December 7, 2007 - 8:00am
Did it rise or did it fall?
Hello,
Does anyone know of a way to tell if a bread rose and fell or just failed to rise. I prepared two loaves of bread using the breadnerd's semi-whole-wheat recipe. My first rise failed due to my ignorance about temperature, so they were placed in the fridge in two pans for about ten hours for their first rise. When I last checked on them before going to bed, they seemed to be starting to rise, but I can't be sure. By the morning they were definitely pretty dense. Later outside the refigerator they rose successfully. Any advice would be appreciated.
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Hello, samkc.
Unless they were really going great guns for some reason, it's unlikely your bread rose and fell in the refrigerator. The cold puts the brakes on pretty efficiently. One clue is that they were dense in the morning. Over-proofed dough is usually wrinkly and sponge-like, and isn't ever going to look or rise well again, even if it rebounds a little. (Unless you pull it out of its pans, degas and reshape for another proof.)
Dense dough is dough that has yet to get 'gassed up'. You say they rose successfully after they warmed up. They wouldn't have done that if they were on their second go-round.
So if it's dense, it either hasn't risen yet or completely, or it isn't going to rise at all....ever...yikes...