February 5, 2020 - 9:15am
dead dough suggestions
Hi all - made a dough yesterday at about 70% hydration with active dry yeast (a far cry from my usual rye starter) that was dead and I never proofed it. It sat overnight as usual and now I take it out and I realize its a pliable, but hardish, lump. It hasn't risen for the hour out of the fridge for the second fermentation. Anyone have any suggestions on what to do with it other than throw it out? Roll it out really thin and make it into crackers? Dumplings? Is this good dough for pretzels? Any suggestions would be awesome!
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Crackers might be good. If you don't like them, the ducks and other birds will, if you smash em up enough.
You might be able to make a quick levain with good yeast and work it in, and pick up where you might have been, for at least a half-decent loaf, or for a soft flat-bread, up to 3/8" thick.
Or make an entirely new piece of dough with just white flour, baking powder, pinch of salt maybe, and water. Calculate it out so you have 1 tsp of baking powder per cup (120 g) of flour overall, including what's in the orginal dough and the new dough. Use at least 1/8 cup white flour per tsp of baking powder in the new dough so as not to concentrate it -- mix white flour and baking powder well before adding water. Then mix this new dough with the older dough. Don't try mixing baking powder directly into the old dough, it will be too concentrated to distribute well -- so "dilute" first in white flour, and it will be more evenly distributed when you combine the two doughs. This combination of the old dead dough and the baking-powder-dough will give you something to make soft crackers, flat bread, tortilla, bannock, pita.
Actually, you might have success making a soft pita directly from the old dead dough. Just pinch off a ball, roll it out, bake at 350-425 F, and see what happens. Bake until bottom side just starts to turn brown, then flip and bake until that side turns brown. Or until internal temp is 205 F.
Thanks! This is really helpful. My bad for not proofing the yeast (and even more so for trying a new recipe that calls for ADY and not sourdough starter or instant, both of which I love) but I prefer to not waste it in one way or another.
It didn't occur to me until later that the dough mass, if it was in the fridge overnight, might have been totally saved, with the addition of an additional levain, either a sourdough starter/levain, or a levain (dough mass) based on instant dry yeast.
That overnight time could have merely been treated as an autolyse. And then keeping in mind the same dilution/incorporation principles previously mentioned, getting the starter/IDY well mixed/hydrated in the 2nd dough mass so that it can be evenly distributed when the two doughs are combined.
And if you end up with too much dough for your loaf pan or other baking vessel, which I've done, pinch off some and make a flatbread in a pan on the stove-top, or a toaster oven.
In the end I simply cut it into 6 pieces and made a kind of naan on the cast iron :-) Definitely bubbled well and tasted yeasty, so I have no idea what actually went wrong but the deliciousness was there and nothing went to the compost or the chickens.. Thanks again for your help!