Trouble getting structure in bulk fermentation
Hi All!
New poster- but have been baking sourdough off and on for about two years.
We follow tartine recipe pretty much to the T.
While we end up with some pretty good bread, the one issue that always bothers us is that we never seem to build structure during th ebulk fermentation. Our dough is never silky and tacky, its always a bit loose, sticky and hard to shape. So we can't get good tension when we go to shape.
The one time we did seem to get a better structure was when we added in some rye instead of whole wheat.
Recently, we have tried Full Proofs baking coil folds and that seemed to help a bit, along with an early autolyse.
But this last sunday was an utter mess and I ended up with over fermented dough that ran through my fingers (granted I had to use AP flour bc that's all the stores had so I am just writing this one off).
I live in London and our water is very hard, so after some reading I am wondering if it is that could be the issue.
Anyway- I've tried to do a lot of seraching, but can't find any real tips on how to build structure during bulk fermentation without over-fermenting.
Any tips or advice?
Cheers!
Steph
Hoe high is the hydtration? Whole wheat or rye absorb more water so that can explain the difference when you add that.
70% is what I've been going for. But if going by what instinct I have it feels too wet I think.
I definitely know when I did the all white AP flour batch, that was the issue.
You can easily do a test bake using filtered or bottled water and see if that makes a difference. If so, you can be pretty sure it's an issue with the water.
I don't really have enough experience to try to answer your question, but from reading posts my first guess is that your starter is too proteolytic, causing it to dissolve the gluten proteins.
I have seen that word before, proteolytic, but having a hard time grasping what exactly that is. Do you have any links to a post that clearly explain it?
To boil it down very simply, sourdough starters are full of enzymes and bacteria that break down proteins. Gluten, which gives dough its strength and structure, is a protein. Given long enough, a sourdough...dough... will lose gluten to this process and go slack/runny. This is why, if you have a high hydration starter, it may seem very thick and sticky when you first feed it, but totally liquid by the next day.
You should try to mix the dough to a further level of gluten development in your initial mix. Yes, it’s possible you’ll get a more regular crumb this way, but if you’re not getting enough development by the end of bulk, you should try that.
You should also probably lower the hydration to at least 75%, (maybe lower)
The problem with following sourdough recipes “to a T” is that you’re not likely to be doing the right thing for YOUR dough when you do that.
What are the bulk times you’ve been doing that haven’t worked for you? And what temps too?
Thanks Zach-
Bulk has been between 3-4.5 hours long, between 22-24C (71-75F). We were trying to go a bit by feel during bulk, but a lot of times we felt it had been so long we needed to stop to prevent over fermentation. The dough never seemed to gain much strength during it so we would just push on!
I've attached to photos of one of the more decent loafs recently, but see how much flour I have to use to keep it from sticking, and how it still is shaggy bc we can't get good tension.