Introduction To Bassinage – When And How To Apply To Sourdough Making?

Last week, we talked about what is autolyse and how it works in bread making. If you missed the post, click here to review. When making bread, especially sourdough, there are different approaches to get the gluten network developed and “bassinage” is one of them. Today I’m going to discuss the bassinage technique and I will share my ciabatta recipe as an application of bassinage.

What is bassinage?

Bassinage or Eau de bassinage is a French term in baking, referring to the process of holding back some water from the recipe at initial mixing, and then slowly adding the remaining water back to the dough several times. By holding back some water at the early stage of mixing, the gluten has more time to develop. It is easier to establish a gluten network with lower hydration (less water). Once the gluten network is built, the dough is able to hold more water, which leads to an open crumb structure after baking.

Bassinage works particularly well on wet dough. Imagine you are going to make a 100% hydration dough. Without using this method, you will possibly end up with a batter rather than a dough.

How to apply bassinage during the mixing stage?

There is no hard rule about how much water you have to hold back. For my usual sourdough recipes (70-75% hydration), I save about 40-45g water for bassinage and salt (sprinkle some water on the salt which allows easy contribution of the salt). A rule of thumb is you want just enough water to form a dough. It is crucial that more water is added to the dough for mixing AFTER a certain degree of gluten structure is shown in the dough. If the remaining water is introduced to the dough before gluten is built, it is likely that you will have a runny batter and you won’t be able to develop gluten from that mass.

Mix flour, most of the water from the recipe and starter until reaching the medium gluten strength. I will do a windowpane test at this point to ensure gluten has begun forming. Then start adding water little by little. Make sure the water is absorbed and mixed into the dough before adding more water. Add the salt and the last 5g of remaining water and continue mixing until the dough is smooth and shiny.

If doing an autolyse, add just enough water to the flour to form a dough then rest for 30 minutes. After resting, add the starter and continue adding water little by little. Mix until reaches medium gluten strength. Add salt and the last 5g of remaining water and continue mixing. Perform a window pane test to check the gluten network.

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100% Ciabatta Recipe

weight	ingredients	baker’s percentage
500g	baker’s flour (12.5% protein)	100%
500g	water	100%
125g	starter	25%
10g	salt	2%
25g	olive oil	5%

Workflow

Day 1
14:30	Mix flour, 70% water and starter until reach medium gluten strength. (window pane test) Slowly add more water, little by little. (medium-low speed) Save 5g pf water for adding salt. Once all water is added, change to a higher speed and mix until you can hear the dough slapping the mixing bowl. Add olive oil (low speed) Transfer the dough to a straight-side container.
15:00	Bulk fermentation starts. 4 coil fold with 30-minute intervals.
20:30	Transfer the dough to the fridge. Cold proofing overnight.
Day 2
10:30	Take out the dough from the fridge. Leave at room temperature to continue proofing.
14:45	The dough is double-sized. Divide dough into desired size. Pre-heat oven.
15:20	Bake 250 degrees, 12 minutes, with steam 250 degrees, 10 minutes, without steam

Final result

Notes

* if you are not confident with 100% hydration, start with 85%. Slowly increase hydration once you are comfortable handling the wetter dough.

* depending on the dough strength, perform 4-5 coil folds

* as I ran out of time before the dough finished bulk fermentation, I transferred the dough to the fridge. The next day I took out the dough to resume the first fermentation. (until the dough is almost double size)

* once the bulk fermentation is complete, transfer the dough into the fridge for cold-proofing overnight. The next day, preheat the oven then divide the dough. Once the oven is ready, bake it.

* When dividing the dough, sprinkle lots of flour on the bench and on the dough to avoid dough sticks everywhere (see photos below)

* use a metal scraper to cut dough

* I use a thick tea towel as a cradle for dough (also sprinkle lots of flour on the tea towel)

* Here is a video of the final dough. It’s glossy and smooth. Due to the high water content, the dough is quite runny and care is needed when handling such wet dough. Try not to move it too much during dividing and final proof as it may cause the escape of gases which affects the final structure of the bread.

At the end

Bassinage is an easy but super helpful technique. With higher hydration dough, applying bassinage will deliver the result you are after. Let’s challenge ourselves with this 100% ciabatta bread recipe and practice bassinage at the same time. Happy baking!