How Do You Fix Gooey Bread? Placing a baking tray underneath your Dutch Oven should do the trick. 8 oz active sourdough starter, 12 oz warm water, 5 oz rye flour, 12 oz bread flour. Heres What To Do, how to stop sourdough sticking to everything, Good Food Good Mood Sign Free Printable. I've written a full guide to why sourdough deflates after scoring here. The trick is to pinpoint which one is affecting your dough so you can fix it or change your formula for next time. Generally, a good hydration starting point is 75% or so when working with bread flour, 80% or so with whole wheat. Whenever you handle your sourdough, you want to avoid pulling and stretching the dough too much or using sharp materials around it. If youre new to making sourdough bread, youre bound to run into a few issues at first, especially if youre not experienced with sticky dough. Bake in a preheated 425F oven for about 45 minutes, until bread tests done. This is really only an issue once you've done bulk fermentation and you are trying to shape your dough. While sourdough is a wetter, stickier dough than what you may be used to, it should still be able to be stretched, folded and shaped without too many issues. Take the bowl off the scales and mix well, it will look rough and lumpy, but never fear it will soon start to look like bread dough! The steam that is trapped inside needs to move towards the outside. Method. 3. Sometimes the issue is the kneading technique. 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. Rest for 30 minutes @76F. This is the sourdough baking course you need if you are just starting out in sourdough bread baking. However, it's much better to find out the cause of the problem so you can fix it and prevent it from happening again. Maybe try leaving it a bit longer? It's possible that the dough is rising too much during the cold retard which will also cause this issue. It has more energy than it should have left when it hits the oven - meaning you might get a great oven spring - but it destroys your scoring (and will more than likely be gummy inside). 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. You just need to reduce the heat on the base of your Dutch Oven or baking tray. If the dough is too sticky at this point, add a little flour and knead it in. Sourdough made with bread flour can take up to 6 hours to cool properly. This arguably makes the dough easier to work with. 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. High temperatures can cause premature over fermentation, which will result in wet, sticky sourdough. Next, add 8g fine sea salt. Set aside. The exterior was perfectly brown. This is the preferred method used by professional artisan bakers. Remove the lid and bake for another 10 minutes to get a brown crust. Once you get comfortable, you can gradually increase the water content of your dough and see how you manage it. If baking in a pre-heated oven, turn on the oven to at least 200C/392F, once heated, add two big glasses of water to a dish on the bottom shelf Over-proofed Sourdough Bread When sourdough bread is given too long of a rise time it will result in bread that is over-proofed. If you're looking for troubleshooting your sourdough starter - you'll find a list of the most FAQ here. You want to be fast enough to limit any sticking, but not too fast or you might make a mess. In a large bowl, combine 350 g of water with the sourdough starter, stir to dissolve the starter. Once mixed, the dough enters the bulk fermentaiton phase where folding also takes place which helps significantly to develop more gluten network as well as to incorporate more water into the dough making it feel less wet and sticky. Charlie was a little better probably because we increased the bake time, but the higher hydration did it in. Add dried bread to the bowl of a food processor. Theres nothing wrong with using less water or adding more flour to your dough if its unmanageable, but you just need to be careful not to dry the dough out by adding too much flour. Alternatively, you could add a little oil to the work surface and your hands. 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. 14. Ensuring that you a strong gluten network is also essential in aleviating this issue. It really depends on where you are in the sourdough process. STEP THREE: Stir down the starter, then mix 1/3 cup of sourdough starter (90 grams) with water (385 grams) using a fork. A hollow sound indicates that it's cooked. The crumb is open and definitely "finished" - the bread can be compressed and springs right back. Turn the oven off, leave the door slightly ajar and place your bread directly on the oven rack. No matter how long you leave it to ferment, the yeast and bacteria won't actually grow or change. Steaming. Stir together until the starter is dissolved and the water looks cloudy. Soft water has <50ppm, medium 50-100ppm (best for bread baking), hard >200ppm. A starter is a collection of yeast and bacteria that feed on flour. Think about how professional bakers look when handling their dough. 