Handling Wet (Rustic) Bread Dough

I played around with trying to learn how to handle wet bread dough for ages. I asked other bakers, but never really "got" it until I saw how soupy the bread dough could be going into the oven, and how much the "oven spring" would influence the final shape.....no matter how awful the bread looked when you pushed it into the oven. This is the type of bread that the fancy baking books refer to as high hydration. (hydration of 70% or more - meaning that the ratio of water is 70% or more of the weight of the flour in the recipe.....more like a paste than a dough.
                                                                                                                                                            Seeing is believing....Give it a try. You will have a blast with this dough.
It's fun to do and the taste and crumb structure is unbelievable. Great fresh, but it's sublime as
toast, (try it with lemon curd) garlic toast and bruschetta. Mmm, Mmm, Mmm..

I hope you may find this video helpful in understanding how to work with this crazy wet dough.

Also, here's a quick look at the finished product. I'll talk about recipes for this bread next post.