June 14, 2014 - 1:23pm
Some general beginner questions that I have been saving up..
I have been baking for about 1.5 years now. Just baguettes and sandwich breads. During this time, I have had made many successes and mistakes. It has been a wonderful and rewarding journey. I have some questions that I have saved up and hope I can get some answers. I hope they are not stupid questions.
- What is the difference in "function/purpose" between the first rise and second rise?
- Is the second rise called "proofing"?
- What are the symptoms of under (1st) rise? and over (1st) rise considering the second rise is timed correctly?
- As far as simple sandwich bread is concerned, are there any advantages or disadvantages with increasing the hydration? (sometimes when I go by the recipe, the dough seems stiff to me, and yes I use a scale)
- When preparing the dough for the second rise/shaping, how gentle must I be? I mean do I perform a second knead or just gently flatten out the air bubbles and then shape?
- Symptoms of a slightly under 2nd rise?