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Reinhart French, overproofing, what am I doing wrong??

larrabee1234's picture
larrabee1234

Reinhart French, overproofing, what am I doing wrong??

I'm using his French Bread recipe from Bread Baker's Apprentice w/ Pate Fermente, and instead of the 2 hours he suggests in the recipe, my dough is first-proofing all the way by 1 hour, sometimes 45 minutes.  I'm measuring all ingredients by weight, using Fleischmann Bread Machine Instant (jar, kept refrigerated), kneading the whole recommended time and sometimes more, temps after needing are falling in Reinhart 77-81 range, proofing in a cambro 2qt bucket.  The temp in my kitchen can warm up after kneading and oven activity--but not more than 79 or so, not enough to cut proofing time in HALF I should think . . .

Loaf is deflating after rise when I score it to bake, not getting golden brown in the oven.  It's edible, tasty, but doesn't even approach that nice open crumb you expect with French bread. 

Help!, what am I doing wrong?  

phaz's picture
phaz

Rises too much from the sound of it. Less rising agent (starter or yeast) or less time. Enjoy!

gavinc's picture
gavinc

My first thought is: what type of yeast is used in the formula? Fresh, Instant dry, or active dry. I suspect you are using too much. The classic Reinhart French bread recipe with a dough weight of 1155-gram uses 1% Instant dry yeast (7-gram).

There's a conversion calc to work out how much to use.

Fresh yeast to instant - multiply x .33 (point 33)

Fresh yeast to active - multiply x .4 (point 4)

Cheers,

Gavin

 

OldWoodenSpoon's picture
OldWoodenSpoon

Gavin has it right that the issue is the yeast.  Given that you are meeting all the formula prescriptions for ingredients, time and temperatures, you'll have to reduce the yeast to extend the bulk fermentation time.  Your description of the finished loaf matches the "classic over-proofed" description.

There can be many factors to the speed of fermentation too:  enzyme activity (are you adding malt to an already malted flour).  Temperature:  if your kitchen temperature is at the high end, and your dough temperature is also at the high end, things will go faster even though everything is "within tolerance".

You are doing the right thing: watching the dough more than the clock.  Try cutting the yeast by ~10-15% and bake a loaf.  The nice thing about shorting the yeast is that it will truly take longer, but it is much harder to over-proof the dough, and you will still get great flavor.  They say that baking bread takes time, and baking great bread takes even more time.

Good Luck
OldWoodenSpoon

larrabee1234's picture
larrabee1234

Thanks for the words of encouragement and confidence builders!