Apologies if mobile formatting messes this up lol
300g white flour
170g water
100g starter
10g salt
Mix into dough, cover and leave for 30 minutes.
After 30 minutes, stretch and fold for 15 minutes, leave for 30 minutes. Repeat 3x
Leave on counter for 8h
The dough was too wet to do any shaping lmao, my fault.
Preheat oven at 180C for 30 minutes
Pour into bowl and bake at 200 C for 50 minutes
Take out and cool on the counter
Dough was perfect in the beginning then added too much water, no matter how much flour i added it was just Watery. I am unable to get a fancy bread lanolin bowl so I just used one of our old porcelain ones. Apparently this is supposed to be relaxing, maybe for those who always get perfect loaves. Mine cannot be called a “loaf”. My crumb doesn’t even look like anything, very solid. Probably represents my brick wall of a brain, smooth and no wrinkles because i could not do this very easy recipe.
by Redditblackhole1
18 Comments
If this was the outcome after an 8 hour proofing, then I don’t think your starter was ready. Did you remember to do the float test before adding the starter to your dough mix? Adding a spoonfull of starter into some cold water to see if it floats. If it floats it’s ready to bake with.
Also a lot of sourdough dough’s tend to be very wet when doing a no kneed/long hour proofing. I use 500g of water in a recipe using 750g of mixed flour (weat, barly, etc), and I let mine proof and double in size for 11hours before doing any stretches or moving it to a proofing basket for it’s final rise.
If it never got any bigger during any of this, your starter simply wasnt ready, or you killed it by adding salt to early.
Remember baking is a sience and cooking is an art.
You have to experiment until it works for you. I have been baking sourdough since january, and I still havent had the perfect loaf, and I only bake dark and fiber rich bread, never white bread. Luckily all of mine have been edible from the start. But I took a course before I started and therfore knew what I had to look for.
Good luck! Feel free to ask me anything 🍀🍀
Like it’s mocking you with a missing tooth smile. 😀
Just a few observations.
– After adding your starter, the stretch & fold takes less than 1 minute each time. You do a few folds until the dough ball is tight, let rest, repeat s&f, rest. Do this for 2 hours – so S&F 4 times.
Then cover and let bulk ferment until it’s risen by 50%.
I don’t see how your dough is too wet at 51% hydration. Can you doublecheck the numbers?
Watch the NYTimes sourdough video. by Claire Saffitz – excellent instructions.
I think more info on the state of your starter is required.
A few things stand out.
You didn’t mention salt – did you forget this? Not adding salt would screw up everything.
Assuming a 100% hydration starter, your total hydration is only 63%, which is very very low – this low hydration should be very very easy to work with, and honestly shouldn’t really be sticky at all.
Which leads to the four. If you’re doing 63% and it’s sticky, you’re using the wrong flour. You mention white flour – do you mean white all purpose? This will not work. Switch to a high protein bread flour and try again, it will make a world of difference.
Once you’ve fixed this, move on to fixing your process. After bulk fermenting on counter, you then need to shape carefully and add to a bannerton or some other container to help it hold its shape, then cover it and put it in the fridge overnight. This will allow it to proof slowly overnight and will make it easier to handle and score.
The next day, preheat the oven, score your loaf and put it in the oven covered and bake for 20-30 minutes. It’s critical to cover, otherwise it won’t work. Whether you use a Dutch oven or cover with some sort of oven safe bowl, doesn’t really matter as long as it traps in the steam which is what causes the loaf up spring upward.
After 20-30 minutes, remove the cover, lower the oven temp slightly and bake for an additional 15+ minutes, or until your desired color.
Because it was two wet all bubbles went out. Put less water next tome
Nice pastel de nada
Where in the process did you add too much water? You indicated that dough was perfect in the beginning, so it is unclear where the extra water came from.
Also, how strong is your starter – does it double from a 1:1:1 feeding in 4 hours or less at 75-80°F/24-27°C?
If it was too wet despite the low hydration, maybe the flour is too weak.
Can I ask why you’re stretching and folding for 15 minutes? I was always taught to do it once from each direction (north, east, south, west) and then rest again, so it probably takes me about 1 minute to do a complete round of stretch and folds.
When mine turned out like that, it is because my starter was either not ready, or was dead. What did your starter look like?
Lanolin bowl?!
This is one where I would love to see a photo/video of each stage so we could discuss.
1. What is your starter like?
2. The ingredients you list would make for a low-hydration (dryer, not sticky, easy to handle) loaf. But you describe it as wet. 170g water to 300g flour shouldn’t be wet. If anything it should be almost too stiff to handle.
3. Stretch and folds for 15 min? How is this even possible? This is where I really want to see what’s going on in your bowl. Or I wish I had images of mine to share. For comparison, my dough after 30 min rest has relaxed into this slack, loose, slumped across the bottom of the bowl mass. When I grab a little edge of it and pull upward, it stretches sooo far! It’s so stretchy. But as I work around the edge of the bowl, the dough tightens up into this springy, elastic, round mass that stands up in a ball. After a minute of doing this, I can barely get any stretch on it, the whole thing is so springy and tight. So in one minute it transforms from slack puddle to tight ball. After 30 minutes of rest, it’s back to being a slack puddle and I can stretch it again. Each time, the slack puddle is getting airier and fluffier as the gluten gets stronger and as the yeast is multiplying throughout the dough and burping its gasses out. I do this 3 times, then let it rest at room temp for awhile until the slack puddle grows upward into an airy, bubbly, poofy thing.
Put it on a baking sheet next time on the middle rack and put a pan of hot or boiled water on the bottom rack for 20 mins at the start of your bake, also did you score the bread? The density makes me think the bread formed a crust and couldn’t expand. Your next loaf will be much better!
Do not give up, keep at it and you’ll eventually get there.
The face only a mother could love
I sympathize! Maybe 1 in 10 of mine turn out. I wonder why I keep trying?!?
You can absolutely make sourdough with all purpose flour so don’t stress over that. Where did you get your recipe? Find a tried and true recipe online and stick with it. My biggest mistake was trying to recipe and when it didn’t turn out trying a different recipe. I also found it very helpful to take notes every time I baked. Keep track of how many stretch and fold to do, how long it’s fermenting for, what the dough look like, all of this will help you improve as you go. You do need to get a Dutch oven or more appropriate baking vessel. The oven is so high baking it in a bowl will always result in burned crust. I’m not sure what a lanolin bowl is, but it sounds like you shouldn’t bake in it.
The most important part of a successful loaf and my opinion is your starter. How old is your starter? How are you feeding it and how much? Are you feeding it before you use it and is it rising appropriately?
I think in order for anybody on this sub to accurately help you we need to know about your starter and we need to know when you added extra water and flour and why.
Keep trying. It can be frustrating but I found it’s really helped with my focus and when you get that first loaf right it’s a great feeling. Just remember bad loaves aren’t wasted. I have a lot of breadcrumbs and croutons in my house. But I use them.
You’re basically kneading it by doing 45 minutes of stretch and folding, and overworking the gluten which will make it tight. When you leave it to prove is it doubled in size and bubbly? It looks like your starter needs fed a few more times before using it again though