Hello Fresh Loafers
I have a question about ciabatta and wet doughs. I have made a ciabatta with a preferment ( 20%) of the recipe at a 80% hydration. How long should you knead or turn your dough before it gets silky and ready to form ? My dough just stays sticky and never get to the stage were i can form it. Im kneading by hand. Any video links would be a great help.
thanks
Warren
Warren, try adding just the water and the flour, put it in a covered bowl for about 20 minutes, then come back and add the yeast and salt and start mixing. You can do a search here on autolyse, but that step will greatly help in forming gluten http://www.thefreshloaf.com/lessons/tentips_8_autolyse
HI Barry
Thanks for the tip. I have been adding the preferment, flour, water and yeast, then mixing and letting it autolyse for 30mins. But im hoping that adding the preferment afterwards will make a difference.
Cheers
making ciabata bread
For one thing, people knead differently, at different rates and more or less vigorously. For another, the flour(s) you use can impact how much kneading is required as well as how much the dough can develop since more gluten in the flour = more potential for gluten development in the dough.
So, part of the art is learning what you can produce with the flour(s) and hydration you're using, including but not limited to how much kneading (in the way you do it) is necessary to develop the dough to get a satisfactory finished product.
An 80% hydration dough is going to be "sticky" forever -- you use high hydrations for the resulting baked loaf, not for the ease of working. :) The flour is never going to fully absorb all that water and make a dough that is as smooth and silky as lower hydration doughs. It's just the nature of the beast. There are techniques for working with wet doughs -- using a scraper along with/instead of hands and fingers, using bench flour (as little as possible), etc.
HI dabrownman , Arjon, jaywillie thanks for all the advice... ill just keep on baking and see how it turns out.
cheers