The Fresh Loaf

News & Information for Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts

What Happens If Dough Rises Too Much?

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abrogard's picture

What Happens If Dough Rises Too Much?









Was there anything I could have done about it?




Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven


Betts?  I bet it tastes really good!

tracie's picture


mplsmegs's picture

I always bake mine when they rise too much, but the bread doesn't go very fast.  haha.  It's a little heavy/dense and sometimes it takes on a serious fermenty flavor.  Some might like it (sort of like sourdough?)  But I'm not a big sourdough fan.  Curious to hear how it went!  

abrogard's picture

Well here's the news:


It was fine!!  It's great. No worries.

And that was dough that usually rises for two hours had a four or five hour rise, I'm not quite sure. It was a hectic day.  The top, in the bowl, looked quite okay, just as usual.  

When I went to tip it out I noticed the top was drier than usual, almost had a hard skin on it, but the next thing was the shocking wet, slimy cold feel of what had been the bottom of it, down in the bowl,  now the 'top' as I tipped it upsidedown to get it out.

Yucky. My spirits sank. I thought this was the end. Somewhere I'd read that over-risen dough falls into a sloppy, stinking mess and if cooked tastes awful.

Well NOT true. Well not with this amount of over-risen, anyway.  So any other beginners like me making similar mistakes take heart... don't worry... knead it up a bit (I didn't do it much, I mainly just kinda folded it in until there was no slimy sticky stuff on the outside any more) and let it rise again and bake it...

I will mention that when it rose the second time the 'skin' sort of opened a bit like the scar you get after cooking when you've knifed a cut into the load and that cut has risen in the oven out to the same level as the rest of the loaf.

Slow rising is the secret I think. It is about time for me to move on to sourdough for all those benefits. I'll be able to let it rise all night for instance and bake in the morning... fresh bread for the kids...



I just put a couple of pics up on the web of it so's any interested folks can see for themselves how it turned out.  Here's the link: 

Well, it won't let me paste the link. Wonder why?

Well I'll write it out then:

There you go.........