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unrisen dough -help

rinah.mama's picture
rinah.mama

unrisen dough -help

hi! i made cinnamon rolls. the first batch out of the oven didnt rise and was too dense. i think the yeast is dead. any ideas on what to do? i have already rolled and cut the rolls. i would hate to waste it. is there any other thing i could do to make a something out of it?

Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven

any rise out of the dough (bulk rise) before rolling out the dough?  That would be the first sign of anything going wrong and the place to trouble shoot the dough before all the toppings. (Should it happen again.)  With the toppings, you have a mess to try and fix the dough unless you do nothing.  

There are still options....

  • let the rolls sit longer to rise, in otherwords cover to prevent drying and wait.  Yeast will multiply while you wait and maybe rise enough to bake.  The yeast just need more time.  
  • If you can unroll the dough and scrape off the filling as much as possible, save the filling and use later either for this dough or another one, add softened yeast to the dough, knead it lightly and see if it will bulk rise. 

If you chilled down the dough while waiting to see how to solve this delima, or given it more time to rise let us know. The recipe might also be interesting if the yeast is still not working.  You might still be able to save the dough with other leavens like baking powder or soda. Be sure to tell us the dough temperature too.  

Check the yeast.  How does it smell?  Colour? Taste?  Any aftertastes? Dark colour or off or rancid smells?  How does it test in a little  warmish water with a little flour?

rinah.mama's picture
rinah.mama

I used a recipe that says that it doesnt need proofing. ???...tried to let it sit and wait for an hour or so but the rolls doesnt look as it should. as for the yeast, the color seems slightly darker. 

i got a new box and made a fresh batch, the rolls came out good. the culprit really was the yeast. 

i will try to scrape of the filling from the unrisen dough and test out if i could do something out of it using other leavener or a softened yeast. 

i'll let you know how it turns out

rinah.mama's picture
rinah.mama

I scraped off as much of the cinnamon filling from the cut rolls. It was a mess because the sugar was starting to liquify. I then added softened yeast(same amount as the recipe indicates) and a little bread flour to work it. Left it in the kitchen to proof. After an hour and a half, it looked like the dough rise very little (around 20% of its original size). 

I though that was the end of it and couldn't be saved. But rather than throwing it away, I decided to still bake it and just leave it out for the birds or any creature to eat outside. So I rolled the dough again, placed it into a loaf pan, and baked it.

amazingly, it did rise in the oven and looked like a proper loaf. it turned out okay and edible. my family still ate it.

Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven

Because of the cinnamon now in the dough, I would expect the second addition of yeast to take a little longer to raise the dough.  So a 20% rise just means one has to give the yeast in the dough a little more time.  The short bulk still made a difference though and glad you could save it.  Kudos!  

So what became of the filling?  Did it get cooked and turned into a syrop to pour over the toasted bread slices?

rinah.mama's picture
rinah.mama

I was planning to make a syrup out of it but my family used it as a spread for the warm cinnamon bread.