Sourdough boules fell after retarding in refrigerator

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elihult on 3 Mar 2016 at 10:33

This is my very first time making sourdough- I followed the Bread Baker's Apprentice recipe to a tee, all the way from the beginning, making my own seed culture.  Final step of putting shaped dough in fridge overnight: I took them out and they have fallen considerably. Are they going to rise again or did I do something wrong? It says to let sit at room temp for four hours.  Can anyone help me? Thanks in advance! I'll be so bummed out if they turn out rotten!

If your starter was lively and rose well during bulk fermentation prior to shaping, then I think the most likely scenario is they over-proofed in the fridge, rose, and then fell. In that case, no, I don't think they are likely to rise again.  Perhaps your fridge isn't cold enough?

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.  Better luck next time!

It would be a shame to throw it all away. You might try a couple of things:

  • Try to gently knead or stretch and fold the fallen dough, then form it into new tight boules and let it sit for a couple or hours to see if it does anything. Poke it with a floured finger or knuckle from time to time to see if the dent springs back or stays. If it springs back slowly and incompletely, pop it in the oven
  • Use the dough as pate fermentee (literally 'old dough') to make new dough, adding additional flour, water and a tiny bit of dry yeast. Let it bulk ferment (overnight in the fridge if you want), then shape it, proof it and bake it.

proof now and again.  As luck would have it this has happened to me several times but no worry.  Just shape then again and put in the basket to re final proof.  Doing this is no different than doing an overnight bulk retard in the fridge and them shaping the next morning and letting it final proof.   So no worries.

Watch the dough and not the clock.  When it rises 50% in volume -not 75% or 100% - 50 % then un-mold it , slash it and get in the oven.

Happy SD baking  

This is a mysterious part of the process for me, so I'm interested in what you do and your results, if you would not mind posting.

thanks!

I haven't had this happen, but I would go with what dabrownman says.  The organisms exhausted the food supply they had access to.  But a bit of jostling from a re-shaping should put more in front of them and give you another proof.  Personally, I would just make this proof a normal room-temperature one: 90 minutes, probably not over 2 hours.

Most bread recipes that tell you how long a fermentation or proofing step should take omit critical temperature information.  It would be helpful to know 1) the temperature at which their steps were performed, and 2) advice on how to adjust your own times if your temperatures are different. 

Many people think making bread is really hard to get right, and I think it's because they follow recipes that give volume measurements and that provide no temperature guidance.  What I've come to realize is that bread dough is extremely forgiving once you have those two things figured out.