Troubleshooting overnight whole wheat

zaksoup

Hi Folks, I'm trying to follow Ken Forkish's overnight whole wheat levain recipe. It's about 30% whole wheat, 30% levain, and 80% hydration. I did 4 folds (no kneading) this latest time but after the bulk rise it was still super sticky and difficult to form without a ton of flour on the work surface and my hands. After about 2 hours of proofing the skin on the boules starts to break and tear and they don't hold their shape. The problem is that this is the second time I'm attempting this and last time I did like 6 SUPER intense folds and it still came out the exact same way. I can't tell if I'm over or under-developing the gluten and I'm just really sad because the FLAVOR is perfect when it comes out of the oven but it's super flat and dense and the crust isn't quite right either. Attached photos of 2 hours into proofing and the first batch (also 4 folds, no kneading). Any advice would be lovely.

Updating with some more details:

I feed the levain at 9am, let it develop until about 5pm at 80ish degrees. Mix the final dough then with 30 minute autolyse before adding the levain and salt. 4 folds over the next two hours, and bulk rise at about 68 degrees overnight.

Category: 
up
155 users have voted, including you.

Post Reply

Already a member? Login