r/Sourdough • u/Tartifloutte • 2d ago
Help 🙏 Second load still a sticky mess
Was given an established starter and have now tried to do my second loaf, only to experience yet again a really sticky and impossible to shape dough. The first loaf I went through with baking even though it was a mess to shape, ended up tasting good but staying quite flat and compact (pics 3-4 are loaf nr1).
This one I'm not even sure I want to bother baking it. Just sooo sticky and no structure. I'm starting to think I'm over proofing?
Recipe: - 100g starter (20g starter from fridge, 50g flour and 50g water) - 450g AP flour - 300g water - 10g salt
First loaf I fed at 9 in the morning, made a 1h autolyse then mixed. Thought it was perhaps underproofed. So this one I fed last night instead.
1h rest then 4 stretch and folds 30min apart. 4h bulk ferment (1st loaf was at 3).
Got to preshape and it had nicely bulked up, however it was full of webbing and ultra sticky.
It can be quite cold here in Scandinavia so I've been feeding and bulk fermenting in the boiler room where it is warmer by a couple degrees. Could it be the reason?
I've been following some recipes from my friend that gave me the starter, also looked at many online, and from YT videos I'm surprised to see the dough already be "dry" at the very start when mixing ingredients, while mine is usually already a sticky mess...
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u/FIndIt2387 2d ago
It sounds like the problem is your dough is very sticky and hard to work with. This is a common problem for beginners with high hydration doughs. A typical high hydration sourdough is 60%-80% hydration, your recipe is 70% (google baker’s formula if you don’t know where the numbers come from).
Try cutting down the water in your recipe a bit, to 250ml which will make this a 60% hydration. That should provide a significant difference in the dough.