Help - Flat, dense loaf with little rise (first warm weather bake)
Hello all and thanks in advance for your help and ideas.
I have been baking with a starter since late December, and generally get great results. I bake once per week using Forkish's recipe for overnight brown. This past week, for the first time I had major problems with my dough. I followed the recipe as always, and used the same technique, but my dough was super wet - sticky and almost impossible to shape. The boules barely rose during proofing and stayed very wet. The bed tastes good, but it flat as a hockey puck and super dense. Will make great croutons, but not much else...
What gives? The only difference I can think of is that we had a major weather shift last week - whereas my kitchen had been 67-69 degrees, it is now 77-78.
I am at the feeding stage for my next batch and want to make sure I avoid this same issue. I would greatly appreciate your ideas and suggestions!
Forkish is a good starting point, but I think why a lot of bakers here don't follow it religiously is that you cannot rely on those timeframes. You just can't leave dough overnight in those temps. It will almost certainly overproof, unless you cut back your starter addition dramatically, but even then it will be unpredictable.
Ultimately, to get repeatable results, you have to let the dough lead you. I have had good luck by following a pattern of doing stretch and folds once the dough is mixed. If it is that warm you probably want do them 15 minutes apart. When the dough passes the windowpane test, move to a bulking container and let it double in size. Then pre-shape, rest 15 minutes and then final shape. Do a final proof (ideally in a banneton or floured towel-lined bowl) until it passes the poke test and bake.
By letting the dough tell you when it is ready, you will get more consistent results and not under or over proof.
I think you are exactly right. Thank you!! We tend to keep our house warm in the summer months, so I am going to have to seriously adjust my schedule... an overnight bulk fermentation is not going to be possible.