Letting bread rise...how many times?
So I've been making bread for a while now, sometimes it's great, sometimes it's ok. I have my own personal struggles with specific things sometimes, like density, air holes, sour dough in general (but that's a whole other subject) etc. But besides that, one thing I just now thought about while lying on the couch waiting for my newest batch to rise before it goes in the oven, is rise amounts. This recipe I'm using today is new, it's from allrecipes.com and it says to mix in the ingredients, let rise, punch/fold, let rise again, then shape, let it rise and throw in the oven. Pretty standard... But wouldn't that mean it's rising 3 times? I mean, obviously, and it's one of those things that's so obvious I never thought about it when a recipe says to do this but says it's "rising twice" when it's actually rising 3 times.
Is there anything wrong with letting it rise three times? Is there a reason why recipe's say it's rising twice when in actuality it's rising 3 times? If you were trying to let it rise twice wouldn't you mix everything,let it rise, then punch/fold and shape it, then that second time it rises while in shape just pop it in the oven?
Just a matter of what your definition of "rise" is. Probably common usage is to count the number of rises in a bulk fermentation phase.
A single bulk fermentation followed by a proofing is most common, but people seeking fluffier product may do two rises in the BF phase. If you're doing stretch & folds during BF, you may effectively have 3-5 rises in that phase, although you wouldn't let it double in volume.
Your only limitation is running out of yeast food; you're pressing your luck if you go much beyond two successive doublings of the dough during BF.
Thank you. That makes sense. I do have one more question, most of the bread recipes I find say to knead after the bulk fermentation/first rise. But then I came across one website that said it's bad to knead after the BF. It said to knead before, like when you mix everything together go ahead and knead/fold it then let it rise, knead again if desired and shape and bake, because that causes the yeast to activate sooner, and results in better gluten and protein production/elasticity. Is there any truth or science to this? I've never seen that before yesterday and I've never kneaded before the first rise.
"say to knead after the bulk fermentation/first"
No.......I think you might be misreading something there. You can't really BF until you've developed the gluten by kneading.
The normal process for ordinary bread is to mix the ingredients, then knead, either in the mixer or by hand, until the dough passes the windowpane test. Then you BF until the dough doubles, then you punch it down shape, and let it proof. Then bake.