Molds in Dough!!

Profile picture for user Windy lim

Hi everyone! I've left my dough to autolyse (milk and flour) to make a dinner rolls, my suppose to be 30 mins autolyse became 3 days!! Long story, etc. Left it at room temperature, now I remembered and check it becomes moldy and sort of likes burst texture instead of smooth texture. Question is should I throw or safe to bake?

Toast

Mold will penetrate down into the dough after 3 days and it won't taste good.

I'm also surprised it didn't just turn to goo. What was the ambient room temp?

When milk is left at room temperature bacteria grow, some bacteria produce toxins while baking will kill the bacteria no amount of heat gets rid of toxins.  How harmful they are to your health I don't know but personally I would chalk it up to a learning experience and toss the dough.

Gerhard

While I respect the intent of your comment some toxins are rendered inert by heat:

  • "Despite its extreme potency, botulinum toxin is easily destroyed. Heating to an internal temperature of 85°C for at least 5 minutes will decontaminate affected food or drink."

https://emergency.cdc.gov/agent/Botulism/clinicians/control.asp

Botulinum bacteria can be destroyed by holding temperatures at least 250 F (pressure cooker) for prescribed time periods. If for some reason toxins were generated through other food storage methods, holding a food or drink at a temperature of at least 185 F for 5 minutes will neutralized the toxin. It is when neither method is used that things get a little risky in low-acid foods.

The neutralization of your "toxin du jour" may vary... :-)

My worry of toxins comes taking the Ontario Food Handler course several times and in the materials and during the instructing period it was always emphasized that toxins created by bacteria may survive the cooking process.  This is from the course material.  To me it has resulted in a policy if there is any doubt you discard the product in question and not worry about being wasteful.  

Gerhard

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Profile picture for user Lazy Loafer

When I took my MarketSafe course (a food safety course put on by the local health authority), we were told to never use food that had mold on it. The fluffy grey (or other colour) stuff you see on the top is only the spore-producing part of the mold. The rest of it that you can't see is deep in the food and may be producing toxins. For this reason you should never just cut off the moldy part and use the food.

I wouldn't chance it, especially with dairy.

"When in doubt, throw it out."

My mother always said that. She would be almost 100 yrs old if she was alive. She didn't need to know the science, she just knew people got sick and even died from food poisoning-like her brother did.