I've been overworking my sourdough for years because of a bad YouTube video

I always thought my loaves were a bit dense, but I figured that was just my starter. Last week, a new baker at the shop watched me do my final folds and said, 'You're still going? The windowpane test passed five minutes ago.' I was following a tutorial from 2015 that said to keep going until the dough was 'smooth as a baby's bottom,' which took me about 15 minutes of kneading. I cut it back to 8 minutes this morning and the crumb is already way more open. Has anyone else had a technique from an old source that just turned out to be wrong?

2 comments

2 Comments

kai56420d agoTop Commenter

Totally feel that. I had the same thing with autolyse times, some old book said an hour minimum. Cut it to 30 minutes and my dough is way happier.

the_evan21d ago

Ever wonder if the whole "smooth as a baby's bottom" thing was just bad advice that got repeated? I saw that same line in a bunch of old blog posts and it messed me up too. It's like that one wrong tip became the standard for years because everyone was copying the same sources. Makes you question all the other little rules we follow without thinking.