What thickness and how long do you preheat it?
3/4", give or take. An hour.
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Sorry, my post should have said weight. So yeah, you should have had a total of 254.5g of water and 413.5g of flour for a 61.5% hydration - that hydration level shouldn’t be sticky, and if gluten is properly developed, should hold shape reasonably well rather than seeking its own level. It probably overproofed in the bulk fermentation phase, which weakens the gluten structure (resulting in dough soup). Then when you used additional flour to handle it during shaping, that toughened your outer crust.
Ah, this makes sense. What do you think is the optimal length of time for the dough to sit, in or out of the fridge? (With the knowledge that my kitchen temperature is a factor.)
It depends on several factors, including the strength of your starter, the quantity of starter you use relative to the total dough weight, and of course fermentation temp (both the temperature of the room/fridge and the temp of your ingredients when you mix). With that quantity of starter (around 34% of total dough weight), in my kitchen (around 72 degrees) and using my starter I’d probably need no more than 4-6 hours of bulk fermentation at room temp (starting with tap cold water). Yours could perform DRASTICALLY differently, though.
In the fridge, I’d probably be able to get away with an overnight ferment, though I rarely do my bulk ferment in the fridge. When I make pizza dough, I usually use 10-20% starter as a percentage of total dough weight, bulk ferment on the counter for 4-5 hours (doing several rounds of slap and fold during the first couple of hours to develop gluten), and then portion into balls that go into the fridge to cold ferment for anywhere from 1-3 days. The timing on the bulk ferment is not a hard and fast rule - I’m just looking for my dough to have risen somewhat (maybe 1.5x) and feel lightened but not super gassy.
I’ll start with your general guidelines and see what happens. My kitchen is probably warmer than 72 degrees, and my starter is FIERCE. My constraints are that I don’t have a lot of room in my fridge to store shaped dough (as opposed to dough-in-a-bowl), and my goal is to use up a lot of starter, 'cause it is the boss of me.
Appreciate the input!
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Where do you keep your starter? I have effectively eliminated the issue of sourdough discard by storing my starter in the fridge - I keep 50-100g in a small jar and feed it only when I want to use it. It can survive for months without feeding, especially if I feed it at a lower hydration percentage - I keep it around 70% usually.
Fridge space can be an issue for me too. For pizza dough I use the 2-cup takeout containers that look like this (with lids):
They are the perfect size to hold a 300-325g ball of dough (the amount I use for a 12” pizza) with room for expansion - in fact, when they get to the point where they are pushing against their lids I know they NEED to be used. Compact and stackable! Then I just stretch them out when it’s time to make pizza (I let them come to room temp on the counter in the container first).
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Great advice. I have approximately 8000 of those.
In the fridge. I feed it every two weeks or so, and I try to keep it to under 400g. I refuse to throw out the discard, so I’m always trying new ways to use it up. So far, focaccia is the best, but crackers, hamburger buns and pizza dough are also good uses for it.
You can probably stretch this to 4+ weeks, especially if you reduce the hydration level. Or you can just keep making delicious things from the discard! I hate wasting it too - that plus laziness are what led me to discover that my starter can go much longer than 2 weeks between feedings, LOL.
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I’ll try this. I discovered it could survive unfed for two weeks (I’d been feeding it weekly) when I went away for that long and had so much trouble explaining to my housesitter what to do (she was already overwhelmed by plant/cat care) that I said the hell with it.
