I have dough that I inadvertently over hydrated and it has now doubled after 4 hours of bulk fermentation. I did 6 sets of many folds during the first two hours trying to get this dough to firm up but it is still really, really wet.
I just stuck it in the fridge trying to chill it so it firms up and I can shape it. Is this a good idea? Should I give it another set of stretches and folds in the fridge to degas it a bit and redistribute the wee beasties?
It is going to spend the night in the fridge after I shape it and get it in the baskets but I have to get it there first!
and then bake it straight out of the fridge tomorrow
And bake. See what come out :)
I left it in the fridge for a couple of hours and with the help of flour and a bench knife, I managed to do a preshape, a rest and a final shape without getting my hands full of dough. It will be getting baked right out of the fridge tomorrow.
What happened is that I was making two batches of dough at the same time and I forgot that I had already put 300 g of water in the one batch and when I went back to it, I got distracted and dumped 500g of water instead of just 200 g. The dough originally was too dry and I was adding water to it. When I realized what I had done, I put both doughs together, mixed them together and then divided them up again so that the extra water was divided between them. Even so, it really was too much water. It ended up being 88% hydration.
Thanks for the help!
Sounds like an opportunity to bake a ciabatta.
but I usually deliver boules to the soup kitchen and I didn't have enough room in the fridge to store long loaves, that is if you can proof ciabatta in the fridge.
to have the room to do so - which few have. I even proof high percent rye in the fridge. SD Cabatta proofed in the fridge is lovely!
Not on any recipe I have come across
I have made ciabatta only once and that was in a bread cooking class. We used a dough with poolish that was baked the same day. I was surprised to see that shaping was the main difference between a ciabatta and a boule. Or at least in that class.
This dough was so wet that even ciabatta would have been a stretch.
Thats an odd combo to be baked from the same mix .
One is made from the sloppiest of doughs , and the other is so stiff that it keeps it's ball shape till the end .
I second the motion to dump it in the dutch ovens (or even bread or round cake pans) and bake it. Fold the edges of the pancake into the middle if you can, flip it over into the pans and go for it. Round pan-ciabatta!
Also, check out the Do-Nothing bread, which is, I think, 90% hydration. They form it into long loaves but you could easily adapt to rounds.