You've got everything planned for your special dinner: great wine, great food and gorgeous, freshly baked homemade bread. Everything seems perfect, but suddenly you discover that your dough has not risen. This problem plagues many home 'bakers', they try hard to prepare a nice loaf of bread, only to discover that the yeast, instead of doing its duty, has taken a vacation. So you find yourself with the dough which, instead of swelling like a soft cloud, stays there, like a wet ball of flour. Don't panic, fortunately the problem is easy to identify and fix. Read on to find out how.
Steps
Method 1 of 2: Recover the Dough
Step 1. Turn up the heat
Yeast needs nothing more than a warm and humid environment to live its life to the fullest. If you want your dough to grow, all you have to do is give the yeast what it wants.
- Place a container of boiling water on the lowest shelf of the oven. In the central shelves arrange the pan with your dough, close the oven door and let it rise for the necessary time.
- Alternatively, you can fill a cup with water, bring it to a boil in the microwave and then place the container with the dough in the microwave as well. Close the door to let it rise and, please, do not turn on the oven!
- Some people prefer to place the pan with the dough on top of the lit oven, covering it with a damp cloth. In this way the oven provides heat and the cloth releases moisture.
Step 2. Add more yeast
If the heat and humidity aren't activating the yeast (you'll notice in less than an hour), try adding more.
- Open a 'new' pack of yeast and dissolve it in about 240ml of warm water (about 43 ° C) with a tablespoon of sugar. Let the mixture sit for 10 minutes or until 1-2 cm of foam forms. If this mixture doesn't work, get some more yeast and try again.
- As you prepare the leavening mixture, gently heat the dough to a temperature of around 38 ° C, placing it in a warm place.
Step 3. Knead the mixture
If necessary, add more flour, the ideal ratio for a bread dough is 60% flour and 40% water, then add the amount of flour necessary to balance it. Add the active yeast mixture to the dough and knead it carefully, then place it in a warm and humid place to let it rise.
- In this way you will be able to observe the behavior of your yeast, understanding if it is activated or not. Using the mixture described above, the yeast will be in full swing, and your dough will grow perfectly. If the dough still doesn't want to swell, it means yeast isn't the culprit, the problem lurks elsewhere.
- The next time you are preparing bread, follow this method from the beginning, you will get a different dough.
Step 4. Add more flour
Check if the dough is sticky to the touch. If so, this is probably a low-flour dough. Knead with additional flour until smooth and uniform to the touch, no longer sticking to your hand. Let it rest and grow in a warm, humid environment. Repeat if necessary. You may need to let the dough rest overnight before shaping and baking.
Step 5. Knead properly
Kneading is an art; do it too little, and you will find it difficult to distribute the yeast throughout the dough, thus being too weak to be able to rise. On the other hand, kneading too much can make the dough so hard that it is difficult to grow. The dough should be smooth and elastic, not hard like a rubber ball or soft like biscuits.
Method 2 of 2: Troubleshoot Dough
Step 1. Find out what's wrong
Make an initial diagnosis, taking into consideration the following aspects, it may be that a simple correction of the ingredients or the environment solves the problem, without further effort.
- Check the dough and the type of yeast. Natural yeast works very slowly, and it may take hours before you can see the effects.
- Make sure the yeast used hasn't expired. Baking powder can last a very long time if stored in its packaging and kept in the freezer. In any case, both fresh and dry yeast have a deadline beyond which they will no longer be active.
Step 2. Check the environmental conditions
For the leavening of the dough, the ideal temperature is about 38 ° C with a high level of humidity. Moving away from these conditions a lot, the yeast won't be very happy.
Step 3. Check the type of flour used
Choose a cake or all-purpose flour that is low in gluten and protein, otherwise your dough will initially rise and then deflate.
- The same thing can happen with a dough in which the amount of water is too high compared to that of the flour.
- Some flours contain antifungal agents to be able to be stored longer. Since yeast is part of the mushroom kingdom, using this flour will limit its effect.
- An organic flour, without any additives, is ideal for preparing excellent bread.
- Using wholemeal, wheat, rye or other cereal flours will not make your dough rise as much as white flour.
Step 4. Let the dough rest
Do not disturb it while it is rising, especially if it is very humid.
Step 5. Use an appropriate container
Do not use pans, trays or containers that are too large, otherwise the dough will spread rather than rise.
If you are making small rolls, for optimal leavening, arrange them very close together
Step 6. Check the ingredients
Some spices such as cinnamon are natural antifungal agents.
- When making sweet fruit buns, or cinnamon rolls, you'll need a quick rise in the dough, but the cinnamon could kill the yeast.
- Some dried fruits are treated with antifungal preservatives. Organic nuts can be more expensive, but they are perfect for baking. Many bakeries use normal dried fruit, adding it to the dough only when it has risen.
Step 7. Use the salt carefully
It is a fundamental ingredient for the development of gluten and the proteins necessary to make the dough elastic, but know that in excessive doses it would kill the yeast. Add only the required amount of salt and do it at the beginning, incorporating it into the flour, not the water.
Advice
- Periodically check the water and flour used. Ph is a very important value and too high or too low a Ph level could kill the yeast. Prepare two water samples: one normal and one to which you will have added some flour. Test them by adding baking soda (for acidity) or vinegar (for alkalinity). If the samples generate foam it means that the Ph is unbalanced, otherwise the Ph is neutral. Alternatively, buy a Ph test at any swimming pool accessories store.
- Check the relationship between the quantities of water and flour. Remember that the optimal ratio is: 60% flour and 40% water. A slightly wetter dough, could be fine anyway, but it is likely that it will not yeast or that it will be able to rise, and then deflate during cooking.
- Remember to preheat the oven at least 5 minutes before use. If you are preparing a pizza or bread, it may be useful to use a stone base, on which to place the pan or the dough directly. This type of surface distributes heat better. A cold oven is one of the major causes of insufficiently leavened dough in baking.
- The main problem, in a dough that does not rise, is the poor processing. Haste does not allow the activation of gluten and proteins that make the pasta smooth and elastic. By not working it for the right amount of time, the dough relaxes, losing strength and the bubbles contained within it collapse. Proper timing is all it takes to develop the dough well or to notice that it is weakening before the yeast begins to take effect. You can improve the dough by adding more gluten, or bread improvers, but, if you are making a gluten-free bread, the only weapon at your disposal will be waiting. If you want to get a very thin dough, to prepare sweet rolls or puff pastry, a slow leavening will be ideal and will allow you not to have large bubbles in the dough. Sometimes it is possible to achieve this by letting the dough rest in the refrigerator overnight.
- An unleavened bread dough can be easily recycled to make batters, cakes or other baked goods, so the ingredients won't be wasted. Use the help of a product such as: baking powder, bicarbonate, citric acid, beer, lemonade or soda, to make your preparations airy.
Warnings
- Correcting a pastry dough can be very difficult, especially if it is worked in layers with butter, for example to make croissants or puff pastry. By working it again you will obtain a dough similar to that of brioches, certainly excellent, but without the characteristic crispness of croissants or puff pastry. To achieve this, you will have to start over from the beginning.
- If all attempts at recovery don't work, you will need to change the ingredients and start over.