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. How to handle sticky, wet . We will hold back from slicing it too early the next time!! 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. Youll find that the dough sticks much less and youll have a better time shaping it. The bacteria on the other hand create a sour taste and ferment the bread. Your dough can become sticky when you add too much water or the flour isn't suitable for the type of dough you are making. The solution is to give it a few more folds after you add the dash of flour so that the flour mixes in fully and makes it more manageable. Stretching and folding the dough is a common method of gluten development in sourdough bread making. Rest the dough for 30 minutes. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. April 30, 2020. Beginner bakers are best to start off with low to medium hydration dough before moving onto high hydration. Also, remember that sourdough is extra sticky when the gluten isnt fully developed. . This can result in your dough feeling wetter and stickier than normal. strengthening and maturing your sourdough starter. Once you get it all set to go try this delicious Sourdough Focaccia recipe yum! Our problem was with the tacky, rubbery, sticky insides of the baked bread (I could press a piece of the inside between my fingers and it would stick on without falling) no matter how long we bake it for (Charlie was baked for 40 mins in the cast iron and 20 mins on a rack, and the picture attached shows the insides). You might want to leave the bread in the oven for 10 minutes with the oven off and door ajar to help wick away some of the extra moisture. Hot water strengthens the gluten in the flour. Required fields are marked *. I have done wetter doughs at similar times/temps without the gumminess but I take your point - your lower/slower suggestion makes sense to me and I may well try that on my next go-round. 10 Pieces 5 Inch Bread Banneton Proofing Basket Round Dough Sourdough Proofing Basket Rattan Bakery Baking Bread Bowl with Liner and Scraper Tool Set for Starter Gifts Professional Home Bakers : Amazon.co.uk: Home & Kitchen Here are some options for working with wet, sticky over fermented sourdough. Third, cover and rest the dough for 30 minutes. If you've found this article on handling wet, sticky sourdough helpful, you might also enjoy these: What a great resource you've created here. The only time I wouldnt recommend using wet hands is during shaping. Take the temp before cutting into it. The Number #1 Reason your sourdough bread might be flat is using the wrong flour. Cover the bowl with a clean shower cap or plastic wrap and rest at 80F/26C for a minimum of 1 hour or as long as 2 hours. High temperatures can cause premature over fermentation, which will result in wet, sticky sourdough. BEST TOOLS FOR MAKING BREAD AT HOME (Links to Amazon below). One solution is to use a wet dough cutter or scraper. Without these it will be sloppy and hard to handle. Put the lid on and place into the hot oven. SOLUTION - The solution to this problem is to ensure that your dough is fermented correctly. Over fermentation is a cause of wet, sticky dough. Perhaps your sourdough is too sticky when you start working with it. Instead, stretch and fold it. The speed of your actions when handling your sourdough makes all the difference. It affects pretty much every part of the process. - longer waiting period before cutting --> this to me seems where you should start. (12-15% protein content), plus extra for dusting 2 teaspoons fine sea salt Method. Thanks @Barryval and @ifs201! One should be sticky, and one should be dusted with flour. Score the top of your loaf using a sharp knife, razor or lame. You wont be able to shape it when its wet. Modified: Dec 27, 2022 by The Pantry Mama This post may contain affiliate links. During shaping, we want to wet our hands to prevent the dough from sticking to it. If your kitchen is too warm, the dough can become a sloppy, wet mess. Yeast and bacteria prefer warmer temperatures. Sticky and wet crumb means the crumb is too wet; there is too much water in the finished product. The dough has already fermented and the flour you add won't be incorporated well. A new bake this morning. Excess flour at shaping can mean that your dough does not seal back onto itself, causing tunnels of air to form when baking. The hardness of water measureshow much calcium and magnesium ion is present (expressed as ppm). You just get more un-fermented dough that wont stand up. Rest 50 minutes. It is possible to make 100% hydration (or even higher) so there's really no such thing as too wet. So you __may__ need a longer