Problem with oven rise
I have been baking a particular bread recipe for several years and have always had an excellent loaf from this - in fact the only time the loaf was not just right was when I got distracted and measured the flour wrongly.
I have always used a breadmaker to mix and knead the dough then removed the dough to knock back then rise and double in bulk before placing in a loaf pan for a short second rise (about 15 minutes).
Then covered it, and into a pre-heated oven at 230C for 15 minutes.
I remove the cover after 15 minutes and reduce heat to 210C and bake for a further 15 minutes.
Recently my breadmaker broke down and I have replaced it with a new machine, but now when following exactly the same procedure the loaf hardly rises at all in the oven.
When the dough comes out of the machine it feels exactly the same as it always did, it rises in exactly the same time as it always did before going in the oven, but just will not rise very much at all in the oven.
I have noticed that the new machine has a different kneading action - it appears to turn the mixing blade a bit faster than the old one did, and also the mixing/kneading cycle is 5 minutes longer than on the old machine.
Can anyone offer any suggestions as to why this problem could be occuring?
Any help would be much appreciated.
Might be a bit overproofed. Perhaps the new machine doesn't develop the gluten quite as thoroughly as the old machine. Do you use the finger test to make sure the dough is ready for baking?
As an aside, 15 minutes for proofing? Yikes. That's incredibly fast. You would get a lot better bread by cutting back on the yeast and increasing the bulk fermentation time.
Or, rather than "knocking back", you could give the dough a stretch and fold to increase the gluten strength.
Thanks for the comments.
I know the 15 minute second rise is short, but it has always worked in the past.
I think I will try the stretch and fold that you suggested.