February 21, 2014 - 7:57am
Not getting the rise or oven spring
I've been trying to bake no knead bread. And it comes out lovely. Good crumb, taste and crust BUT I am not getting much of a rise. After 24 hours it pretty much is only about 1.5 x the size of the original dough and there is no oven spring at all. Lots of holes, it just seems to be too dense. The recipe I am using says that the original dough should expand 2 - 3x the original size and I am just not getting that. Also the oven spring isn't there either. I am preheating my casserole dish but there is no spring. The bread is the same size as the dough was going in.
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… is not something I'm yet knowledgable enough to give, but some standard things I've learned from just a few weeks on this site - dough hydration, activity of yeast and no over fermenting … can't no-knead dough rise and then collapse too? 24 hours seems like a long time unless that's the nature of the recipe and the dough… like I said, I'm not really qualified… but steam is supposed to give the oven spring which comes from dough moisture and the doughs ability to trap the gasses because of its good gluten form. (gluten lets the dough stretch out) …
Not sure what's happening, but hubby makes no-knead dough all the time and his is always dense.. but delicious!
It sounds like there is not enough microbial activity to inflate your dough. Try increasing your yeast (or levain). Once you achieve 2 - 3x expansion, the oven spring problem may also be resolved.
Whats your recipe/technique for developing gluten?
Basically what I am doing is taking 3c white bread flour, 1 1/2 tsp salt, 1 1/2 cups of water and 1/4 tsp yeast. Mixing until there is no dry flour left and then letting it ferment for 8 to 24hrs. The dough rises but not 2 or 3x the size, and the oven spring is next to nothing.
Maybe your using instant yeast and it is not in great shape or you need to put half again as much into the mix ...say 3/8th tsp and see if that works better. If using ADY you would want to proof it first in some warm water. If the temp in your kitchen is less than 75 F you might want to up the dough temp to that amount.
are ya doing any stretch and folds/slap and folds after mixing until all the flour is hydrated? are you shaping and proofing after that 8-24 hour bulk fermentation or are you just popping it in the oven unshaped and straight off the bulk ferment?
Thanks to you both....
@woodenspoon, no I am not doing any folding just basically taking the fermented dough and putting it straight into the dutch oven and baking it.
I am very suspicious that that is your problem. I think you might need a touch more gluten development and shaping would result in some surface tension which would aid in oven spring.
Ok, all this information is really helping because the original recipe (video) I saw showed none of this. Just mix the dough, let it ferment, dump it into the dutch oven which is preheated, and then back 25min with the cover and 10 minutes without.