May 19, 2015 - 3:21am
easy method to tell when dough is doubled
Many factors affect the time it takes a dough to ferment or proof. Fluctuations in room temperatures, different seasons, dough content, starter quantity, to name just a few. That's why I've come up with an easy method to tell when any dough reaches the volume that we want, specially when using non-straight fermenting or proofing vessels. For this we need:
- a digital scale
- a small glass jar
- a permanent marker
- some water
Here is how:
- put the jar on the scale, then start the scale
- add 10g of water, and mark its level on the glass with the marker
- repeat, each time adding 10g more water and marking the new level, until you have 10 marks
- Any time you start fermenting or proofing a dough, cut a small piece of dough and put it in the jar, 20g is enough. When the dough flattens down (about an hour later) ,note its level in the jar
- When it later reaches double that level, or whatever expansion you prefer for your dough, you'll know that your dough has finished fermenting or proofing.
I hope you try it and find it helpful, and if you have your own method, please share.
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Thanks for the suggestion. I have used the rubber band method of marking the height, but I will try your method to see how it works.
Sorry, I was talking about bulk fermenting. I bought a few cheap plastic pitchers of different sizes for bulk fermenting. They are basically straight sided ( there is a narrow taper in the one gallon one, but not much ) so the rubber band trick works well,
If you mean marking the height of your dough itself, then sometimes this is not possible, unless your dough is in a jar or a measuring cup, and not possible either when final proofing in your baking vessel.
I'm often doing the bulk ferment in the same bowl I've mixed in and it's really challenging to judge when it's doubled. I take pictures with my phone and compare, but it's still a guesstimate. Do you return the 20g of dough back in at shaping time?
Yes, unless I forget to.
Hi,
have you tested your idea? I mean have you actually compared two pieces of the same dough, both in measured containers, doubling with the same speed: a 20g piece in a small container and let's say 1000g piece or 20kg batch in a larger measured container?
The size of a batch of dough strongly influences the rate of fermentation, so much so that artisan recipes from bakeries and industrial bread recipes are difficult to reproduce in a home kitchen and vice versa. Lager amounts of dough ferment significantly faster than small amounts, and might actually double slower because of the gas dissolving in dough under pressure, and a 20 g piece - whew... It might both rise faster or slower than a larger piece . Depends on the difference in mass.
That said, in a pinch, one can assume that a tiny piece will double as fast as a small piece, 20g vs 200g or even 400g, if they are both equally protected from drying out, from overheating or cooling. Any larger difference in weight will affect the speed of CO2 production inside dough and how much of it will stay in form of gas and how much of it will dissolve in dough, convert into acid.
If doubling for some reason is crucial for the method, it is better to track it by placing the entire batch of dough in a transparent bucket with marks of volume on the sides.
Interesting info, thanks very much.
I do so when bulk fermenting, but it is not possible when final proofing. That's where I use the 20g test. I usually bake with only 1kg of flour.
I've simplified my little cup trick to precisely determine when its ready. Here is how:
like a good idea... but, theres a lot going on in a dough and many factors to be considered.
Im a little biased towards Mariana on this one... Do both doughs really raise to double volume at the same time?
In my case I put the loaves in basket for final proof in the evening and throw them in the fridge overnight. Lets say I placed the glass of 20 g dough beside the loaves and took them out by morning next day. I doubt that the loaves would gain the room temp as fast as the 20 g in the glass cause of the difference in mass. Therefore I think the testsample would double way faster. On the other side the 20 g would also get cold a lot faster than the loaves after they were put in the fridge. So with my merhod, I doubt it would work very well.
In order to apply your method to my way, I would have to omit the fridge for retarding, but thats what gives the loaves the great taste, IMO. I could of course retard the bulk fermentation and let the dough gain room temp after the frigde, then form the loaves and take a sample of 20 g to compare. But would the loaves be overproofed allready once they reached room temp? I dont know, but I think its a close call.
For this method to succeed, it would require a lot of testing, I think. Did you try to let both doughs double? And if so did they double at the same time? This would require that the container for the breaddough would had the same propotions but larger than the testdough, no?. If the bowl for the breaddough is very wide and the glass for the testdough is narrow and high, wouldnt that affect the rise?