Hi guys, its me again - now I have the right water/flour combination the dough is very soft. On second prove the dough comes out of the basket quite flat, how do you achieve a stiffer dough ( more robust to handle ) without losing the nice air holes I am getting once the loaf is baked??
Can you post the recipe and times? My experience has been when I've flipped out a boule on the counter and it's lost it's entire shape and is difficult to handle, it has been because I've over fermented/proofed the dough. Let us know..
wetter doughs usually have bigger holes, we have ours prove over night at 2 - 4C in the fridge that gives some resilience, also you can add strength with extra folds and more diligent shaping, though you might lose some holes if you too intensive/rough... and yes, if you let it go too far with the proof, it wont recover very well, we try to catch ours at about 85- 90% proof to slash and go into the oven
Many thanks for your advice, I will try putting the second prove in the fridge overnight to see what happens, sounds as though this might be the answer, fingers crossed!!