Hi everyone,
I tried to make this basic sourdough loaf from Ken Forkish's book:
| White flour | 804 g | 6¼ cups | 96 g | 900 g | 90% |
| Whole wheat flour | 26 g | 3 tbsp | 24 g | 50 g | 5% |
| Rye flour | 50 g | ⅓ cup + 1 tbsp | 0 | 50 g | 5% |
| Water | 684 g, 90ºF to 95ºF (32ºC to 35ºC) | Scant 3 cups | 96 g | 780 g | 78% |
| Fine sea salt | 22 g | 1 tbsp + 1 tsp | 0 | 22 g | 2.2% |
| Levain | 216 g** |
Unfortunately I've been having some problems even after following the instructions in the book. I did the autolyse, the handmixing and the folding but my dough never really became strong enough to be able to hold itself. It always went back to its relaxed form... Anyhow, I followed the instructions and after the bulk fermentation I ended up with this runny, unshapeable mix
I tried folding or kneading but it's just a mess. I still don't get what I am doing wrong. What should I do?
Thanks a lot in advance.
That looks very wet for 78%. Did you perhaps measure wrong?
What kind of flour did you use?
I recently bought a scale to do things right so I don't think that's the problem...
I just happened to find a lot of people with the same problem and seems like I overproofed my dough to the limit. In his book KF, suggest a bulk fermentation of over 12 hours. After just 8 hours I ended up with this runny mess. Granted, we're having a hot summer here in Chicago.
What do I do with an overproofed mess like this?
Thanks!
If you let your mix bulk ferment for 12 hours at room temperature (especially after adding water at over 90 degrees), then it looks like overfermentation is also a problem here.
Unless it's the dead of winter and you're using VERY little levain (here, you gave the dough a hefty dose), don't bulk ferment outside of the fridge. The levain in this formula is about 25% of the weight of the flour, which is not enormous but certainly enough to push fermentation pretty fast when the dough is warm.
Use water a little less warm and if you want to extend the bulk fermentation, park it in the fridge after mixing and kneading and after 12 hours you will have a giant balloon of dough.
That's definitely too wet of a dough, and it doesn't necessarily mean that you measured incorrectly. Unfortunately, authors like Forkish can't publish recipes that adapt to local variations in flour, and thus 78% hydration, while it might work in some places, will create crêpe batter in others. For example, in my neck of the woods, the flour that comes from the local miller does not have a very high tolerance for water : if I push the hydration past 70%, I get little more than a puddle. However, when I was recently in New York, the local flour I bought there was capable of absorbing much larger quantities of water, and I found that an 80% hydration dough with the NY State flour yielded a dough equally wet to a dough that I make chez moi at 65% hydration.
Additionally, assuming you are working with 100% hydration levain, when we factor in the water and flour that that is bringing to the party, your total hydration leaps up to above 80%.
My advice is usually that, whenever a book tells you to go over 75% hydration, start at 70% hydration, keep the other 5-10% reserved off to the side, and if your dough feels like it could drink a little bit more, then go ahead and add a little more water. It adds an extra step to the weighing process, but you'll be less likely to wind up stuck in a puddle.
Good luck and happy baking
Someone can probably explain it better than I, but the thing is that the gluten structure turns to mush if left to ferment for too long at higher temperatures. I had success with all of Forkish's recipes but that was probably because my kitchen is as cool as his. At higher temps, the little beasties and enzymes are way more active and you really need to watch the dough and not the clock.
The idea of reducing hydration is also a good idea until you get a feel for the flour you are using. I hope this helps!
I find that following recipes to the exact number is often not helpful especially with bread making. It's more important to understand the objectives of each stage. Different flours absorb differntly and so, unless you are using the exact same flour as the original recipe, things need to change. With dough, just a little extra water can be the difference between something manageable and something sloppy. A popular recipe with video on youtube gives exact mixing times and shows the baker stopping his mixer exactly at 4,8 and 3 minutes. If I do that with my mixer, forget it, the dough has not glutenized nearly enough and I need to add 3 more minutes. I wouldn't even try moving to the next step with his times. In this case, it looks like you simply need to change the ratios to a dryer dough and maybe add some kneading time. If the recipe is in text form only then it's a little harder to know how to adjust.
Btw, If I do a batch with 6 cups of flour, 2.5 cups of water should yeild about 75% hydration. Adding 3 cups of water is like 90% hydration. If you have flour that absorbs differently you bordering on slush anyway. I don't think there's much more to this problem than feeling confident enough to trust your own judgement and use less water. If the recipe is calling for an almost 90% hydration then you should know what kind of dough you are looking for, a really slack and sticky dough that you will need a scraper to manipulate anyway. You should be shooting to make a slack dough and not obeying the recipe so much :)
put half of it away in the fridge and add flour to the rest of it, Keep track of the flour as you will have to add salt as well. Now knead up a dough and get it ready for only one rise, the final one. Bake :)
I know it can be done, but I don't think I've ever had success with a 78% hydration dough either. I'm much happier around 71% or 72%. Still very wet, but after a few folds it tightens up and holds its form.