October 14, 2024 - 7:07am
Turkey Red Wheat
I purchased 5# of Turkey Red wheat flour and used it for a sourdough. It was a 50/50 on the flour, using bread flour & the Turkey red (1000g). Water was 75% (750g) and then 300g of levain. Autolyse, stretch & fold & proof ~5 hours. Shaped and cold bulk for 14 hours. Loaves spread and were flat-ish. Tasted fantastic and crust was nice. Crumb was good considering, thought it would have been dense but it was not. When making the dough, it seemed more sticky than usual and I'm not sure if I used too much water. Especially since it spread as soon as i dumped it out of the banneton.
Any suggestions or recommendations for getting whole wheat loaves to not spread? I have had this issue before... Thanks!
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Lower hydration, that's an obvious thought. Everything depends on the flour, of course. But try 3% lower overall hydration and see if that makes a difference. The fact that the crumb wasn't dense shows that nothing was really wrong with the dough itself except for that tendency to spread.
Another thing to try would be to stretch the dough more during forming. The dough will relax during the long bulk ferment even though it was chilled. So you should develop an extra amount of elasticity to try to counteract the relaxation. Keep stretching the dough and rolling or folding it into the loaf shape, and if it isn't taut enough rework it until it is. I have even taken stretchy already-shaped batardes and rolled them up along their axes to produce a short, stubby but very elastic loaf. It works very well.
TomP
The hydration - the starter - the timing - the flours - all related. Drop one at a time (except the flour) till it's perfect for you. Enjoy!