My bread was always flat until a lady at the farmers market told me one thing

I spent a year making dense, flat loaves and couldn't figure out why. A woman named Carol who sells sourdough at the Saturday market in Portland watched me shaping my dough and said 'you're deflating it too much.' She showed me how to handle it softer and stop punching it down so hard. My next loaf actually puffed up right for the first time. Has anyone else had someone spot their mistake in two seconds?

2 comments

2 Comments

wesley8739d ago

Oh man, Carol sounds like a hero. My wife had a similar thing happen with her pie crusts. She always struggled with tough crusts and a neighbor saw her rolling the dough and just said "you're overworking it." She was like a machine, flattening it over and over until it was perfect looking but rubbery in the oven. The neighbor told her to stop when it still looked a little rough and lumpy. Next pie came out flaky and tender finally. Sometimes the simplest fix is the one you never see because you're too busy doing it wrong. Have you tried any other changes since then that helped your bread rise?

charles_green8d ago

Wait wait wait, she was literally rolling it like a machine? Like over and over until it looked perfect? That blows my mind because I always thought smooth dough was the goal. @wesley873 I had the same issue with my sandwich bread last month. I kept kneading it forever trying to get that super smooth windowpane thing and it came out dense as a brick. Next time I barely kneaded it for like 5 minutes and it rose like crazy. Funny how doing less actually does more in baking.