March 5, 2010 - 8:36pm
My 1st Classic French
I'm making my first Classic French Bread from a recipe on Sharon Tyler Herbst book.
The first step is to make the sponge; dissolve 2 tablespoons yeast in 2.5 cups water (110 F). Add 2.5 cups flour, stir 1 minute. Batter is soft like a soft pudding. Cover bowl tightly with plastic wrap. Let rise in a warm place free from drafts, overnight or at least 8 hours.
Well I have done all above. I put the batter in a plastic container inside my oven (oven and oven light are off) and noticed later that the batter doubled in volume but right now, that is about 12 hours since I started, the volume dropped to its original size.
My question; does it matter?
Share
It sounds like you've overproofed your dough. In other words, your dough has reached the point where the yeast has consumed all the food available. The fermentation process has ended and the dough has fallen back on itself. This can happen with store bought yeast or a sourdough starter recipe.
Type in overproof into the search box at the top of the page and you'll get a lot of material that goes into depth on the subject.
Thanks for the info. The search for overproof did not tell me very much except to learn what overproofing means. As a new hobby baker I guess I have a lot to learn.
So should I discard the dough and start all over again?
Hi oskar270,
It looks to me as if there is way too much yeast in your sponge and with a 12 hr ferment time it goes absolutely wild. I have used a french bread formula many times that calls for 4 hr ferment @ 75deg or overnight @ 65deg. These temps being the final dough temp. Using 110 deg water will also accelerate the fermentation considerably. As I advocate, and many on this site do, weight measurements are much more accurate for baking than volume measurements.
Here is my French Bread (Sponge Method)
Sponge
Bread Flour___8 oz
Wate-_______8 oz
Fresh Yeast_______.5 oz
For Active Dry, use approx 40%
For Instant use 33%
Malt or Sugar______.25 oz
Mix until incorporated let stand for times stated above.
Dough
All of sponge
Bread Flour____1 lb
Water________6.5 oz
Salt__________.44 oz (2 1/4 tsp)
Mix on speed until gluten is developed.( will vary greatly with method and or mixer used)
30 minute fermentation @ 80deg
Proof
Bake 425deg with steam for first ten minutes
John
Thank you, I will give it a try