June 13, 2014 - 7:07am
Retardation and Overproofing
That's what I hate about retardation: leaving things to chance for 8 hours. However, I had the same dough, looking the same degree proofed, and one deflated, one did not. Is looser shaping responsible for the NOT deflating?
Thanks,
Walker
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now you know that if you want to follow the same procedure, temp, bulk ferment, ect you will have to cut the leavening, levain i hope. was one loaf shaped looser for sure? Was one of the loaves baked first? did you score one better/different then the other? I suppose if you had a tight on the verge of over proofed loaf and a slack mound of essentially over fermented dough the properly shaped one would show more signs of overproofing when scored.
Looser shaping could be the culprit, but not necessarily so. How were they shaped (boules, batards, pan loaves) ? At what temperature were they proofed ? Were they both in the same part of the refrigerator? What kind of dough were you working with?
More information is needed to help solve the mystery.
Sry, the ones that were NOT overproofed were acutally baked a week ago, same conditions except .2 more grams of Instant Yeast. I reduced the yeast this time. They were 50% AP, 25% Stoneground WW, 25% Freshly milled Fine White Whole Wheat (Hard). 4 hour autolyze, 3 hour bulk. Here's the thing I did diferrently:
last time I did this loaf (which I do every week), I covered with a damp towel instead of sealing in plastic bags. Last week, when I got up to bake, there was a dry skin that had inhibited the loaf's rise, thus preventing overproofing.
Rising is a symptom of proofing, not the end-all, be-all. I think it's helpful to remember that proofing refers to the action of yeast, as it goes about eating and farting and whatnot. Seeing dough rise and bubbles form are simply visual markers that tell us the yeast is doing it's thing, so that we don't have to get out a microscope and check.
Your dough could have still overproofed beneath that dry skin. That it didn't means something was different, possibly a few somethings. My first thought is temperature before refrigeration, but that's just a guess.
I don't think the skin would prevent over-proofing; at least in my experience, I have had more than one loaf both crust over and deflate (a double whammy of fate).
The plastic bag technique is a useful one, but if the dough was still warm when it went into the fridge, chances are that the plastic bag helped to insulate the dough from the chill of the icebox, thus inhibiting the desired retardation. I would suggest putting it in the fridge covered with a cool, damp towel or a piece of plastic wrap; letting the temperature of the dough drop, then throw it in the plastic bag overnight.
I use 80dF water and an ambient temp of 76dF to promote lactic flavors. If the temp is an issue, I could move to my 60dF basement during the last hour of bulk. Do you think that would help?
Thanks,
Walker
ALSO: This time, I did cover it with a cool, damp cloth, and THEN covered that whole thing in plastic, which I believe prevented that skin from forming.
Shaping was the same both times.
Thanks so much for the input.
What is the actual temperature of your dough? With Tartine-style sourdoughs, I tend to aim for about 80F - 84F after mixing, when I want the whole process (bulk, final, and bake) to be done in a day. Actually, I guess with that style, I usually aim for that temp range, since our fridge is pretty cold and I haven't had trouble with overproofing there.
Whereas with instant yeast doughs, I aim a little lower, usually for 76F - 78F.
If I'm making a large mass of dough, it will maintain its temperature for a good portion of the bulk fermentation, while a smaller mass of dough will more quickly acclimate to the ambient temperature.
So I guess what I'm saying is, keep track of your dough temperatures, and maybe move it to the basement for more than an hour.
There's a lot of ways to prevent overproofing, including reducing the amount of leavening agent, but controlling your dough temps is a good one to look at. You could even just start collecting data on it and keeping track of the effects - e.g. "[date] - 79F - dough overproofed slightly" "[date] - 76F - good oven spring" - and it would be a factor you now have a better understanding of.
I really do need a baking journal, don't I?
You'd probably find it helpful, yes.
I just keep a chart on my fridge where I write down the date, type of dough, amount of dough, flour temp, preferment temp, water temp, and final dough temp. Ambient temp would probably be helpful, and might make it on the next iteration. Adding a section for notes would likely be useful, but since I mostly use it as a way to help me determine what water temp I should use, I stick with a simpler, more condensed version.
Some variation on this might be a way to format your bread recording.
I attached a photo.