Five Minute Artisan Bread Way Too Wet

I want to work my way through the Jeff Hertzberg/Zoe Francois book, but my master dough is incredibly wet. I am not sure how to add flour to the dough that I'm shaping while I'm holding it, as I can barely handle the piece I cut off after initially dusting it. The dough isn't too old, and the only thing I can think of now is that maybe the container I'm using is too airtight, and moisture keeps on building up. Is there a trick I'm missing?

Oscar Cadeau
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3 Comments

Doubly
Doubly January 23, 2018
I've been having the same experience with my AB5M dough. When I was searching to find out how much drier I can make the dough, I found that there is a video of Zoe demonstrating how to shape the super-wet dough on their site:

https://artisanbreadinfive.com/2017/04/16/new-video-shaping-the-ball-from-a-very-wet-dough/
 
ktr
ktr August 7, 2017
I've baked from the book before. The dough is more wet than other bread doughs I've worked with. If it is too difficult to work with, put it in the fridge for a few hours.
 
PieceOfLayerCake
PieceOfLayerCake August 5, 2017
I've never baked from that book before, but new age artisan bread is often very hydrated (70 - 80% in some instances). It's not going to handle like regular bread. I would encourage you to use flour on your bench and your hands, but avoid adding flour directly to the dough. The hydration is how you get that moist but open crumb. It takes some practice, but don't stress....as long as you get some tension in the shape, it doesn't really matter what it looks like. I would watch some youtube videos on shaping and handling artisan bread.

As for being airtight, I just make sure my dough is kept free of draft, I don't worry about airtight. So a loose fitting lid on something works well. I don't think its going to make a difference, but it might.
 
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