not rising, yeasty
I have just rented space in a rental kitchen so I can sell at farmers markets, and I ran through some things to see how long it really takes to get stuff done. I made a batch of Challah, Italian & Gibassier. The challah and gibassier I mixed up on Thursday and I let raise overnight before shaping on Friday; but the Italian I mixed up Friday (biga was done Thurs). The mixer does not have a dough hook (30 qt) so I tried with the paddle. The dough seemed to look ok, but I wasn't really sure about the timing with the paddle vs a dough hook. The gibassier I made a very small batch and used a household kitchen aid mixer (dough hook), did the window test for mixing and then bulk rise overnight with the challah.
The room is commercial so it is kept cool, good for overnite raising, the dough didn't seem to have fallen (over rise) so I shaped the challah for next rise, gibassier same thing. Part of the kitchen area is for storage of packaging material, and not airconditioned like the work area. It was warm, I didn't think overly warm, so I set the bread out there for a fairly quick rise. Well, it was slower than molasses. I finally cooked the gibassier because they looked like they were ok, but I found them a little yeasty. The challah rose a little, now this is after several hours, but not to the point at which I would bake it. My Italian bulk dough, never seemed to rise, or very little over a 3 hour timespan.
Question: what could be the problem? Old yeast? Not enough yeast? Too hot for rising? (fig it was about 85, maybe more) and then the faint yeasty flavor? How do you guage mixing with a paddle vs dough hook? (I had to put it on 3rd speed to get the cleanup stage). I want to do large batches, hand mixing not an option.
Not sure if it helps but the room temperature isn't the only factor for the rise. It's the dough temperature, as it is supported by room temperature, that makes the difference. If you've done a ferment in a cold environment your dough has cooled throughout and it will take longer for the mass the reach a balanced temperature that supports a rise. When dough temperatures are maintained at a relatively constant level the rise tends to be linear with respect to time. When the temperature varies too much the linearity of the rise is adversely affected. You offer a lot of detail but without knowing your forumula there's really no way to assess how the primary elements might be affecting your final product.
The elevation can change the game, too.