FIRST AID FOR BREAD -- WHAT TO DO IF SOMETHING GOES WRONG!Not every loaf of bread we make turns out perfect. Sometimes partway along in the baking process you find that something is wrong. Possible setbacks are listed here, along with suggestions for grabbing victory from the jaws of disaster. 1. The yeast does not bubble up. If you have left your yeast in a cold place or if it is too old, it may not work properly. You can test the yeast before using it by placing some in a small bowl with a cup of warm water and a tsp. of sugar. If it doesn't bubble up or foams on the surface in 10 min. DON'T USE IT! If you are using a Bosch machine or an Automatic bread machine or even just making it by hand and you have added dead yeast, you can soften the right amount of new yeast in a cup of warm water with the tsp. of sugar and add it into the dough, kneading it in to the right consistency. You may have to add some more flour to get the texture right. If using a older Bosch machine, stay with the machine as adding extra liquid will unbalance the machine for about 1 min. until the liquid has been kneaded into the dough. You will not have to re-knead the bread if you have already devloped the gluten. 2. You forgot to take the flour out of the refrigerator. Flour cold from the fridge will make cold, slow-rising dough unless you compensate by using warm to hot water. To calculate precisely how warm the water needs to be roughly, for a 7 hour dough, 100 Degrees F. for the water, for a 4 hour dough 120 Degrees F. for the water, for a fast dough, 140 Degrees F. for the water. Mix the really warm water with the cold flour before you add the yeast of course. If the yeast comes in contact with 140 Degree F. water, it won't survive. This method should really be considered an emergency measure, not standard procedure. The flour will perform better for you when it has a chance to warm slowly to room temperature overnight. In fact all ingredients in the bread should be room temperature including the yeast. 3. The dough won't knead. With experience and observation, you can learn to see and feel when a dough is stretchy and elastic, its gluten fully developed. Before that if the dough is underkneaded, the gluten is not strong enough and will tear easily. Too much kneading make the gluten disintegrate: the dough gets wet and sticky again and can never regain in strength. Don't worry: there is not much chance that you would overknead it by hand, but it is possible using a strong kitchen machine like the Bosch. If you have given the dough a righteous ten minutes and it shows no sign of smootheing ou and becoming stretchy, you have got some flour that is old, or just too low in protein (or gluten) to make yeasted bread. BAD LUCK! Please try again when you can get better flour. If you have to give up on it, here are some possibilities: roll the dough thin and make flat bread or crackers instead (thousands of them) You can make Chapathis-Indian Flat breads, so long as the dough doesn't have too much sweetener in it. As for the flour, if you bought it with the understanding that it was for bread flour, return the rest to the store; they may not know that they are selling low protein flour for bread flour. Otherwise, keep it to use for muffins, and quick breads and as dusting flour. 4. Your kneaded dough dough does not rise in the bowl (first rise). Somehow, the yeast in not on the job. If you are using an oven to rise the bread, the oven may be too hot and has killed the yeast. You can proceed with the techinque disgusted above in part one and reknead the dough adding more yeast. If there is no good yeast in the house, wrap the dough in plastic or put it in a covered bowl and refrigerate it. Somtime in the next week, you can get fresh new yeast, bring the lump of dough to room temperature and proceed again as in section one, kneading in the new dissolved yeast with a little more flour to get the right consistency and then proceed as normal. If you want to use the unyeasted bread right away, you can make Chapathis or even a naturally leavened bread. For the latter, keep the dough at room temperature or cooler, until it ripens, about 18 hours. (if there is any life at all in your yeast, it will take less time than that and may rise too). The dough will take yeast out of the air as well and rise on it's own. For the loaves and let rise and bake as usual. 5. You are unexpectedly called away. (I pictured a pregnant wormen making bread and her baby decides to come now) If you have to leave the rising dough and won't be back for hours, deflate it and put in in the refrigerator. It will continue to rise until cool, so give it plenty of room by placing it in a large bowl with a cover to keep any stray flavours from the refrigerator out. The dough will be godd for a couple of days. After that, since the yeast is still at work, it begins to get old and make make grayish bread. 6. You think you may have left out the salt. Whatever stage the dough is, you can taste a pinch of it. You really can trust your guess about whether it has salt or not. If your bread rises in half the time, that is a good indication that you HAVE forgotten the salt, as salt inhibits the yeast and you now have uninhibited bread dough. If you have to add the salt, unless the dough was overkneaded in the first place, it is worth just sprinkling the salt over the dough and kneading it in until you think the salt is distributed evenly. One way to be sure is to mix the salt into a Tbsp. of molasses or poppy seeds so that you can see when it is all mixed. Once comment for our Bosch owners. If you left the salt out, you usually will know it during the kneading stage as the once formed lump of dough kneading in the bowl, will separate and become very sticky on the sides of the bowl. You can sprinkle in the salt at that point as well and the dough hook will work it it, however it may not make the dough come together in a lump again. Don't despair! You can oil your hands and the counter with cooking oil and scrape the dough out of the bowl, shape your loaves and proceed as normal. Do not add more flour to the dough as it will make it too heavy. You will find that you will get near perfect bread even if this happens. 7. The dough rips when you shape the dough. The most usual and least serious cause of tearing is not letting the deflated dough rest long enough before shaping the dough. This is very uncommon when using a Bosch machine as they do a great job of producing the gluten but when hand kneading it is more common. Just let the dough have 2 rises when making it by hand, until it has doubled in size. If for whatever reason the gluten is fragile, handle the dough gently to prevent further tearing. Use plenty of dusting flour on the board or water or oil if you prefer to minimize the friction. With weak dough, extra handling will just make matter worse, so press the tear with your wetted fingers, repairing it as best you can. You may have to turn the loaf in the pan to find a smooth top surface. The final rise should be not too warm and not too humid--and for sure, not too long. 8. The shaped loaves collapse in the pan. Although, it may mean a yeasty-flavoured dough, turn the dough out, re-shape it again, and let it rise once more. If you suspect that the dough has gotten old, adding 1/2 cup of chopped toasted walnuts will mask the beery taste. 9. The bread is underbaked. If the loaf has cooled, it it too late to put it back in the oven for more cooking. Pull the wad of raw dough out of the center of the loaf and throw it away and use the remainder of the bread for crumbs, croutons, toasting them well. Thumping the bottom of the loaf when you remove it from the oven, and listening for a hollow sound will help you avoid underbaking the loaves. 10. The bread is overbaked. Dry and hard, it will make good crumbs, croutons or French toast. |
