13 hours ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:However the two biggest differences were that the hydration was slightly less and the salt was added along with the yeast and poolish before autolysis.
You can move hydration around quite a lot and still get bread. I’ve been experimenting with a lot of different purées in my sourdoughs, many of which are resulting in small changes to the hydration, and while the finished texture of the breads is affected, it is never “putty-like.” I’d be very surprised if a small change in hydration had that effect. But of course it’s also easy to test.
Adding the salt before the autolysis stage should decrease the effectiveness of the autolyse, but that will only change how long it takes the gluten to form, not whether it does or not. Do both doughs reach full windowpane?
How are you checking for proof?
