Dont try traditional kneading techniques like punch and turn with moist sourdough. Why Is My Sourdough Dough So Sticky? How To Handle It - Breadopedia.com If so, fix that, and try it with your standard bake temps/times, And then, if the problem persists, then add to the lower hydration the lower/longer bake temps/times, too. A new bake this morning. We will hold on to the knife the next time and be sure to wait longer. You don't want to add extra flour as this will affect the texture of the end product (which actually won't be very good at that point). Sourdough Hydration Explained (What, Why, How & When) STEP FOUR: Pour the starter/water mixture into the flour mixture and stir, using a fork, into a thick, sticky ball. This is the preferred method used by professional artisan bakers. However, it's much better to find out the cause of the problem so you can fix it and prevent it from happening again. A great way to start the gluten development is to simply begin with an autolyse (mixing just the flour and water and letting it sit for one hour or more). Cover with cling film and let rest in the fridge for 12-15 hours. Sticky sourdough isnt something anybody wants to work with, but it is completely normal and something that you need to get used to if youre going to get good at making sourdough bread. SOLUTION - Allow your bread to cool for AT LEAST 90 minutes (much longer for rye bread). The dough will develop further in strength becoming dry and workable, as it will be able to retain more moisture once it has gone through the bulk fermentation phase and the folding phase. If the bread dough feels correct but is the baked loaf is fragile and sticky inside, it is under-cooked. Remove the lid and bake for another 10 minutes to get a brown crust. A mistake that nearly sourdough bakers have made is simply leaving the dough for too long. When it comes to transferring your dough, kneading it, or shaping it, youll have a much easier time with the assistance of some additional water. Rest for 30 minutes @76F. Bake in a preheated 425F oven for about 45 minutes, until bread tests done. Use a very sharp knife to cut a cross shape into the top of the . You can read my five best tips for strengthening a sourdough starter, Extending your bulk fermentation time to allow your dough to rise and ferment properly. The more gluten it contains, the better it holds together. Oiling our proofing basket will cause the oil to be absorbed and be ineffective in preventing the dough from sticking. Basic sourdough bread | Sourdough Recipe | BakeClub Then, I use my wet hands to pick up a side of the dough, stretch it up, and fold it over. Generally, a good hydration starting point is 75% or so when working with bread flour, 80% or so with whole wheat. Be confident in your actions. Cover and let the dough double in size, about 12 to 16 hours. The side thats dusted with flour is the only side that you or anything else touches. Other ingredients, like honey, may also make your sourdough wet and sticky. Lets look at some of the common problems with sourdough bread and how to deal with them. The gluten network serves to provide structure and strength to the dough but it also plays an important role in containing and holding water and moisture. Let's dive into each of these reasons and see how you can avoid or correct the situation. We will be trying out as what you have suggested for a 75% hydration for the next one, will be back to post our results! Many thanks for this. We performed up to 6 sets of stretch and fold during the first two hours of fermentation before leaving it to bulk ferment for the next two hours. Make sure that you're not using too much flour when shaping your dough. Simply combine your flour and water before any of the other ingredients, fully incorporating the flour. We will hold back from slicing it too early the next time!! Home Why Is My Sourdough Too Sticky? Maybe try leaving it a bit longer? There are generally two causes of this (it can be a combination of both): SOLUTIONS - Depending on which of the above has caused your gumminess, you can fix by: PROBLEM - Your bread dough spreads and loses shape when you flip it out of the banneton to bake. Why Sourdough Bread Makes You Feel Bloated - Detox Empowered Ingredients: 300g water 100g sourdough leaven* (made with your starter) 100g of stoneground organic wholemeal flour 400g organic strong white flour If you simply cant handle sourdough with medium-to-high hydration, its better for you to either gradually knead in more flour or start off with less water in the first place. Switch to a wood spoon. We are compensated for referring traffic and business to Amazon and other companies linked to on this site. This also provides its sour flavour and. Turn out on to a surface and knead for 10 minutes or until the 'windowpane effect' is . PROBLEM - Sourdough bread dough deflates (like a balloon)when removed from the banneton and scored. We all know that drier dough is easier to handle since it sticks less, so use this to your advantage and make a basic low-to-medium hydration sourdough before you try the more difficult higher hydration ones. Dutch Oven Sourdough Bread - Cooking Gorgeous . The Fresh Loaf is not responsible for community member content. Pate Fermentee VS Poolish VS Biga VS Sourdough Starter. Learn how to make bread and pizza with this awesome book. Maybe 80% final hydration if your levain is more "liquid" than 100% Hyd. Third, cover and rest the dough for 30 minutes. One set of strong Stretch & Folds. For the most recent of these, I used the following recipe/process:66.67% 600g King Arthur Bread Flour33.33% 300g Whole-Grain Einkorn (locally grown and milled by River Valley Community Grains, in NJ)20% 180g Liquid levain (King Arthur AP Flour)2.1% 19g Kosher Salt75% 675g Water, Levain built and matured for 3 hours @85F . Thanks guys!!! Your guide to solving sourdough bread problems. SOLUTION - Allow your bread to cool