sourdough bread sticky after baking sourdough bread sticky after baking

If your dough is sticky, its going to stick to whatever is dry, so if youre touching it with dry hands, youre going to struggle. 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. 30g flour (in this case I'm using 15g organic rye flour and 15g organic white flour) 30g water (preferably filtered and room temperature - not straight from the tap) Weigh the flour and water, and combine them in the container. (12-15% protein content), plus extra for dusting 2 teaspoons fine sea salt Method. It's not until all of this steam has escaped that your bread actually finishes cooking. Below, Ive listed the main reasons your sourdough is sticky, so have a look through and see how they might be affecting your dough. Over time, youll learn new techniques and better ways of handling sticky dough and youll find it much easier to handle. However under fermented dough will not cook all the way through, so this sourdough bread problem can have a deeper cause. Using too much water for the amount of flour you're using will result in a wet dough that's really hard to handle. 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. Alternatively, you could add a little oil to the work surface and your hands. Sticky and unmanagable sourdough. The only time I wouldnt recommend using wet hands is during shaping. 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. CAUSE - This odd shape is caused by under fermentation. 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. You can then start to increase the hydration if you wish. You'll find a full guide to all purpose flour vs bread flour here. If the sourdough is unworkable at the very start, this obviously isnt because the oven temperature isnt set right for your elevation. This site is powered by Drupal. 1. Perhaps your sourdough is too sticky when you start working with it. Maybe 80% final hydration if your levain is more "liquid" than 100% Hyd. This is particular difficult if you're working in humid conditions. When the oven floor is clean, but before the equalizing soak, the temperature is ideal for pita bread, which cook in a minute or two. For example, the problem may be a recipe that calls for more hydration than the flour youre using requires. This method works better with slack dough anyway. So I suspect a miscalculation, and you might actually be doing 80% final hydration. 4.Under-baked bread 5. Final internal temp 211FSliced after cooling for 4 hours. This is called having over-proofed bread. - lower hydration in the total dough formula (already noted above). 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. Second sign: The dough has become loose and slack, and doesn't seem to hold any kind of shape. The crumb is open and definitely "finished" - the bread can be compressed and springs right back. You/we need a hydration % of the levain too, to figure out how much flour and how much water is in the levain. Sourdough made with bread flour can take up to 6 hours to cool properly. Lightly Flour One Side Of The Dough During Shaping. If you've just completed autolyse and you feel that your dough is too wet, it is possible to add some more flour at that that stage. There are plenty of methods for developing gluten, so its up to you to try out different variations and figure out which is best for you. Boil the kettle too. Without these it will be sloppy and hard to handle. 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. I baked a loaf this morning and I dont gone cute it until we ready to eat it. Making sure you get bulk fermentation correct - you'll find my best tips, You could also make sure that you spray plenty of water onto the outside of the dough before placing it in your Dutch Oven. Allowing your sourdough starter to mature (it needs AT LEAST 14 days to be viable and often several months before it's mature). If you cant shape it, the sourdough is too sticky. We want to mix the dough until it develops adequate gluten network which is indicated by a dough that is stretchable without tearing but at the same time offers a degree of resistance when pulled apart. Add the flour and mix well with the dough whisk or your hands until you have a shaggy, slightly sticky dough. The dough has already fermented and the flour you add won't be incorporated well. Thanks @Barryval and @ifs201! MAKE THE DOUGH Mix the sourdough starter and water together in a large mixing bowl - I use my dough whisk for this. Set aside. Similarly, the reason we use baking parchment paper when baking is to minimize the use of additional flour in the baking process. No matter how long you leave it to ferment, the yeast and bacteria won't actually grow or change. Content posted by community members is their own. 