watery mess - after proofing
Howdy everyone,
after searching on the forums I was unable to find an answer to our question. Hopefully one of yall can shed some light on this.
My wife and I have had several failed attempts at making bread.... so much that we have not even made it to the baking part yet. The recipe we are using (white no-knead) 3cups flour, 1 1/2 cups warm water, 1/4tsp yeast (instant) and 1 1/2tsp salt. Searching the internet this seems pretty standard. We add everything into a bowl - stir (ends up just like the pictures and videos) - cover with plastic wrap and let rise for ~18 hours (usually in the oven, with it off of course). When we go to take it out of the bowl there is a watery mess (about 1/4cup at the bottom) and the dough is unworkable. After reading everyone said 'its ok the dough should be sticky' .... the wife calls it the same consistency as kid's slime toy. Is this normal? We were going to try and add more flour but seemed like we were crushing all of the air out of it.
We do live in a humid climate (between 55-70%) but was not sure if that would be causing it. Any information yall could give we would appreciate it.
Thank you in advance,
Sarah and Will
Your prove/ferment has been too long. The yeast has worked, stretched the gluten, then other enzymes have sttacked the gluten, breaking it down, leaving you with the gloop.
It may be salvagable by re-kneading but really the solution is to let it rise for a much shorter time. I've no idea how ¼ teaspoon of yeast equates to the flour you're using (I work on grams), but if it's a standard overnight no-knead type of thing, then leave it in a cooler place for 10-12 hours maximum and see how that works.
-Gordon
Gordon,
thank you for the advice. Will give that a go this evening and see what happens.
Again thank you,
Sarah and Will
is that you get gloop because your recipe is off. I think 3 cups of flour is about 360 gm while 1.5 cups of water is about 350 gm, which gives you nearly 100% hydration. The basic no-knead I use and others I've seen are more like 70- 75%. You can try higher % doughs after you've become comfortable with this range.
I suggest using a recipe with weight measurements and using a digital scale. One person's cup of flour can be 20 percent different than another person's measurement of a cup, which obviously would mean a very different result. Now, even with a digital scale, variables such as humidity, temperature and the liveliness of a sourdough starter or commercial yeast, will all affect the bread you produce. However, you will at least be sure that the amounts you start out with are consistent with what is envisioned in the recipe.