or whether it is coincidence.
I had a few initial thoughts (and I am no expert!!!) but also think seeing the crumb would be helpful.
1) 1 hour between adding levain and adding salt seems like a long time. I'd try cutting this down to more like 15-30 minutes.
2) You said you do stretch and fold every 30 minutes for 3-4 hours. That means a lot of stretch and folds! I usually try to leave the dough untouched for at least the last 90 minutes of bulk proof. I wonder if you still aren't getting enough gluten development (slack dough). Maybe try something else like French slap and folds, coil folds, lamination. I used to do stretch and fold, but now do slap and fold to incorporate levain and salt and then coil fold and lamination later on. Check out Full Proof Baking.
3) 1 degree celsius is really cold for a fridge so I am surprised that you'd see a lot of activity during an overnight cold proof. Have you tested to see if the fridge is really the temperature it says it is?
Hi Ara! After reading your description of your recipe and method, here are some thoughts that occurred to me:
- The recipe has a large percentage of levain. That combined with the fact that the dough is fairly high hydration means the dough is going to ferment quickly.
- Delaying adding the salt by an hour will make the fermentation go even more quickly, since the salt will inhibit the fermentation to some extent.
If your dough is becoming fragile after the cold fermentation, it is likely that it is overproofing during that time. The spreading in the loaf at the bottom also suggests the dough has lost its structure (also from overproofing).
A couple of tweaks you might try:
- Add the salt at the same time as the levain, keep everything else the same.
- If you still end up with slack dough and you want to stick with your overnight cold ferment, reduce your bulk ferment time so the dough goes in the fridge when it still has a lot of strength left in it.
Good luck!
What kind of flour?