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. A tough crust can also be caused by a lower hydration recipe. It will look like cloudy water. Sourdough bread problems are often multi faceted and you will find that they are not always caused by one issue. Flip the bowl over onto the countertop so that the dough is now on top of the parchment paper. Instructions. Help! Lets look at some of the common problems with sourdough bread and how to deal with them. 2. The next day, preheat the oven to 500 degrees for 60 minutes. This part is extremely important as its what determines whether you end up with a well-shaped sourdough or a mess. Bread Baking Tools A Must Have For Any Baker, Learn how to make bread and pizza with this, Why Did My Quick Bread Not Rise? Cover and bake for 30 minutes. PROBLEM - Gummy sourdough (dense, moist crumb) is the most common sourdough bread problems facing home bakers. Put the lid on and place into the hot oven. #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. Instructions. You just get more un-fermented dough that wont stand up. Sourdough that has hydration levels of more than 72% tends to be sticky and tears apart easily when it is handled. Thank you for visiting! I ran your numbers, and unless my math is wrong, your are above 90% hydration, which is extremely high. The problem with damaged starches comes from the over absorption of water. the yeast has not fermented for long enough and still has too much energy to burn when it hits the oven, the yeast lets off too much gas all at once when it hits the oven. Youre aiming for maximum gluten development for the dough to become easier to manage. Mix dry ingredients together. PROBLEM - My sourdough never puffs up in the oven. If youre using a lot of wholewheat, youre going to be left with a very sticky dough, especially if its paired with high hydration. During shaping, a light dusting of flour is what you need to prevent the sourdough from sticking to your kitchen counter. This is when you let the dough rest after it is mixed but before you start to knead it. This method involves mixing the dough so the flour is fully hydrated before performing a series of stretch and folds. CAUSE - This is typically caused by under fermenting your dough, but can also happen through using too much flour when you shape your bread. Salthand-mixed, Rubaud style, for 5 minutes. After every fold, you will notice a significant improvement in dough strength and significant reduction in the wetness and stickiness of the dough. Even then the hydration would be on the very high side. 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. I am constantly baking hockey pucks! I understand in the beginning you want to see the inside but do yourself a favor and wait at least 3 ours. Bake in a preheated 425F oven for about 45 minutes, until bread tests done. 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. This will give the sourdough a chance to find new pockets of sugars and starches to consume. How Do You Know When Your Sourdough Starter Is Ready To Bake With? 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. You ideally want to achieve a window pane. The yeast has too much energy when it hits the oven and this excess energy causes a "rush" when your dough hits the oven. The Fresh Loaf is not responsible for community member content. @halfbakedharvest.com Cheaters No Knead Dutch Oven Sourdough Bread. If you're looking for troubleshooting your sourdough starter - you'll find a list of the most FAQ here. Here are some options for working with wet, sticky over fermented sourdough. As the gluten develops, the dough becomes less sticky and more manageable. PROBLEM - My sourdough feels moist or wet inside, even though it's well fermented. This just means that you are taking the sides of the dough, stretching them up, and folding them over the dough 4-8 times, or until the dough is too tight to do any more. It can be a mixture of rye and wheat or just rye. link to Yeasted Pre-ferment (Poolish & Biga) VS Sponge VS Dough, link to Pate Fermentee VS Poolish VS Biga VS Sourdough Starter, Stand Mixer (KitchenAid Type All Purpose Mixer). CAUSE - Logically, the cause of this is not baking your bread for long enough. If the dough breaks before you can pull it so thin that you can see the light, resume kneading. Stir vigorously until combined; it might look like a sticky, thick dough. This happens because it is more difficult for gluten network to be developed in a wetter dough, which makes it more difficult for water to be retained into the dough, and the dough tends to stay wet and sticky throughout mixing. First, it's helpful to have a small bowl of water nearby to dip your hands into before touching your dough. Only add more flour if it remains excessively moist or sticky after youve kneaded it in. The water absorbed from the damaged starches is then gradually released and the dough that was initially dry and strong becomes wet, sticky and weak over time. Salt is called for in every bread formulation, but it is the one ingredient that we most commonly tend to forget to include into our mix. Mix together the flour, sourdough starter and 250ml/9fl oz water in a bowl. To solve this problem, try taking the bread maker out of equation by baking in an oven. It might be that your sourdough is too sticky because there is insufficient gluten development. However, sourdough hydration levels can be pushed past 100% with the right technique which we will discuss in the subheading below. Add the sugar and salt. Sticky dough isn't necessarily a bad thing, although I appreciate how frustrating it is for a new baker. 3/4 cup (170g) active sourdough starter 1 tablespoon honey 1 teaspoon salt Instructions Add all ingredients together in the bowl of a stand mixer with dough hook. Sourdough that has hydration levels of more than 72% tends to be sticky and tears apart easily when it is handled. One should be sticky, and one should be dusted with flour. If your bread contains rye, it can take up to 24 hours! One set of strong Stretch & Folds. American flour has a damaged starch percentage of roughly 8-9% while European flour has a lower damaged starch percentage at about 7%. We know that flour is essential, but you need to make sure that youre using it correctly for the best results. Switch to a wood spoon. The bread is heavy, hasn't puffed up in the oven and has a moist, dense texture inside. 