January 21, 2010 - 9:53am
Fingertip Test
What does it means if, when you test the dough with your fingertip after shaping and before baking, it remains a hole into the dough?
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What does it means if, when you test the dough with your fingertip after shaping and before baking, it remains a hole into the dough?
Watch this video:
http://www.redstaryeast.com/lessons/how_to_bake_videos.php (click on the link).
To get a good oven spring, you would put the loaf into the oven a little earlier than shown. That is, when you "poke" the dough, the indentation slowly fills back in.
I'm actually following a no knead method famous book from a famous baker but I always get extremely flat breads with almost no holes in them. I don't know if this is a result of the no kneading or what, the loafs always kinda flatten down and extend horizontally after shaping and before baking as opposed to maintaining the given shape.
If the fingertip test is mentioned in the no knead recipe, then it would still be performed pretty much like shown in the video.
You might try looking at some of the no knead videos at breadtopia and try some of the stretch and folds before forming the loaves, as he shows. He has several other no knead videos also.
http://www.breadtopia.com/basic-no-knead-method/
You might also look at some of the videos in the link below to get an idea of how the no knead looks and responds as it is mixed, shaped, and baked.
http://www.artisanbreadinfive.com/?page_id=63
Good luck.
The "finger test" she uses in the video (http://www.redstaryeast.com/lessons/how_to_bake_videos.php) is largely inconsistent with the finger test I was taught to use so I wouldn't recommend using the test she demonstrated. Pressing the finger into the dough is pretty standard, but how the indentation responds following that action is (from what I learned) important. If the indentation remains without any evidence of recovery the dough usually has not risen enough If the dough responds by filling itself to a point about half the distance of the initial indentation the dough is usually said to have achieved it's prefect rise for that phase. If indentation fills itself in completely the dough is said to have "over proofed".
Is it not the other way round? As in when the hole springs back completely it's under proved, springs back very slightly correctly proved, etc.