sticking (not "sticky") bread dough

[pstock]

I am a fairly experienced bread baker but I still have trouble sometime with my shaped loaves sticking to the slider board (is there a technical term for this? is this the "peel" or is that what I use to pull the finished loaves out with?)

I use a thin piece of smooth wooden board.

maybe my loaves are too moist (and maybe someone can advise on how to determine the optimum moisture before baking.)

I typically leave them for about 60-120 minutes to final rise lying on a floured tea towel.

anticipating sticking problems, I also usually dust the board with fine cornmeal (as per a pizza) or coarse whole wheat flour.

but even today, by time I flipped a loaf onto the board, reached for my blade to slash them... when I went to slide them onto the tiles, the middle half had stuck to the board making sliding impossible and a holy mess of that shaped loaf.

any suggestions as to moisture content, or choice of sliding gizmo??

Peter

[jackal10]

Its the gluten that makes them stick.

Dust your flipping board with rice flour every time.

Edited August 9, 2009 by jackal10 (log)

[tino27]

You can also place your shaped (but not yet fully proofed) loaves, seam-side down onto a cut piece of parchment paper. Then, simply use the peel to slide them into the oven and after about fifteen minutes of baking, the loaf will have risen to it's full capacity and you can simply pull the paper out from under the loaf. I do this all the time with my ciabatta dough since it is SO wet.

I would use a separate piece of parchment for each loaf. Just make sure you make the piece large enough to cover the bottom of the ENTIRE loaf or else you'll end up with sticking issues where the dough touches the peel.

[dougal]

Try this!

Work as usual, but, after you have dusted your board with cornmeal, cover the board with a sheet of baking parchment, and dust the top of the parchment with more cornmeal.

Then carry on as normal.

Just slide the sheet of parchment (with its dough) onto your tiles.

As Tino27 says, you can open the oven after about 10/15 minutes and pull out the sheet of parchment. I do this at the same time as I remove my metal water/steam dish.

The bread should have 'sprung' but be barely coloured when you finish with the steam.

Don't worry, it ain't a soufflé...

Opening the oven for these jobs helps to establish dryer conditions for the final 2/3 of the bake.

ADDED as a PS - for the determined shopper, I've heard of (but not used) a thing called a Super Peel ...

http://www.breadtopia.com/super-peel-in-action/

Edited August 16, 2009 by dougal (log)