for AT LEAST 90 minutes (much longer for rye bread). If you do have a watery starter, you'll need to adjust the amount of water in your dough or set about finding a solution to thicken it up. But we are utterly puzzled by the outcome again. Undigested sourdough bread can ferment byproducts in your gut when it reaches your colon. Wholemeal Sourdough Recipe - The Sourdough School It's wider on the bottom and almost pointy at the top, rather than having a rounded shape. So I added 390 flour, plus 45 more from the starter ( assuming your starter is 100% hydration) to get 435 flour. Bake in a Dutch Oven. Baking the Sourdough: Preheat your oven to 450F (225C) and a baking pan. When it comes to building the gluten, everyone has a different preference in how to do it. The only thing you might need to fix with your sourdough is its hydration. Mix everything together. What Went Wrong With Your Sourdough? | Epicurious Over-proofed Sourdough Bread When sourdough bread is given too long of a rise time it will result in bread that is over-proofed. bread sticky after baking. You can find resources on shaping. If youre struggling with high hydration dough, then you should absolutely lower the hydration and see if you get better results. Within eight to 12 hours of feeding your starter, you want to see a noticeable increase in volume and it should be putting off a pretty pungent. Then remove lid and continue to bake for another 20-25 minutes. Stir together until the starter is dissolved and the water looks cloudy. If you're using all purpose flour, it can be a good idea to add some vital wheat gluten to the mix. If youre going from low hydration (60-65%) bread dough to a sourdough (65-80%) hydration, youre most probably not going to know how to handle it properly. Throughout the shaping, the dough felt aerated and light and bouncy and it was easy to handle after dipping our hands in water. 150g bread flour, 150g all-purpose, 90g whole wheat flour with 350g water (slightly warmer than room temperature by the touch), with 90g of starter and 9g of salt. Though my guess is, that if you are getting the internal final temp to 211 F (even 210 F is usually good enough even for a mostly whole grain loaf)and it's still gummy, then your hydration was too high to start with. Often the bottom of your sourdough is burning. Why is my sourdough so sticky? | Alexandra's Kitchen Thank you in advance! If your sourdough has a very thick base which is burnt or just very tough, there's a very simple fix for this. If your kitchen is too warm, the dough can become a sloppy, wet mess. Remove the potion from the refrigerator before chopping and boiling it. 8 oz active sourdough starter, 12 oz warm water, 5 oz rye flour, 12 oz bread flour. Unfortunately, this results in tougher bread. After every fold, you will notice a significant improvement in dough strength and significant reduction in the wetness and stickiness of the dough. I think it's quite common to get some stickiness if you are slicing fairly soon after the end of bake. Im the face behind The Pantry Mama and I want to help you bake delicious sourdough bread, no matter what your schedule. A hollow sound indicates that it's cooked. It can also be called Fool's Crumb where the bread appears to have an "open crumb" however the holes are large and surrounded by an uneven, tight crumb that is not desirable. So that should work out to (282+45)/(390+45)=75%. Use mineral water of a known hardness or test your tap water to be sure that your water has the appropriate hardness level for bread baking. You/we need a hydration % of the levain too, to figure out how much flour and how much water is in the levain. full guide to all purpose flour vs bread flour here, Baking sourdough when it's really hot or really cold. After 30 minutes, take the parchment paper with the dough on it and place the entire thing in the preheated dutch oven. Help! Approximate size of sourdough bread: Approximate cooling time: small dinner rolls: 30 minutes: small white loaf (1 lb): 4 hours: large white loaf (1.5 lb): 8 hours: small wholegrain loaf (1lb): 5 hours Will be back to update! Wet and sticky dough is caused by a few different issues. Sometimes white bread, while initially fine, after a few days becomes sticky inside as if its going back to a dough-state, though not quite. During shaping, a light dusting of flour is what you need to prevent the sourdough from sticking to your kitchen counter. The bacteria produce both lactic acid and acetic acid. When water is excessively soft, the lack of minerals results in a sticky andslack dough. The exterior was perfectly brown. Dough made with a young sourdough starter just won't develop. This could be a result of problems with a thermostat, heating element, or possibly the timer. Being slow or having any hesitation can lead to the dough adhering to something it shouldnt, which would make your life a lot more difficult. You can make a loaf of perfectly good sourdough bread at around 65% hydration if you want to. This will give the sourdough a chance to find new pockets of sugars and starches to consume. Dough is sticky and wet from under mixing as insufficient gluten network is developed to hold in the water molecules. And wait longer before slicing. Try placing your dough in warmer area of your kitchen (75F-80F is ideal) - monitoring your final dough temperature to keep it as consistent as possible - or consider investing in a bread proofing box . Using too much water for the amount of flour you're using will result in a wet dough that's really hard to handle. Artisan Sourdough Bread Recipe - A Beautiful Plate Agree with the previous comments and hotter, longer and let dry, https://www.abeautifulplate.com/artisan-sourdough-bread-recipe/, Lamination butter for croissants - question, Mexican buns aka coffee cookie buns aka rotiboy buns, Farmer's Market Week 18 (Whole Wheat Walnut YW/SD Combo), Red Fife x 4 = Awesomeness!!! The