sticky dough

[snowcat51]

I have just made the" ClassicSan Fransisco sourdough recipe.I FOLLOWED THE DIRECTIONS UP UNTIL THE DOUGH KNEADINg and then instead I created the "shaggy mess" and let it rest for 45 minutes and then I added flour 1/2 cup at a time and all was well until upon shaping loaves realized the dough may be a little too sticky.What will happen to the bread?I have it raising now.Also I tasted raw dough boy am I gonna have "sour" dough!Will it have more flavor if I retard the dough again?#154142.Thank you

[duonyte]

If you could shape the dough leave it as is. Sticky means that there is not too much flour in it, which is a more usual problem.

The sourness of the raw dough may not translate into quite as sour in the finished dough. I would go ahead and bake it since you've already shaped it into loaves.

The sourdough starter will develop more flavor as it matures.

[snowcat51]

Thank you!The starter is around a year old I have only used it a couple of times.I was using "sour Dough John Ross" recipe for bread and it comes out heavy and flat everytime.I Googled sourdough starter and that is where I got it from.To use the web adress it comes up as "IO datacenters.com but if Googled it can be found. His recipe is giving me flat bread The Classic SF SD bread came out great! I would like to have some "Holes" though!TY

[duonyte]

Dough being sticky is going in the right direction. If you look at the top of this forum, you'll see a couple of sourdough stickies - check those out. Also especially look at the sourdough tutorial that our sourdough queen Donna put together. Look at the folding technique - this is a gentle way of building gluten which maintains more of the air bubbles within the dough and helps create that lovely holey structure.

[Donna M.]

You say the starter is around a year old but you have only used it a couple of times. This makes me wonder how you are maintaining the starter during all that down time in order to keep it healthy. If a starter has not been fed in a long while it will lose its vigor. It will also become very acidic, which is not what you want for good bread texture. Do you regularly discard most of the old starter before you feed it? This is very important and most newbies to sourdough dislike discarding because they feel like it is wasteful. Once the yeasts have consumed all the nutrients in the flour they are just wallowing around in waste product, and very hungry. This is when hooch forms and the smell will become very pungent (alcoholic). It will produce very sour tasting bread, but with poor rising qualities because the acids eat the gluten in the dough.