April 2, 2021 - 12:52am
Working with butter enriched dough
With Easter coming up I've been trying to make hot cross buns, I've had a few goes and everytime I encounter the same problem, the dough takes sooo long to rise.
I've tried a few different recipes all of which have said your dough should be doubling in size in about an hour, I've been waiting 3-4 hours just for one proof and even then it's not doubled in size.
I am using fairly new yeast so I wouldn't have thought that would be my issue, does anyone have any idea why it might be taking so long and what I can do to move things along?
Thanks in advance for your help.
Greg
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Do these recipes specify the temperature at which they expect this doubling time? Maybe your home is on the cold side?
Thanks for your reply, I had considered that might be an issue because I do have the AC going, however on the last couple of attempts I used my ovens proofing setting which keeps the temperature about 30 degrees and it still takes a long time.
By way of update I had another attempt today being good Friday, I'm very happy with the results they look and taste amazing but from first mixing the dough to taking them out of the oven was about 8 hours.
You need to provide a recipe, otherwise any assistance can only be speculative.
And is your yeast an open pack and, if so, do you keep it in the freezer?
Lance
Thanks for your reply Lance, as I said I've tried a few different recipes to try to fix the issue but the one I used yesterday was
500g bread flour
4g salt
120g sugar
10g yeast
2 tsp of my pumpkin spice mix
60g butter
2 eggs
260g warm milk
180g Saltanas
I did actually have to put in maybe half a cup extra flour as it was just too wet to work with however followed the rest of the recipe to a tee. My yeast is in a sealed container, I just leave it in the cupboard, I didnt know freezing it was a thing, I used it with in the last two weeks to make Bagels and had no issues at all.
Thanks for your input, as a novice baker I appreciate all the help.
Your recipe looks OK. When specifying yeast in recipes, you should always make clear the type of yeast. I'm sure you mean instant in this case, but many bakers do use active dried yeast or fresh yeast, which will affect the quantity required.
What works for bagels might not work so well for enriched dough - you need a lot more lifting power when you have lots of sugar, butter, eggs and fruit, so I do suspect your yeast.
My latest batch of hot cross buns bulked for 1 hour at 28C and was well risen. Remember: rise time is massively influenced by temperature.
I would try some new yeast. In the UK you can easily buy little 7g sachets. If available, you could use those for a trial. And keep any open packs sealed up in the freezer.
Lance
Hi Gpats looking at your recipe compared to what i usually do your yeast for such a rich dough carrying 24% Sugar 12% Butter and 20% Eggs is pretty low hence the long fermentation time. my typical dough has 12% sugar 6% butter and 10% egg with 4% dry yeast. Water or in your case milk is also a bit high especially when i would equate the eggs as liquid ingredient. i use half that amount of egg and 50% water. That extra cup of flour you used might equate to the liquid of the eggs.
Of late i've been adding both the butter and the salt together once the dough has just formed. The colour on your buns is also a sign of the high load of sugar and fat and egg in the dough temperature should be wound back to 170 -180 which is what im doing with your recipe perhaps a little less or less oven time they catch pretty quickly with the high ingredient load
Kind regards Derek