bake, which will mean a lower temp. Temperature is one of the most important factors when making sourdough. Place on a floured cake or bowl with a tea towel and fold over. Okay, so maybe sourdough is never going to be extremely easy to handle, especially when it has very high hydration, but you can get to a point where youre very comfortable with handling sticky sourdough. The average total mixing time when using a spiral mixer is around 6 minutes of total mixing (includes first speed mixing time and second speed mixing time). Then remove lid and continue to bake for another 20-25 minutes. CAUSE - a tight and or uneven crumb is generally caused by under fermentation, but can also be due to not having a mature or active starter. Thank you for visiting! This step hydrates the flours and helps with gluten development and dough structure. A tell tale sign that you haven't let your bread cool properly is having a "sticky" knife when you remove it from your bread. Only oil the proofing vessel if it is made of a non-porous material such as metal or glass, if it is made of a porous material like wood, then line the proofing vessel with a cloth and dust the cloth with flour. PROBLEM - Gummy sourdough (dense, moist crumb) is the most common sourdough bread problems facing home bakers. The two main bread baking systems commonly used today are the sponge/pre-ferment system and the straight dough system. . For now, you need to know exactly whats causing your sourdough to be sticky and what you can do to help yourself with it. First, good effort, but where did you get the recipe from? When it comes to building the gluten, everyone has a different preference in how to do it. The sticky side should only touch the dough. Salthand-mixed, Rubaud style, for 5 minutes. Day 1 - The Start. If you see anything inappropriate on the site or have any questions, contact me at floydm at thefreshloaf dot com. Be careful to use the right type of flour for your recipe and play around with the hydration level if you need to. The water and other wet ingredients are absorbed into the flour. Cover the bowl and set aside for 30-60 minutes. You can use wet hands during the stretch and fold stage or even when you need to gently handle the dough in almost any situation. A large mixing bowl A round cane banneton 2 clean tea towels A Dutch oven, La Cloche or bread pan A large heatproof pan, a sharp knife or 'lame' to slash the dough with. Over time, youll become more confident and comfortable working with dough, so you can gradually increase the hydration and get better at handling it. SOLUTION - Depending on the cause of your spread, you can implement the following fixes: PROBLEM - Dough splits in places other than where you've scored or even splits messing up your decorative scoring. During this time, the flour has the chance to fully hydrate and gluten network is able to develop in spite of the lack of mechanical mixing. Bake in a Dutch Oven. Sourdough baking is a never ending journey of learning - and that's what makes troubleshooting it so damn interesting! After every fold, you will notice a significant improvement in dough strength and significant reduction in the wetness and stickiness of the dough. Two things - the hydration listed (390g flour and 350g water) is way too high for almost any bread that's not 100% whole wheat. Alternatively, you'll need to adjust the amount of starter in your dough to suit the temperature of your kitchen. 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. How Long Does Cookie Dough Last in the Fridge. If your kitchen is too warm, the dough can become a sloppy, wet mess. Thanks guys!!! This helps keep the dough from sticking. Yeasted Pre-ferment (Poolish & Biga) VS Sponge VS Dough. Many thanks for this. A strong, mature sourdough starter will reward you with amazing sourdough at your next bake. CAUSE - Spreading can be caused by a few factors including under fermented or over fermented dough as well as poor shaping technique. If the dough breaks before you can pull it so thin that you can see the light, resume kneading. This blog contains scientific explanation on all matters related to baking written in simple words; I hope you will find something useful here and leave as a better baker. Flour blended and autolysed for 2 hours@85F. 25 minute proof at room temperature. Cheaters No Knead Dutch Oven Sourdough Bread: so EASY, only 6 ingredients, made in 1 bowl, 5 mins mixing, then just rise + bake time! The only solution for this is to toss your dough and put your time into strengthening and maturing your sourdough starter. 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. Both of you mentioned a point in common on the hydration where I made a huge mistake on as I did not account for the hydration of the starter added. This will give the sourdough a chance to find new pockets of sugars and starches to consume. 