March 1, 2013 - 2:47am
Dough smells like alcohol
Started making my dough at 3pm yesterday, thinking I would use it for my evening meal, but plans changed, so I didn't bake the dough and left it in the fridge overnight to rise slowly.
Next morning I took it out of the fridge and it was very liquidy, like a starter, and I had to incorporate lots of extra flour into it to get it to the right consistency. I then put it back in the bread maker on the dough setting to give it another knead and rise, although the texture feels gummy and dense. Once it's done I will shape it, rise again, and bake, but it smells like its started to ferment - will this ruin the loaf? What have I done wrong?
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Sounds as though everything is going as it should. Yeast metabolizes carbohydrates, e. g.: starch and sugars, to produce carbon dioxide and ethyl alcohol. The carbon dioxide is the gas that leavens the bread, i. e. raises it. The ethyl alcohol (ethanol) is a byproduct that mostly evaporates during baking. In moderation, neither of these will harm you.
Ford
Quite possibly it has. If a long ferment is intended the amount of yeast is reduced. In this case, as the dough turned liquid, seems the yeast ran out of food and turned cannibalistic. Which produces an excess of, as Ford states, ethyl alcohol.
Jim
I don't know but suspect you might end up baking a brick.
Gerhard
Ha ha well not quite a brick, more of a somewhat alcoholic sponge. Thanks for the insight into what was going on chemically, very interesting.
:) When you add enough flour, don't forget the salt.
I did forget it, then I remembered at the last minute and kneaded it in!
One could just mix up a fresh recipe and leave out the starter/yeast, develop the gluten in the fresh dough, then combine the two to double the recipe. Then shape and let the dough rise. Bake.
Hi :
i make my bread , using a bread machine with the dough cycle - then i take it out , let it rise for about 45 - 60 min , then bake it for 22 mins. it's a great bread - even when it starts to dry out a bit after a few days, i toast it and it is fine .
But if i don't eat it all within 5 days , it begins to smell strongly of alcohol, The smell is not there for the 1st few days .
Is it ok to eat ? Should i do something different ?
That is a mantra I live by. It has worked for 48 years.
Ha :) !! i don't - works for me too , at 67. i was just curious as to what causes it , if i need to change how i bake bread.
over ripe melons? Are there any wet sticky spots forming?
I was making a bread recipe with bread flour and no salt and no oil. By accident I mis-read the directions and instead of 2 teaspoons of active yeast I put in two tablespoons. Since the yeast was already in the flour I decided to experiment and added 2 tablespoons of sugar. Then I let it rise for a long time around 18 hours. When I baked it it looked normal but when I sliced it it had a strong odor of vodka like alcohol. This did not deter me and I toasted a couple of slices, put some nice low sodium smart balance on them and wow. Tasted great! Tried sprinkling them with garlic powder and a few drops of tabasco and double wow it was a great garlic bread toast. My partner and I both ended up devouring the whole loaf as great garlic bread. But then when I've tried to duplicate it I haven't been able to recreate that strong alcohol odor and taste. If it did actually have any alcohol in the bread it wasn't noticeable, just a great taste and no salt or fat to boot. Now I want it back. Please tell me how to do this. Thanks.