I can't get this recipe to work for me. Will it not work if it's too cold?
I have tried this recipe 3 times now and failed each time. Each time I have gotten more specific about following this to the letter. I have the exact flour, the exact baskets, everything. I was so confident going in this time, my leaven had risen well, my dough was much more consistent feeling and I was seeing bubbles like in the video when I was stretching and folding it.
Is it possible that this recipe just won't work if its too cold?
I even left this to prove in an oven with the light on. That seemed to help, but still when I shape the dough it is extremely sticky and uncooperative. I have tried bulk fermentation now for 5 hours, 6 hours, and now at 10 hours. No change. The dough just won't rise. It doesn't rise in the fridge overnight either. Just becomes stuck to the basket. My starter is very bubbly and active and I maintain it well. The only thing I can think of is that it's just too cold? It's currently about 12 degrees C outside but my apartment is well insulated.
I don't know what else I could be doing wrong.
Is it possible that 10 hours bulk is too long maybe? Am I using too much water/not enough flour? I have digital scales and have followed the recipe to the letter. Frustrated. Probably going to try a different recipe I guess but so many people here seem to swear by this one.
7 Comments
So far as attention- I simply meant your bulk ferment might need more folding and resting time. It's also possible you are giving it too long, and the yeast is dying because there is too much alcohol and gas in the dough.
Dough can over proof in either the bulk or final stage- leaving you with a dense bread. It's trickier to make bread in this way- which is why more folks don't do it. You have to figure out what works best in your kitchen, in your particular environment, and with your ingredients. It can take some time, and multiple batches to fine tune that.
Yeast actually likes it on the cool side, between about 27 -35C I've found. So unless your kitchen is really a walk in refrigerator, I still rather doubt cold is the problem. Next time you do the bulk rise, start doing a float test each time you do the fold. That should give you a better idea of when it's ready to move on to the final stage.
I'll try with filtered water, makes sense... actually if that's what it is, that's fairly vital information I haven't considered until now. I'll also have a go with the float test at every stage. Thanks again!
Little update, still no luck using filtered water.
My starter passes the float test, as does my leaven.
After bulk ferment for 5 hrs, the dough looks cohesive but never really rises significantly, maybe only a tiny bit. Some bubbles form. The dough at this point doesn't pass the float test. This is why I've experimented with shorter and much longer bulk ferment times.
This time I felt like the dough was a bit more cohesive in final shaping, but it was still very sticky. After resting overnight in the fridge, it stuck to the basket again and came out looking very misshapen, and collapsed into a pancake shape on the bench pretty much instantly. Was impossible to score as it just stuck to the blade.
Could it have something to do with the hydration in this recipe? Sort of coming to my wits end here and wanting to give up.
I'm using a basket without a liner (don't have one) but have been seasoning it very generously. I'll keep at it.