Thanks to Anita and Allen who replied back to the list and to the
others who replied privately concerning my problem that my sourdough
dough sticks to the proving basket.
The concensus seems to be that, confirming my suspicions, my dough is
too wet.The water in my sourdough culture and that added deliberately
according to the recipe is making the (new formulated) flour saturated.
Various suggestions were made as to how to resolve it. The most
popular being to put even more flour (especially rice flour) in to
the banneton before putting the knocked-back dough in. This might be
the hardest one to take on board as I do already put considerable
flour into the banneton at that stage. Another is to reduce the time
the dough is in the basket proving.
Some have questioned the maintenance of the sourdough culture. It
being 50:50 water to flour. (25:25 immeditately after making a loaf
and 25:25 half a day before mixing the dough.) Many expressed
surprise at how wet this starter mix is.
For the latest loaf, hence the delay in replying-I only make
sourdough every fortnight-I used significantly less water in the
mixing stage...some 80ml less in fact. The original recipe said 230ml;
though the previous flour formulation needed 240ml. So today's loaf
had only 150ml of water. The dough was proved, knocked back, and left
to rise for the usual periods. The volumes were slightly less than
before. However, when tipped from the banneton the dough did *not*
stick. Objective achieved. The final loaf has a tight, even, and
highly regular crumb. Now the next step is to increase the water
until I find that balance between good proof and rise, not sticking
and a nice open crumb.
Again thanks to all those who offered advice and suggestions.
Regards, Trevor.
<>< Re: deemed!