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. Bread needs gluten development in order to trap gas and rise, but this also helps the dough to become less sticky. Wet hands are a good idea when handling dough, however you should be able to shape your dough with dry hands very easily. The steam that is trapped inside needs to move towards the outside. You wont be able to shape it when its wet. One solution is to use a wet dough cutter or scraper. If the bread dough feels correct but is the baked loaf is fragile and sticky inside, it is under-cooked. Then the dough is less likely to stick to them. You can read more about this, Take some time to strengthen your sourdough starter (particularly if it's been in the fridge for a while or it's doubling consistently). 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. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Damaged starch particles also varies from one milling facility to another. As the flour is better hydrated, more water is absorbed by the dough, and less water is coating the doughs surface which makes the dough feels less wet and sticky. Begin mixing the flour in with a spoon or fork, then continue mixing with your hand, until all the flour is incorporated and you have a shaggy dough. 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. The remaining water coats the outside of the dough, causing it to appear wet and sticky. The bacteria produce both lactic acid and acetic acid. Its very important to avoid tearing the gluten as this causes it to become sticky again. Bake the sourdough bread. Steaming. 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. Gluten development is strengthened by adding salt to your dough, so don't forget to do this! A dough scraper is your best friend when handling any kind of dough. Add 60g of sourdough starter and set the tare to zero again; then add the salt and water, again, I find it easier to set the tare to zero before adding the flour. 475 F covered, and 450 uncovered for 20 min seems too hot to me for only a 30% whole grain loaf: 300 g einkorn / (900 g + 90 g from levain) = 300 / 990 = 30.3%. Large mixing bowl Measuring cups and spoons Bread thermometer ( fancy or a budget one) Scoring lame Extra (nice to have): Kitchen scale Dough scraper and bowl scraper (yes, they are different) Cooling rack Baking stone (you don't need a dutch oven if you use this) Learn how to make bread and pizza with this awesome book. Use a very sharp knife to cut a cross shape into the top of the . How to handle sticky, wet . Your guide to solving sourdough bread problems. 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. Id recommend keeping a bowl of water next to your dough at all times so its always there when you need it. Second, mix the dough using a previously fed, active and bubbly sourdough starter, water and a mixture of bread and whole wheat flour. You want to be fast enough to limit any sticking, but not too fast or you might make a mess. 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. If you find that your sourdough sticks to most things, take a look at my guide on how to stop sourdough sticking to everything. Make sure that you develop your gluten network really well during the stretch and fold stage. 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. Can you just add more flour to your sourdough? Instead, stretch and fold it. High temperatures can cause premature over fermentation, which will result in wet, sticky sourdough. All Purpose flour is ok, however it generally doesn't have the protein necessary to develop a strong gluten network. Add a little flour and knead it a few times to make it more manageable. Some recipes are simply wetter and stickier than others. Ensure that you have scored enough - you need one good score to ensure that your dough expands. The good news is, there's always a way to fix your sourdough bread problems for your next bake! Too much dusting of flour can also reduce stickiness to the point where sufficient skin tension is not able to be developed. Pale crust after baked. BEST TOOLS FOR MAKING BREAD AT HOME (Links to Amazon below). You'll know you have sufficient gluten development by performing the window pane test on your dough. To achieve a 75% hydration I will attempt again with the following: 390g of flour mix to 282g of water, adding on 90g of starter (at 100% hydration as I always to a 1:1 flour water ratio feed). Over time, youll become more confident and comfortable working with dough, so you can gradually increase the hydration and get better at handling it. It is possible to make 100% hydration (or even higher) so there's really no such thing as too wet. Cover and let the dough double in size, about 12 to 16 hours. Concentrate on shaping evenly and with plenty of tension to ensure your dough rises evenly and doesn't split other than where you've scored. When water is excessively hard, it tightens the gluten as well as decrease fermentation rate. Generally, flat loaves will still taste ok, they just lack that beautiful airiness we want to see in our sourdough. 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. Second, most bakers wait more than 1 hour before cutting into the bread. The easiest thing you can do to handle your sticky sourdough is to simply make it less sticky by cutting back on the water. What is a Pate Fermentee? Then remove lid and continue to bake for another 20-25 minutes.