25 minute proof at room temperature. Place on a peel, slip into the oven, and watch. This isn't the worst that could happen :), but I would really like to understand why the stickiness, and how to get rid of it. This method involves mixing the dough so the flour is fully hydrated before performing a series of stretch and folds. Evenly roll out your small 2- to 4-ounce balls into small circles a scant quarter inch thick. So I added 390 flour, plus 45 more from the starter ( assuming your starter is 100% hydration) to get 435 flour. Dont try traditional kneading techniques like punch and turn with moist sourdough. The bassinage technique is used to help build the dough up to the desired high level of hydration in stages. You might get a drier dough, but you wont get the same rise in the dough and a solid crust that you were expecting. This also provides its sour flavour and. However under fermented dough will not cook all the way through, so this sourdough bread problem can have a deeper cause. Baking the Sourdough: Preheat your oven to 450F (225C) and a baking pan. Autolyze reduces the wetness and stickiness of the dough and makes mixing and handling of the dough much easier. PROBLEM - Sourdough bread dough deflates (like a balloon)when removed from the banneton and scored. Wet and sticky dough not only sticks to the work surfaces but also to our hands, increasing the risk of tearing and making it very difficult to work with. Mix well. Pale crust after baked. If you're having trouble understanding the timing of bulk fermentation, I've written an easy to follow guide. In this article, we're going to talk about some of the causes of what makes this happen, as well as how to sort it out if it does happen. Add the honey or maple syrup, pumpkin pure, pumpkin spice and salt. I find that I need to bake the moisture out before the top crust gets too hard and seals in the moisture, and if that happens then you just end up over-baking the crust while it's still gummy inside. Then, mix in 70 grams of active sourdough starter. If you find that your sourdough sticks to most things, take a look at my guide on how to stop sourdough sticking to everything. Under fermented dough will also cause you to have a pale crust that just doesn't brown up, even when you cook it longer. Instead of kneading your dough manually for 8-10 minutes, youd be better off using a series of stretch and folds to develop gluten. PROBLEM - My sourdough bread has an unusual cone shape after baking. PROBLEM - Pale crust hasn't browned. Dough made with a young sourdough starter just won't develop. To make the levain, combine the sourdough starter, water and flour (see image 2) in a medium bowl and mix until well combined.Cover with plastic wrap and stand in a warm, draught-free place (approx. However, if you are just about to shape your dough, adding flour is not an option. What is a Pate Fermentee? Step 1: feed the sourdough starter About 12 hours before you plan to mix the dough, to a clean jar add; 10 grams unfed starter 25 grams water 25 grams flour Cover the jar loosely and allow it to rest and room temperature. Damaged starch particles also varies from one milling facility to another. This is because of the moisture that remains in your sourdough. Add a little flour and knead it a few times to make it more manageable. Ensure that you have scored enough - you need one good score to ensure that your dough expands. How to handle sticky, wet . The next day, preheat the oven to 500 degrees for 60 minutes. Combine the starter, water, rye flour and 1 cup of the bread flour. You/we need a hydration % of the levain too, to figure out how much flour and how much water is in the levain. It is often easier to make. Generally, flat loaves will still taste ok, they just lack that beautiful airiness we want to see in our sourdough. Mix everything together. Make sure that you do your best to avoid this mistake by learning about sourdough fermentation timing and knowing when it's ready to move onto the next step. This is done in intervals over the course of a few hours, so the dough has plenty of time to become more elastic and less sticky. I understand in the beginning you want to see the inside but do yourself a favor and wait at least 3 ours. It might be that your sourdough is too sticky because there is insufficient gluten development. . This allows the dough to absorb the water into the flour and start to form gluten strands that hold the bread together. Be sure you open with an autolyse, a step far easier than it sounds. CAUSE - This is typically caused by under fermenting your dough, but can also happen through using too much flour when you shape your bread. When this has cooled, add the rye sour, yeast mixture, 2 cups medium rye flour and the remaining 4 1/4 cups all-purpose flour. What to do: This is a heavily over proofed dough.