Gluten Strength

Toast
Kogaku on 15 Dec 2018 at 07:29

What part of the procedure most affects the sourdough structure; autolayse, mixing/kneading; S&F, hydration, proving, etc? Example: I’ve made what appears to be a very good 80% hydration dough. Used 80% hydration starter as welll. Autolayse (without salt) about an hour. Pretty standard stuff from there.  Couldn’t be a more basic approach. Yet, after proving, the dough is weak, kinda wet, sort of sloppy and spreads and so is difficult to pick up and place in my Dutch Oven. It ultimately bakes pretty well with a decent spring but doesn’t hold its shape. It’s just too weak and wet prior to baking. More folds, more kneading, more resting? Can you help?

Thanks in advance,

Kogaku

Can you send pictures so we can see.  And your recipe? And what type flour you are using>

I've been baking with help from this site for about 3-4 years and the only time I did that high a hydration was with a Danish Roggenbrot.  

80% is very high for a white flour and imho only very experienced bakers (I'm not one) can handle a white dough w hydration that high. But perhaps your flour isn't white, I don't know. Let us know.

hester

 

I don’t have photos. Most recently happened using 500g whole wheat, 500g strong(bread) flour and 800ml water. Same thing using an 80% hydration with 325g bread flour, 22g whole-wheat, 22g rye and 22g spelt and 313ml water. The 1000g whole-wheat was made with 50% Biga. The second was using an 80% starter. Used what is often called the ‘Rubaud’ method; scooping technique with a lot of start-stop followed by MANY folds over the entire proving time. Here’s a link to that technique: https://youtu.be/zgz0oAhgwyg

Note that my efforts weren’t disastrous by any means. In the final analysis I just didn’t know exactly what I might have done to bump the final dough strength up to a more manageable, less sloppy consistency.  

backing the hydration down to 70 - 75% and see what happens?  I don't think you are doing anything wrong, per se.  at least not from your description.

Term 'strong bread flour' is a clue.  

Agree with Hester. I'd drop the hydration if I were you. While 80% hydration can be done it's not very forgiving. Practice with lower hydration and slowly work your way up. 

Nope. Not from UK. Vermont, USA. Picked up ‘strong’ from listening to Patrick Ryan in Ireland (Firehouse Bakery). It just stuck. 

Regards,

Kogaku