tartine loaf: bad planning
dear TFL community:
first of all thank you all so much for what I've learned in these forums. this is my first post . . .
I'm making a Tartine basic loaf for the first time, with the help (or "help") of my eight-year-old son. The starter went pretty well; we ended up feeding it for three weeks because we couldn't figure out a day in which we could work around the needs of the bread.
Today was the day; everything is ok so far except that I was just setting out the loaves for the bench rest when I realized we were going to be late for mother's day brunch (not forgivable with my particular mother). I quickly did the final shaping and put them in the oven (where it's about 73 degrees) and we left.
My question is: we just got back and it's now been four hours; should I do another shaping and let it rest again? Or just forge forward?
I don't have any previous experience with this kind of loaf to draw on; our previous breads were regular yeast breads, rise until doubled, punch down, etc. I see some large gas bubbles, but it all looks pretty soft and goopy.
If anyone happens to be around, I'd love to know what you think.
thank you!
emily
Hey, it happens to all of us. When you poke it, does it stay or spring back a bit? If it stays it is probably overproofed, you can try reshaping it and then going ahead and baking. If it is too gloopy to shape, about the only other thing to do is pour it in a bread pan, bake it and cross your fingers!
Thank you Kathy!
What I did is/was: reshaped both of them, put one in the refrigerator (for tomorrow), and let the other rest for an hour or so. I think I'm going to bake it now. Am trying to regard this as a lucky thing--we're very interested in how flexible the process can or can't be . . .
If the results are photogenic--or even if not--I'll put them up.
e.
Cool. I am interested in seeing how it turns out!
Not bad!
hmmm. photo did not post. hang on.
I will be VERY interested to see what happens with the loaf in the refrigerator . . .
Hi Emily, Your bread looks like it turned out very well. Just imagine what you can accomplish when everything goes the way you plan! I fully agree with "A BakEr", if you ever run into a situation where you need to leave suddenly, no matter what phase you are in, pop the dough (or starter) in the refrigerator until you can get back to it. Congratulations on your first Tartine loaf, and welcome to the site. We can't wait to see what else you're baking! marybeth
As long as your dough hasn't turned to goo (overproofed), you're all right.
And don't worry so much :)
Crust is nice and brown and the crumb looks great! Good job!
so, what do you do if your dough overproofs? can it be saved?
again, thank you for all the help. my husband thinks it's hilarious that there's a bread community. nuts to him.
Overproofed dough can't be saved, sorry to say. When it happens, the gluten structure is gone.
Overproofed, meaning proteolysis has set in and the gluten structure is shot.
No sense in trying to salvage it; just make another loaf the proper way. Or, bake it anyway but don't expect a nicely-risen loaf and enjoy your sourdough brick. Butter masks the occasional transgression.
We've been talking about overproofing to the point of goo in this thread. If the dough hasn't turned to goo during proofing, one could legitimately say it hasn't overproofed.
I'll leave you to split semantic hairs until you run out of gas.
Falling on the safety net of semantics is not gonna save you from the fact that you are wrong. Over-proofing does not equal proteolysis. Abe is right Over-proofing simply means allowing the dough to rise beyond it's stability. One can over-proof commercial yeast doughs where dough degradation is limited.
It pays to know correct terminology.
ferment and proofing. Forkish has an overnight blond white SD bread that is left out overnight for 12 hours and is expected to triple in volume before it is shaped and proofed. Other recipes call for a full doubling during bulk ferment in the fridge overnight and then shaping and proofing the next morning. Many times I do a shaped proof in the fridge and it over proofs and I just reshape it and proof it again since I don't do much of a bulk ferment on the counter before it hits the fridge shaped,
The reason the dough doesn't turn to goo almost all the time is just science. First off most of the protease enzyme that causes this is found in the bran and the bran is removed from white patent flour. Secondly, the acid in sourdough is a protease inhibitor so what ever gluten breakdown that might almost never happen is reduced further. Since this is a white flour SD bread the chances of goo happening is abut zero but if the dough is retarded the low temperature really slows down any protease activity to a crawl. The fridge is your friend in more than 1 way.
I've done everything possible with SD white breads and never had one ever turn to goo. I'm not saying it can;t happen with some high extraction yeast bread at higher temperatures if left on the counter for a really long time to break it down on purpose but who would do that?