What does it mean when...
... you find translucent bits of dough in your bread?
FACTS:
I already know that the yeast wasn't very active, which caused my sourdough to be, basically, a brick ( I learned that that was the problem in another brick post).
The bread reach 205F after 40 minutes of baking, just like my successful loaves of sourdough. Everything, in fact, was the same except the inactive "yeast beasties" as someone termed them.
Why would this cause translucent bits of dough? I only saw one or two of these little bits. They were close to the crust but not close enough to be part of the crust. I'm looking for the "scientific" explanation rather than "it's because your yeast was weak" or some other general reason, because I'm trying to learn from every mistake. Thank you, everyone!!
The only times I've seen tranlucent blobs involving wheat and/or barley flour also involved the presence of fats. If fats were present in any significant amount, the yeast would not be happy - it's basic zymurgy.
So, what'cha got in your dough?
This was rosemary olive oil dough, so there was olive oil and chopped rosemary in addition to a little wheat germ, unbleached bread flour (not whole wheat), water, sea salt and my unconcious starter. I've never had any problems making sourdoughs that involved the use of olive oil, though, so I'd be surprised if this was the problem. I will keep this information under advisement, though, as I'm still figuring things out.
When the dough reaches a certain temperature it goes through a gelling stage. If it is too dense (no gasses or other substances are dispersed within to loosen the structure, it becomes a blob or stripe of gelled dough. This happens often when too much flour or oil is used to handle the dough in shaping.
Does that make sense?
Mini
Thanks for the insight, Mini. I think you've provided me the answer to a question I've had recently about a gelatinized layer developing on the bottom of some of my creations. Because I do the final shaping on a floured surface and pull the dough ball to stretch it, to increase the surface tension, I am probably trapping small amounts of raw flour in the bottom layer. You've given me something to work on and I appreciate the info.
Ahh, now this sounds plausible. I didn't use too much oil or too much flour, but because the yeasts were barely active I had a dense bread - only teeny holes throughout. It makes sense that in this siutation there would have been blobs of gelled dough.