yeast is responsible for the rise in the bread and will help create a light and airy sourdough. When youve kneaded the bread dough enough, stretch it while looking at a light source. If you're still unsure a good thing to do is to let your bread cool in your oven. Generally, flat loaves will still taste ok, they just lack that beautiful airiness we want to see in our sourdough. Thanks @Barryval and @ifs201! I baked a loaf this morning and I dont gone cute it until we ready to eat it. Under mixing and over mixing results in insufficient gluten strands to trap water inside the dough, causing the dough to be wet and sticky. More often than not a tight crumb with a number of larger holes - but it's not even or open. Levain hand-mixed, Rubaud style, for 5 minutes. Place the bread pieces on a parchment lined baking sheet in a single layer. Place a small oven-safe cooking pot (6x6-inches) with a metal lid into the oven and preheat to 450 F. Gently place dough with parchment paper into the pot. A well developed gluten network has the strength to hold the gases and produce an even crumb. 16 hour cold (38F) retard, in closed plastic bags. Another reason we want to minimize dusting is because the additional flour from dusting is not well hydrated and when baked can leave unsightly gray streaks on your sourdough bread that taste raw. After fermenting for too long, the gluten in the dough begins to break down, which leaves you with a thick, gloopy mass of flour and water with no way to make good sourdough. Skin tension during shaping is developed when one side of the dough sticks lightly on the work surface while the hands pulls the dough inwards from the opposite side, stretching the surface of the dough taut. Lamination butter for croissants - question, Farmer's Market Week 18 (Whole Wheat Walnut YW/SD Combo), 100% Stoneground Whole Wheat Hokkaido Sourdough Milk Bread, Borodinsky Supreme -- Old School -- 100% Rye. Sourdough that has hydration levels of more than 72% tends to be sticky and tears apart easily when it is handled. This is the sourdough baking course you need if you are just starting out in sourdough bread baking. When Im not baking sourdough, I love to hang out with my three boys on our farm, tend to my jungle of indoor plants and drink good coffee. Jack Sturgess. Yeast and bacteria prefer warmer temperatures. High temperatures can cause premature over fermentation, which will result in wet, sticky sourdough. Sticky Sourdough after baking | The Fresh Loaf CAUSE - Logically, the cause of this is not baking your bread for long enough. Sourdough does not stop cooking when you take it out of the oven. We actually followed this recipe twice, the first time was in the exact proportion mentioned with a hydration of 81% and "Betty" turned out tacky and moist. We can use the mixing time below as a sanity check to determine if we have indeed under mixed or over mixed our dough; if you fall way out from the range in the table, increase or decrease mixing time to stay within these guidelines. Why Is My Sourdough Bread Gummy? - Busby's The solution here is to either use the exact same flour the recipe requires or adjusting hydration levels, watching the dough instead of ingredient ratios. However under fermented dough will not cook all the way through, so this sourdough bread problem can have a deeper cause. It's a good thing for bread dough, but it also means that it makes the mess you're attempting to clean up extra sticky and impossible to clean up . Different types of mixers uses different mixing arm which develops the dough at different rates. PROBLEM - My sourdough looked great when I removed it from the oven - it was crusty! Rest for 30 minutes @76F. Sticky and unmanagable sourdough. What has gone wrong to cause this issue? It can be leathery rather than crispy. Why Is My Sourdough Too Sticky? Here's What To Do Your dough should be split into two sides. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Second, to the wet ingredients, add the bread flour, whole wheat flour, and salt. Flip the bowl over onto the countertop so that the dough is now on top of the parchment paper. You can read more about this trick, Use water mist or ice inside your Dutch Oven to ensure you get a, Leave the sourdough bread in the oven to cool after it's baked (you'll find a. Bake in preheated, covered DO at 475F for 20 minutes, then uncovered at 450F for 20 minutes. Old bread becomes sticky - Seasoned Advice It's not until all of this steam has escaped that your bread actually finishes cooking. It is generally healthier and easier to digest. Instructions. Matching my work schedule. Youll find that most recipes are making sourdough with fairly high hydration, which means that the sourdough is naturally stickier, but this doesnt mean that all sourdough has to be sticky. Ensure that you have scored enough - you need one good score to ensure that your dough expands. Your dough might be too sticky because you added too much water when making the initial mix, too. CAUSES - There are number of causes here, but the main one is that it was not baked long enough for the moisture in the dough to be baked out of the bread. More often than not, gumminess is a result of under fermentation (cutting the bulk fermentation time too short). Mix the drier dough until it has developed into the desired dough strength. Help! My Sourdough is Too Wet and Sticky - Crusty Labs At the same time, we should dust the work surface lightly during shaping as we need some level of stickiness and friction between the dough and the work surface to create sufficient skin tension. The answer to this really depends on what is causing your dough to be so sticky and wet. *This article may contain affiliate links. You can then start to increase the hydration if you wish. #7 The bread cooled in the oven When the bread looks ready, some bakers turn the oven off and leave it inside for 20 minutes to make their bread less gummy.