How to Rescue Overproofed Dough - Modernist Cuisine (2024)
It happens to the best of us. You wait many hours for your dough to proof so that you can bake it, and then, somehow, you forget about the dough (it’s easy to do, especially when you’re juggling meal prep during the holidays), and it overproofs. You may have even baked the overproofed dough, hoping it would magically return to life; instead, you end up with a pale, low-volume loaf that smells like stale alcohol. Overproofed dough, however, doesn’t have to meet its end in the bottom of a trash can. While working on Modernist Bread we developed a technique for saving overproofed bread.
The ultimate goal of proofing bread is to increase the volume of a shaped piece of dough through the production of carbon dioxide. Most of the carbon dioxide produced during fermentation happens in the final proofing stage. (The largest volume increase comes during baking when the dough nearly doubles in volume in the oven.) To expand, dough must be strong enough to retain the gas that it has produced. Gluten makes the dough elastic enough that it can expand around bubbles without tearing. Proofing, which begins once the dough is shaped and placed in a proofing vessel or on a flat surface, has some effect on flavor and texture, but it is key in determining the shape, volume, crust, and crumb of the bread.
When carbon dioxide exerts more pressure than a fully proofed dough can withstand, the cell membranes tear, releasing the gas and deflating the dough. An overproofed dough won’t expand much during baking, and neither will an underproofed one. Overproofed doughs collapse due to a weakened gluten structure and excessive gas production, while underproofed doughs do not yet have quite enough carbon dioxide production to expand the dough significantly.
Calling proof, knowing when the dough has reached its maximum expansion, is one of the more challenging things bakers have to learn to do. It takes practice and learning from a few mistakes. Conventional wisdom holds that overproofed doughs are irretrievably damaged and should be thrown away. Our experiments found just the opposite. In fact, we were able to resuscitate the same batch of dough up to 10 times before it suffered any serious loss in quality.
Our method for saving overproofed dough works for many kinds of dough, including French lean doughs, high-hydration doughs (you may see a slight decrease in volume as well as in crumb size for these), and country-style doughs. The method also works for farmers’ bread and most rye breads that contain a proportion of bread flour, such as landbrot; brioche and enriched doughs, including sandwich breads; and pizza doughs, though they may have a pale crust once the dough is baked.
Sourdoughs are more problematic; you should attempt to revive a sourdough only if it was made and proofed within a few hours. Sourdoughs that are cold-proofed overnight or longer acidify because of the presence of lactic acid bacteria. This acidification makes the dough very tough; as a result, if you degas and reshape it, the dough is overly tense, and still tough. You’ll end up with a loaf that doesn’t expand or bake well, and that is also misshapen and very sour. While some people (including us) like that biting flavor, others may find it too sour.
Mistakes are inevitable when it comes to proofing bread, but there’s no need to throw out dough if it proofs too long. Below is our step-by-step guide to saving overproofed dough (we call technique dough CPR).
Dough CPR
Step 1: Perform the fingertip test to make sure your dough is overproofed. The test involves gently pressing your finger into the surface of the dough for 2 seconds and then seeing how quickly it springs back. The dent you make will be permanent if the dough is overproofed.
Step 2: Remove the dough from the basket or other vessel in which you’re proofing it.
Step 3: Degas the dough by pressing down firmly on it. The pressure applied is the same as when you shape the dough.
Step 4: Shape the dough, and return it to the basket or other vessel for proofing.
Step 2: Remove the dough from the basket or other vessel in which you're proofing
proofing
In cooking, proofing (also called proving) is a step in the preparation of yeast bread and other baked goods in which the dough is allowed to rest and rise a final time before baking.
https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Proofing_(baking_technique)
it. Step 3: Degas the dough by pressing down firmly on it. The pressure applied is the same as when you shape the dough. Step 4: Shape the dough, and return it to the basket or other vessel for proofing.
Let it thaw at room temperature, then reheat it briefly before using to revive it: 350ºF for 15 minutes or so.Re-ball the dough. This is perhaps the simplest option: take your overproofed dough, re-shape it into a ball, place it in an airtight container, and transfer it in the fridge for a future pizza night.
If you've overproofed your sourdough bread dough, you can bake as soon as possible, pivot, and use the dough as a base for focaccia, or drop it into a loaf pan and bake sandwich bread.
But almost as good as a proofing box is taking a Mason jar filled halfway up with water, microwaving it for two minutes, then putting your bowl of dough into the microwave with the jar to rise. The other thing you can do is place your lidded container or bowl of dough into a second, larger bowl of warm water.
If it fits better with your day ahead you can leave your dough to ferment at room temperature for an hour or two, then when its risen and full of air, shape it and pop it the fridge to do its second rise as a shaped loaf. You can then preheat the oven and bake the loaf straight from the fridge.
Overproofed is when the dough has rested too long and the yeast has continued making carbon dioxide while the strength of the dough (gluten bonds) have begun to wear out. The dough will look very puffy, but when you touch it or move it you may notice it deflate or sag.
Pizza dough that has been left to rise for too long, or has been over-proofed, can potentially collapse. The gluten becomes overly relaxed, and the end product will be gummy or crumbly instead of crisp and fluffy.
In a word, yes.You can use over proofed dough and you can still achieve good results with it. However, your pizza won't turn out as good as it could've done if it had been properly proved.
Boil a cup of water and place it on the rack underneath the dough.Close the oven door and let the heat warm up your dough. Remember: you don't need to turn on your oven for this to work. Of course, pizza dough can also become too hot, which prevents the dough from rising correctly as well.
Your dough can become sticky when you add too much water or the flour isn't suitable for the type of dough you are making. Over proofing or fermenting the dough can also result in the gluten structure weakening causing sticky dough.
“If the dough has risen too long, it's going to feel fragile and might even collapse as you poke it,” says Maggie. If this is the case, there's a chance you can save your dough by giving it a quick re-shape. Learn more about this fix in our blog on saving overproofed dough.
It usually does not help to try to add dry flour to overproofed dough. You could try this, but results are very inconsistent. Sometimes is better just to cut your losses rather than “throw good flour after bad,” so to speak.
Cover puff puff dough with plastic wrap and foil 3. Get a bowl and fill it with warm water (warm water bath) 4. Let it stay in the warm water bath for about 30min and it will rise.
You can also put hot water in a heat-safe dish and place it on the floor of a cold oven (or on a lower shelf). The steam and heat from the water will help the temperature rise just enough that the yeast is active. The steam will also assist in keeping the surface of the dough moist so it will stretch as it rises.
First, deflate the dough. It actually feels kind of satisfying to press all that air out; you know, like you're breaking the rules and getting away with it. Next, reshape the dough into a loaf.
When the dough rises too much before it gets baked, it will collapse, rather than rise, in the oven's heat, and the crumb will be uneven and ragged. The time it takes for your dough to rise will vary based on the temperature of your kitchen and the temperature of your dough—and the alignment of the stars in the sky.
Gently press your finger into the dough on the top. If the dough springs back quickly, it's underproofed. If it springs back very slowly, it's properly proofed and ready to bake. Finally, if it never springs back, the dough is overproofed.
Introduction: My name is Carlyn Walter, I am a lively, glamorous, healthy, clean, powerful, calm, combative person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
We notice you're using an ad blocker
Without advertising income, we can't keep making this site awesome for you.
