Problem with elasticity and holding shape
Looking for suggestions. I’ve been baking a standard loaf for years, same proportions of everything, through all seasons in relatively consistent ambient temps (75-80F). I had it down, and it turned out very acceptable in rise, ear and crumb. (Never got real SF sour...but that’s another story.) The past few months, no matter what I have tried, I just cannot get a strong, elastic dough that will hold its shape despite increased stretch and folds. It seems to protealize and get weaker and stickier, in fact. I have tried everything I could think of: rebuilding starters, eliminating autolyse, mixing to windowpane, not mixing to windowpane, and decreasing hydration from my normal 78-80% to (so far) 70%. This last loaf (at 70%) acted better than previous ones, but still weak...on the order of what I would have expected from my previous 80% dough. It is getting ridiculous, looking like I might have to go below 70% to achieve what I used to achieve at 80%. The only variable I haven’t changed is the flour- KA bread flour- although I did change the method of storing it from cupboard to refrigerator. And the timing of that seems to coincide with when I started experiencing the problems. Thinking (out of desperation) that that might have been the problem (I dunno...increased humidity absorption or something), I let the flour warm up for a day before using. Same result. I think it’s unlikely, but do you think I got a bad batch of flour or that my refrigeration of it caused some unexplained change? Obviously, I could answer this question myself by acquiring a new batch of flour and not refrigerating it, but I still have a few bags left to go through and am seeking some comments prior to wasting those. What else could it be? What am I overlooking? Any comments would be appreciated.