May 21, 2020 - 10:18am
stretch and folds
Hi All
I have to mix my dough soon because my starter is about to peak. But i also have to leave the house in about an hour. I have to do half an hour or autolyse . then fit in one stretch and fold then i won't be home until about 3 hrs after bulk fermentation has begun.. When i get home can i do more stretch and folds? Or just leave it alone to bulk ferment
Thanks
cc
Share
Yes of course, just be careful not to deflate the dough, it probably will have built up some gas until then.
yikes. can i just leave it alone then. I don't want to risk deflating it. Thanks so much for your quick reply!
Sure, but don't expect a greatly rising loaf unless the dough was kneaded a lot. Your crumb will still be fine, it just won't have a nice round profile.
Also since i only did 2 sets of stretch and folds does it mean i have to bulk ferment longer? I'm thinking no, becasue the recipe itself did not specify that S and Fs were required. It was optional.
ARRRRRRGGHHHHH . i left my dough on top of the stove to bulk ferment at 21c for 8 hrs. when i got home (after it had fermented for about 4 hrs) my brilliant husband had turned the oven on (after i had texted him that i have temperature sensitive stuff there) and the hot air blowing from the oven vent had heated the area up to 28c. there was condensation on the plastic covering the bowl and some moisture around the edge of the dough and the top of the dough looked a bit dried out. Is my dough toast???? i moved it to a cooler spot. i know yeast can survive 28c but my room thermometer may not be accurate as it could have heated up more than that . if it survives, what do you think it's going to do for the bulk fermentation time. It will shorten it, but do you know by how much? Also i had some leftover starter in the same spot which had gone crazy bubbly. Thanks for any thoughts you may have .
I agree that 28c should not have killed your yeast. As far as how it affected your dough, that depends partly on how dry "a bit dried out" is. It probably sped up your fermentation significantly. I would test it immediately to get a feel for how far it has progressed. Also, don't forget, now that the dough is all warmed up, it'll continue to ferment faster until it has had enough time to fully cool to room temp. Someone with a lot more experience than me might be able to predict how it will affect the timeline, but they'd have to at least know how much time your dough spent at the warmer temperature.
My brilliant husband cannot remember when he turned the oven on and how long it had been on for. i left the house at 11:45 got home at 3. i have a feeling the oven was on for less than an hour. the surface didn't look too badly dried out, just the spots on the dough that were a little higher than the rest of the the bulk of the dough. the area surrounding the bowl was 28c but the bowl felt quite warm. as long as my yeast didn't die, i think i might be able to forgive my husband
Thanks for your help. I think i just have to judge by looking at the dough for all the signs that it's done with fermentation. Not much else i can do .
Think of it as a learning experience! Imagine a baking class where you are given several different doughs that are all in varying degrees of fermentation and your assignment is to figure out which ones are further through the process and bake them all when they are appropriately fermented. You can now go thank your husband for setting up this fun experiment for you! :)
Thanks for looking on the positive side of things :)