wet doughs
I have been baking bread for about a year now and just received the book "Flour, Water, Salt, Yeast" , I have tried a couple of the recipes and find that they are so wet that I can not make them do anything remotely like I have been used to doing breads. The dough relaxes so bad I just plunk the mess into the proofing baskets and hope they will be okay, The first one I made I added more flour and it came out okay, but wondering what I am doing wrong, I measured exactly the recipe and still like a gooey mess to work with. Also I don't seem to be able to make the dough smooth like i want, It looks more like the moon all wrinkly and pock marked. I watched Kens videos and his seem to be nice and smooth no matter what he is doing. Thanks in advance for any suggestions
Dpete
I responded in your introductory post and mentioned that using bread flour might be better because of the protein content. As well feel free to reduce the amount of water if you find that the dough is too sticky and it won't hold when you shape it. Keep trying and you will get there.
I replied to other post .. thank you.
I have reduced the hydration slightly when I make the FWSY doughs, and adjusted some of the fermenting and proofing times so it doesn't over ferment or over proof.
Other than that, you might try mixing the dough in a stand mixer for a significant period of time (8-10 minutes or more). Other authors / bakers say this makes better gluten structure. Daniel Leader, in his book "Local Breads" says that traditional Italian bakers will mix high hydration (80% or more) doughs at high speed in a stand mixer for 20 minutes, and that it might take 45 minutes by hand! Worth a try if you have a mixer or a lot of free time. :)
Thank you for your reply, I live off grid part time so I don't have the energy requirements for a mixer, (Solar power) but your other ideas seem plausible. I will try them and thinking maybe that I can use a higher protein flours , hoping that will help. I feel like such a noob at this, I have made breads before using sweeteners to help "kick" the yeasts. and never had so many problems.. (I forgot i had some plastic bags stored in my dutch oven, and realized that I had put them in the oven and was able to save my dutch oven just in time, didn't burn the plastic but it was a goop, I then cooled it all off and washed it out) Anyway I think my dutch oven is okay. The bread I baked is after that is not very good looking, so many mistakes I feel lucky it is edible.(I Hope)
You might also look into one of these> http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/35835/handcranked-dough-mixer.
I know what you mean about minimizing power requirements. Though I do have, and use, stand mixers (I bake for a small shop and a subscription list of customers, so regularly make large batches), I also grind almost all my whole-grain flours by hand with a Wondermill Jr. I love the idea of being able to make good bread without significant power requirements. :)
FWSY recipes are notorious for instructing fermentation and proof times that are WAY too long.. consider reducing the times he suggests by at least 1/3 and give it a try.. especially if your place is warmer than this 71 degree bakery temp that he talks about in the book.. many people have baked FWSY blobs because of this time issue.. let your eyes tell you when it's time to move to the next step.. Give it a try and let me know!
I baked low hydration doughs for over a decade and didn't know a thing about high hydration ones. The two are quite different. I first started learning about the techniques for the wet dough techniques in a classroom setting. One four hour class did the trick. If that's not available to you for any reason, find videos and text books.
Think about this: the lean, low hydration doughs and the wet, high hydration doughs are simply different beasts and hence require different techniques. At your stage, start with the assumption that Forkish's recipes are correct and you need help in learning how to manage what you get when you follow the recipe.