February 8, 2014 - 1:19pm
Knocking back after first ferment
I am using a wild yeast starter and have never tried knocking the dough back after the first ferment (4+ hours) process. I have read in a couple of books that this technique is often applied. I am not too convinced that the dough would rise again after knocking it back, so I have avoided this process. Does anyone here apply this process of knocking back and doing a second ferment prior to shaping/proofing? Thanks for your input.
Richard
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Everything I have been doing has been to promote airiness in the bread. I want an open crumb. I'd be happy if a 1/2" slice did not let a lot fall through the holes, but I love the holes.
I'm not experienced enough to know why you'd knock back for sure, but I do redistribute the air in my dough. I pop huge bubbles that appear when I'm doing my stretch and fold, I put pressure on the dough in order to make sure folds adhere to the rest of the dough and not create huge openings in the crumb (but I still sorta suck at this part).
I don't know whether its iron first velvet glove, or iron glove velvet first, but there's a firmness required to do that stuff with the least amount of handling possible.
Leavening SD takes longer than some other breads, often because we're trying to get more flavor and so we're doing things that slow yeast growth. Ergo, whatever yeast growth you get, as long as its not making balloons come out of the side of the dough, you want to keep.
On the other hand, I can imagine if you're proofing is all being done at room temperature (RT) then you may be getting more gas than you want. If that's the case, then knocking back, once, and probably early, might not be bad. Just be sure your dough will hold enough yeast to give you a decent rise before baking, and some oven spring to make your scores work.
Personally, I haven't knocked back yet, and I've baked ~15 loaves in the last 8-9 days practicing.
Anyway, that's me, the newb's, take from the many people I'd call experts here that I've talked to in that 8-9 days.
Oh, try and make sure your dough doesn't have much flour on its surfaces when you do a fold. If they're too floured, it can make for a huge cavity in the dough. That's be one good reason to knock back, irregular rising.
GL!
Russ
Knocking back is a bad term really, as it implies rough handling, it is also sometimes called punching down. It really isn't meant to be a rough process, more a gentle degassing. I think it is just redistributing air and food and the harder you do it, the tighter the finished crumb. If you want a sandwich/toasting loaf with a dense crumb you would probably degas a little more.
Personally I like an airy crumb and try to be as gentle as I can with the dough through all stages. You can always try it and see what results you get. It will rise again no problem, even if you are rough, but it will change the crumb structure.
i do knock it back but like BMF said above it is more like a gentle degassing adn then a light shaping of the dough for retarding overnight where it usually proofs to st least 85%. I also sometimes do a bulk retard after ferment and then let the dough warm up for an hour and a half before degassing as i shape then 2 hours later it is usually ready for the oven. Being gentle and handling the dough as quickly and as little as possible leads to larger holes.