dough softening, dissolving, not rising?
I made Oatmeal Molasses Bread.
The recipe is simple. Pour boiling water over the oats, add molasses, butter, salt. Cool a little then knead in the flour. Rise, shape, rise, bake
I tried the recipe in two ways, because I am trying to gain experience with adding whole grains to breads. One, I did as above. The second I soaked the oats in small portion of water from recipe at RT till completely moistened, 5 hours. Then kneaded that in with the other ings. I wanted to see how soaking at RT made a difference in texture and taste in the final bread.
Both the doughs formed beautifully and formed the WP test. I let them almost double, patted down with stretch and fold and left to rise second time in the fridge ON.
The next day the BOILING-water-oats dough hadn't risen very well, just about doubled. The SOAKER dough had more than tripled. As I shaped the loaves, the BOILING-water-oats was much softer, very, stretchable (not so elastic), easy to shape. It was not smooth. I thought it was the oats. The SOAKER-dough was very resilient, bouncy, smooth. While proofing in the pans the BOILING-water-oats dough seemed to get more flabbly, didn't proof well and finally fell a little The SOAKER-dough proofed very high.
Of course the SOAKER-dough baked into a nice big, brown loaf. The other dough fell even more in the oven, took longer to come to 205. The final taste, the SOAKER-dough had a sweet taste, The other dough bread though not bad, had tinges of sour and bitter. And it was denser and took more time to brown in the toaster.
After this very long winded introduction, this is my problem. I have this happen to me three times now. I think I am following instructions but a batch of dough just softens and weakens, doesn't proof, begins to smell bad a little then makes a not so nice sunken bread. Every time there had been a ON soaker involved. Maybe coincidence but I thought it was because I hadn't added salt to the soaker. That were runway protease activity started that chewed on the gluten developed in the dough So I was going to add salt to the soakers from now.
But this time the dough softening happened not to the SOAKER-dough but to the one that had boiling water added to the oats and used soon after. Boiling water kills enzymes.
And then, each and every ing. is the same in the two doughs I prepared and they were prepped side by side at the same time.
So what is causing a batch of dough to occasionally 'rot?'
If it is not the soaker then I seem to have no control over it!
I cannot imagine that it is a microbial infection from my kitchen. I touch both doughs with my hands without washing in between. And I think my kitchen is clean.
I really need help with this one I hope you can provide me with some ideas.
Thank you!