Sourdough bread shaping

I’ve been watching on youtube a Danish guy called Sune “The Food Geek”.  He’s very into sourdough and is a fabulous baker.

I’ve always had a problem with the final shaping of my sourdough.  I do the preshape no problem shaping it into a lovely tight ball with a good skin.  But after that, I should be able to stretch it out a bit and overlap it top and bottom and sides to do the final shape before it goes into its batons to prove in the fridge overnight.

My dough is around 75% hydration which is not as high as some sourdoughs but higher than others.  I cannot do an 80% hydration loaf because French flour absorbs less water so it becomes unmanageable.  My hydration levels are good and I’ve just not understood how I cannot do this final shaping (it is too sticky and I just cannot do it).  Sune makes it look so simple.

Anyway, the day before yesterday when I started my new batch (the process takes 3 days) I did it completely differently for an experiment.

I had my starter on the benchtop as usual for the day.  Then at about 2.30pm I autolysed the flour and water and mixed 40gms of starter with 35gms of flour and 35gms of water which is normal.

Usually, I then leave it overnight to begin the stretch and folds the next morning adding the salt.  This time, however, I combined the starter mix with the autolysed flour that same evening with the salt at about 8pm and gave it a good dose of stretching and folding.  I then left it out of the fridge overnight covered in cling film.

The next morning it was fabulously bubbly and had risen well so I did about 3 or 4 lots of stretch and folds over the course of around 1.5-2hrs.  I then left it alone for a couple of hours and at around 11am I preshaped the dough.  To my surprise, I was able to handle the dough far better and actually managed to properly do a final shape.

So I did this and put them in their batons to prove in the fridge for the rest of the day and overnight, baking both the following morning.  On baking, I was also able to give both loaves a far better score before baking which is another aspect I’ve been having issues with.

They were slightly different.  They’d risen a little more than normal and looked really good.  I’m very happy with the result and I’m getting this down so that I don’t forget what I did.

We’ll see how it goes next time, whether if I do the same process I can do the final shaping.  These are the only aspects I have not been able to perfect with my sourdough and I’d be thrilled if I can finally get them sussed.  Even though my bread is very good, not getting these technical aspects perfect has been bugging me.

I am also going to experiment with baking the bread in my Cuisinart iron pan rather than in the pot, putting water in the bottom of the oven for steam rather than using the lid method for steam.  It will enable me to do a better cut on the dough before it goes into the oven.  

We’ll see!  Anyway, it’s now lunch time and time to eat my yummy sourdough with Pavé d’ Affinois cheese and tomato.