hey abe its me ashwath again. im sorry i ran out of replies in the other account so I had to create another. I’m having a small problem with my dough. its too wet abe. i tried stretching it with some flour and I just finished my 3rd stretch and even now I was not able to stretch it properly without sticking. is it fine to stretch it more? or what shall I do now? is there any other platformwhere i can contact you ?
This is quite a low hydration bread. Not sure why it’s so sticky for you. The only thing to do is shape it the best you can into a loaf pan and serve what happens.
so is it fine if i add some flour to it now? to make it less sticky ? will that affect my progress (adding extra dough ?)
and it didnt really seem to be mixed up well as i wasnt not able to stretch it well? is there any limit for the number of stretches or i can do so till it gets smooth and stretchy?
If you work on it for too long it’ll over ferment. Add more flour and the ratios will be off. I think just do your best and get it into a loaf pan.
so ill just go for one last stretch , let it sit for 2.5 hrs , shape it ?
There’s something you aren’t understanding.
what is it?
INGREDIENTS FOR THE LEVAIN
- 115g bread flour
- 115g water (room temperature)
- 15g sourdough culture
It’ll ready in 12-14 hours and will look like this…
Once you levain is ready, about 12-14 hours after mixing, looks like the photo above and has a nice aroma then go onto the main dough…
INGREDIENTS FOR THE PAIN NATUREL
MAKES 1 LOAF
- All of the Levain
- 340g bread flour
- 180g water
- 7.5g (sea) salt
Put the levain and flour in the mixing bowl of your standing mixer and add 2/3 of the water (do NOT add the salt yet). Now start mixing and gradually add the rest of the water and let the dough come together. Knead for only 1 minute, leave it in your mixing bowl, cover with clingfilm and rest for 20 minutes (this technique is also referred to as autolyse.
Now add the salt and knead for another 4 minutes. Transfer the dough to a greased bowl, cover and leave to rest for 50 minutes.
- Add flour and water to starter, mix for 1 minute
- 20 minutes rest (autolyse)
- Add salt
- Knead for 4 minutes
- Rest for 50 minutes
After the first 50 minutes rest take the dough out of the bowl and onto a floured work surface and do one stretch and fold (a full letter fold, left over right, right over left, bottom over top, top over bottom; Transfer to the bowl, cover and again leave to rest for 50 minutes. Repeat the stretch and fold (full letter fold) one more time (so 2 times in total) and leave to rest for 50 minutes (so this is the third and last of your three 50 minutes resting periods). During each stretch and fold the dough should feel firmer and less wet.
- First stretch and fold
- Rest for 50 minutes
- Second stretch and fold
- Rest for 50 minutes
Now it’s time to shape. You can make a batard or loaf shape or a boule (ball) shape. Transfer the shaped dough to a proofing basket or loaf pan cover and leave to proof for 2 hours and 30 minutes (provided your dough has a temperature of around 24-25 ºC / 75 ºF, When you think it has risen enough, use your finger to carefully make a very small dent in the dough. If the dent remains, the bread is ready to bake, if the indentation totally disappears, the dough needs a little bit more time.
Preheat your oven to 230 ºC / 445 ºF conventional setting.
Now your loaf is ready for the oven. Slash the top of the loaf with a lame or bread scoring tool. To get a nice crust, try to create some steam in your oven by putting a small metal baking tray on your oven floor when you preheat the oven, and pour in half a cup of hot water immediately after putting the bread in the oven. Release some steam by setting your oven door ajar (perhaps with the help of a wooden spoon or oven mitt) 5 minutes before the bread is ready. If you are going to create steam with a baking tray, you may also want to turn your oven temperature a bit higher, because you are going to lose some heat in the process.
After 45 minutes of baking your loaf should be ready. Transfer onto a rack and leave to cool.
- Shape
- Final proofing 150 minutes (2.5 hours)
- Bake for 45 minutes at 230ºC / 445ºF
- Your loaf is ready!
How did it turn out in the end? Did you manage to get it into a loaf pan and bake it off too see what you get?
@Abe has given you good instruction for making bread with your hard-won starter. I would add this bit of background: 1:1 sourdough starter can be used to make bread using the ratio 1:2:3. That is one part lively starter, two parts water, and three parts flour. Depending on how you like your bread the flour can be all white, all whole grain, or a mixture. It can be all wheat, or any fraction of spelt, rye, barley, buckwheat, or what you like. Include salt amounting to 1.5% to 2% of the flour weight, or no salt at all, and you can have a satisfactory dough. Kneading, stretching and folding, fermenting, shaping, proofing, and baking can all be carried out according to one or another set of instructions. There is no limit to the number of ways to make bread. Each can produce a tasty and nourishing food.
My friend gave me a starter and i put in fridge. She shared your video, took it out, followed directions, made two loaves of fair bread. So i kept hearing about discard, saw that big, fancy jar and changed things. Was planning to make a loaf this weekend. Took out all but 1/4 cup and fed it a 1/4 twice yesterday, once today, and nothing! It’s not rising at all! I only did the discard the one time. It does look kind of liquidy. So confusing! Help!
If it did nothing then why feed it 3 times? Discarding and feeding a starter without it doing anything will only make things worse. As a rule if it’s been fed and it’s gone quiet then leave it till it wakes up again just giving it a stir every now and again. And that’s the only thing you can do now. Keep it warm at 75-78°F and don’t re-feed for until there’s activity even if it takes a few days.
Good to know… but I saw something that said maybe I wasn’t feeding it enough so I upped the flour (before your reply) and a small amount of water and it more than doubled fast! Thank you!
It could just be it needed time and once it woke up it sprung to life. More often than not over feeding can be as detrimental as under feeding. If it has food and it hasn’t eaten through it yet then feeding it more won’t necessarily help as it has enough food. The biggest problem is feeding and discarding too much before it needs to be fed again. If you just added to it then less harm done. It might have woken up sooner if left alone after the first feed.
How did you feed it? What is your maintenance like?
Thank you! I appreciate your quick response. I had never discarded when feeding so i was afraid i was doing something wrong. So confusing! Can’t wait to try my new breadtopia stuff tomorrow!
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It takes time to get the feel for starter maintenance and the only way is to use it and learn. By just adding a bit each time you didn’t do much harm and it woke up when ready.
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FYI my starter maintenance is as follows…
Will build about 80-100g starter, allow it to double then refrigerate. Each time it comes to baking I’ll take a little off to build a levain. My starter stays in the fridge. When it runs low, down to a few grams, I’ll top it up to 80-100g, allow it to double then back into the fridge it goes.
Never have too much going at any one time, no discard, always has a good feed and very low maintenance. My starter is used as seed only (non specific) to build off-shoot starters - levains (designer starters) for the recipe.
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