It is a tell-tale sign of not enough kneading if your bread dough cannot hold its shape or acts listless and fails to inflate. Instead of rising, the dough will spread out flat. The dough may even fall back onto itself and collapse as the gases produced by the yeast escapes.
There's no kneading involved, and a bread machine or a stand mixer is not required. My sourdough bread recipe is perfect for beginners. I'll explain a complex topic in simple terms without the stress! But before you dive in, here's a secret: sourdough bread is more than just a recipe…
Gluten develops naturally over time through enzymatic action. But without the benefit of mechanical mixing (or aggressive, sustained kneading), bakers must encourage even more gluten development by stretching and folding the dough during bulk fermentation.
If you skip stretching and folding, chances are you will end up with soggy dough that doesn't hold its shape before or during baking. Developed strands of gluten help hold the bread together as it bakes, and contributes to a strong upward rise (called oven spring) rather than spread during baking.
Yes. After the first rise, you can knead the dough lightly to remove some gas that causes air bubbles. This step is ideal if you want your dough to be flat and dense or if you want bread with a close crumb, like sourdough. If you prefer sourdough with an open crumb, just knead the dough lightly.
High temperatures can cause premature over fermentation, which will result in wet, sticky sourdough. You need to make sure that you keep your kitchen at a temperature between 24C - 28C (75F-82F). Alternatively, you'll need to adjust the amount of starter in your dough to suit the temperature of your kitchen.
The Dough Passes the Windowpane Test
To do this, tear off a chunk of dough and stretch it between your fingers. If the dough tears, you haven't developed enough gluten and it needs more kneading. If it stretches without breaking, making a windowpane of sorts, you're done and you can let the dough rest.
Overproofed is when the dough has rested too long and the yeast has continued making carbon dioxide while the strength of the dough (gluten bonds) have begun to wear out. The dough will look very puffy, but when you touch it or move it you may notice it deflate or sag.
While underworked dough can simply be fixed by a little more kneading, severely overworked dough cannot be fixed. Instead, the overworked dough will result in a hard loaf that will likely not be eaten. It's important not to overwork your dough and continually check for overworking throughout the kneading process.
If the dough feels very dense and tough when you knead it against the counter, that is a sign that it's starting to become over-kneaded. It will be difficult to flatten the dough out and fold it over on itself in a normal kneading pattern. And when you do, over-kneaded dough has trouble integrating the new folds.
You most definitely can bulk ferment sourdough too long. If you leave the dough to ferment for too long, it will become "over fermented". Over fermented dough will lose its structure and become a soupy, sloppy mess that you will not be able to shape.
A 24-hour rise time will produce much more sour bread than a 4-hour rise time. If using a shorter rise period, 4-12 hours, a second rise is optional. If desired, punch dough down, reshape, and proof a second time.
You must discard some of your sourdough starter each time you feed it. You'll discover that discarding is necessary to build a healthy and thriving sourdough starter - but it's not actually as wasteful as you might think.
The dough will rise slowly overnight or up to 24 hours. Allowing the dough to remain longer in the refrigerator isn't beneficial, as an extended time in the refrigerator will lead to off flavors and diminished dough strength.
The main difference is in the way that gluten is formed in the loaves. Kneaded breads use kneading to develop the gluten and no-knead breads use the natural chemical changes that happen when flour and water are mixed to develop the gluten.
When the bulk fermentation goes too long — often when the dough more than doubles or triples in volume — the dough can over ferment. You know the dough has over fermented if, when you turn it out to shape it, it is very slack — if it's like a wet puddle — and very sticky and lacking any strength and elasticity.
Some types of crumb include: fool's crumb (a mix of very tight and big holes), honeycomb or lacy (evenly spaced and moderately open), and wild (a mix of moderate and very large holes).
The crumb structure of an under proofed loaf will be tight and gummy. Because it was not given enough time to develop and trap CO2 gasses, the crumb structure will be very dense, with uneven air bubbles.
If your sourdough is not rising during bulk fermentation at all, you might need to strengthen your sourdough starter. If you notice the dough is under proofed during preshaping or shaping, simply give it a longer bench rest.
If your starter has a bit of dark liquid on top, it's not dead! It simply means it's hungry and that it's time to feed it. Unless your starter has a pink or orange hue or is beginning to mold, you probably haven't killed it yet.
You can leave the starter in the refrigerator for 3 to 4 days at a time between feedings. We recommend feeding sourdough starter at least twice a week for best results. Remember, if you're planning to make bread on a given day, you'll feed sourdough starter the night before you bake.
A unique characteristic of sourdough bread is that it needs longer than other homemade breads to cool before slicing. Although an average sized loaf (1.5 lbs) of homemade conventional bread would take around 2 hours, the same sized loaf of sourdough would take at least 4 hours to cool.
CAUSE - gummy sourdough can be caused by a starter that's too young or inactive and or under fermentation. More often than not, gumminess is a result of under fermentation (cutting the bulk fermentation time too short).
Over fermentation means the dough has no food left, and so it has no strength left to continue to ferment or grow in size. The gluten strands eventually break down, and the dough cannot hold itself up.