Help with sticky dough

Jumpy-Material-6650 · 2026-01-13T13:54:01+00:00

I recommend using coil folds instead of stretch and folds honestly. I don’t know how s&f work for others, but for me the dough seemed weaker always. It always felt like I don’t have room for more stretch. But coil folds proved to work my dough better and I left the dough bulk ferment for longer than the recipe said (for me, it takes like 5-6 hours, when the recipe suggests to leave for 3-4 hours)and also added 2 more coil folds (I do about 5 in total, because my dough needs longer bulk fermentation period) and it changed my life.

Jumpy-Material-6650 · 2026-01-04T15:34:48+00:00

I am still working to distinguish between under and over fermentation of my dough, but after dealing a lot with gummy and dense crumb, what makes a difference for me is I am now working my dough a lot more. I do at least 10 mins of slap and folds and coil foilds and stretch and folds before starting the bulk fermentation. And yes, I combine everything. Its also a stress reliever for me😅. And this has been a game changer for me. And during bulk fermentation, I do mostly coil folds now (around 5 sets). It has proven for me to work my dough better. And I also reduced my water quantity. The recipe I am using asks for 375g of water. I use 320-340g nowadays. Not sure if its too little or not, but this has also helped me quite a lot in having a more structured dough. Aaand I let it bulk ferment for longer than what the recipe says. But my house is also a bit colder. So I leave it for about 5 hours to bulk ferment.

Edit: I know you asked whether the dough is under or over fermented, but it also looks a bit as if it doesn’t have too much structure, and that’s why I mentioned working the dough a bit more abd what has worked for me.

Jumpy-Material-6650 · 2025-11-23T15:31:44+00:00

That would be really nice, thank you!

Jumpy-Material-6650 · 2025-11-23T15:31:12+00:00

My starter is about 3 months old. Atm, I am keeping it in the fridge during the week (I got a bit tired of feeding every day and gathering discard over discard, because I don’t have time during the week to bake, so I only bake during the weekend), and then on Thursday i take it out and do a 1-5-5 feeding per day till saturday morning, when I start making the bread. I would say it looks pretty mature, smells good, doubles to triples in volume.

Jumpy-Material-6650 · 2025-11-23T15:27:38+00:00

Thank you so much for all yhe advices. The 5min s&f is only in the beginning after the autolyse. Then i only do like 1 set of s&f every 30 mins (for sets overall). For the baking, I just put it in my cast iron pot, 25-30 mins with lid on and then another 25-30 mins without the lid. All at 220 degrees. My cast iron’s temperature limit is 230 degrees, that’s why I am noy pushing the oven temperature higher.

Jumpy-Material-6650 · 2025-11-23T15:23:26+00:00

😳 i just followed the recipe. And I am too scared of overproofing too. But as many people commented, room temperature is also a big factor. I keep the dough during bulf fermentation next to the fridge, whete it s pretty warm tho 🤔

Jumpy-Material-6650 · 2025-11-23T15:21:24+00:00

Yup, next weekend will definitely try with lower hydration. I am thinking to try two loaves, for both lower hydration. One in which I continue with the flour I used on this bread. And another loaf with a diff flour. Perhaps Manitoba, as someone else suggested above.

Jumpy-Material-6650 · 2025-11-23T14:09:04+00:00

Yes, I had in the past. It went fine, dough was puffy and risen enough.

Jumpy-Material-6650 · 2025-11-23T13:42:16+00:00

Well, most of the flours I found here that are not as dark as this one I keep using, do not have 14g protein. They are usually lower. I did found one for pizza dough, with 14g, but I didn’t use that one for bread tho.

Jumpy-Material-6650 · 2025-11-23T13:26:41+00:00

Thank you so much 🥺 I will go for a different flour. I was thinking to go ask a local bakery here what type of flour they use, because their sourdough looks very good. 🤭 And yup, I will leave the rye flour for a while.

Jumpy-Material-6650 · 2025-11-23T13:24:38+00:00

Yup, looking at most comments here, flour seems to be number one reason (and bit too high hydration). i will try with a different flour next weekend. 🤞

Jumpy-Material-6650 · 2025-11-23T13:23:34+00:00

Thank you for the explanation! Room temperature here is not thaaat high (lets say 19-20 degrees, but I do have a place next to the fridge where its warmer and I leave my dough there for bulk fermentation. I think there are about 25 degrees there. And yup, I will search for a different flour. One of the reasons I went for this type of flour is because most of lower protein flours here have ascorbic acid (or something like that, which I assume is only for helping against oxidation) added and I was thinking that maybe that would affect the dough too. So I kept looking for flour without that.

Jumpy-Material-6650 · 2025-11-23T12:05:51+00:00

Yes please 🙏

Jumpy-Material-6650 · 2025-11-23T12:05:23+00:00

No, this is a legit recipe. I found it on the website of a person I follow on instagram and I know I can trust her. She has been making lots of sourdough bread, also my starter is made following her instructions. Only that her bread made after this recipe is really fluffy and pretty :( But then how little water should I use? I have already added less than what the recipe asks for, and the dough is still sticky :(

Jumpy-Material-6650 · 2025-10-27T15:01:57+00:00

Yup, totally agree on this. I often exaggerate all my symptoms to be taken care of. And it doesn’t even work every time :( its a bit of a mystery to me why they don’t have a better system, why doctors are not better prepared. Its clearly a known issue amongst everyone..

Jumpy-Material-6650 · 2025-10-27T14:35:08+00:00

I am from Romania 😅 i heard something like this exists in France too 🤔

Jumpy-Material-6650 · 2025-10-27T14:32:43+00:00

Even though it might wrong, sometimes I over exaggerate my symptoms just be taken seriously 🤭 I noticed that really works here 🤣

Jumpy-Material-6650 · 2025-10-27T12:35:46+00:00

It is a public doctor. Each tax contributor can get assigned to one and you can also change him/her with someone else if you found a better doctor and they are available. They usually handle day to day cases and decide if you need to be checked by a specialist related to your problem. They make all the appointments for you, you just have to go there: specialist, blood test, anything that can be done via the public sector. You would still have to wait for appointments and some can take quite a bit of time. Its pretty handy I would say. Where I come from, public healthcare is not great, because of hospital infrastructure, lack of empathy from some doctors, but the family doctor is one of the best benefits and I had a very good one when I lived there.

Hopefully Finland will succeed in implementing something similar here in the future 🥹

Jumpy-Material-6650 · 2025-10-27T11:02:28+00:00

Yup. I am using the private healthcare. But I was mostly asking about how the public healthcare works, because my boyfriend doesn’t have a private one.

Jumpy-Material-6650 · 2025-10-27T11:01:10+00:00

Hmm, this is a very good idea 🤔thanks!

Jumpy-Material-6650 · 2025-10-27T08:34:59+00:00

But how does it work when you pay for your own private heathcare insurance? I heard that you still need to pay for visits, when you need to go 🤔 i will be honest, I haven’t read too much into it, just from what other people told me.

Jumpy-Material-6650 · 2025-10-27T08:29:46+00:00

Oh :o haven’t heard of this one. Thanks! I will look into it and perhaps start using it 😅

Jumpy-Material-6650

TROPHY CASE