January 1, 2010 - 10:18am
Reinhart's multigrain -- kaboom!
On the first fermentation it doubled in less than an hour. In the loaf pan it doubled in half an hour. Add to that the oven spring and I fear it's going to be a very open crumb. I've been striving for this in baguettes but not in sandwich bread. What happened? It stikes me that a whole tablespoon is a lot of yeast, but I doubt it's a typo as this book has been out for a while. Any thoughts?
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that you either mismeasured the yeast or forgot the salt? that would be my first guess. I'd give it another try and you might want to do the bulk fermentation in the fridge.
And what is the dough and room temperature? (3 Q's)
When that happens to me, I end up shaping twice or going thru two bulk rises. You could try cooling down the dough or using less yeast. How long did you want to raise the loaf before baking? (oops, that's 4 Q's and a smile)
Mini
Salt and temperaure are both possibilities. I know I was right on the yeast, but I use kosher salt and probably should have weighed it, but I'm not confident in my scale.
Recipes that use a tablespoon of yeast are not unheard of, and as constantly advised, rising times are variable. And don't be too "optimistic" for an open crumb.
I've used recipes that called for a Tbl yeast for only 3.5 cups white flour(ex: KAF Beautiful Buns). Doubles in half hour(or less), in the summer where I live. That's just the way the recipe was written, for whatever reason. You can always punch it down and let it rise again if it's too fast, (as Reinhart advises). I now use anywhere from 1 to 1.5 tsp, depending how long I want to wait.
Bottom line: The crumb was not as open as I had feared although the final product was higher than the photo in the book. Tastes good, although with a slower rise it probably would have been even better. Thanks for all the suggestions.