The Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book_ A Guide to Whole-Grain Breadmaking - Laurel Robertson [140]
If there is no good yeast in the house, wrap the dough in plastic or put it in a covered bowl, and refrigerate it. Sometime in the next week, you can get fresh new yeast, bring the lump of dough to room temperature, and proceed as suggested above.
If you want to use the unyeasted dough right away, you can make Chapathis (see previous problem) 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.) Form the loaves and bake as suggested in the recipe for Manuel’s Seed Bread; it may not be light, but it can be very tasty sliced thin.
If you have to leave the rising dough and won’t be back for hours, deflate it and put it in the refrigerator (see this page). Since it will continue to rise until it cools (and even afterward, slowly), allow room in the container, but cover it to keep stray refrigerator flavors out. The dough will be good for a couple of days; after that, since the yeast is still at work, it begins to get old and may make grayish bread. (There is less leeway with fruited dough, by the way, because the fruit gets winey.
You think you may have forgotten the salt
The dough rips when you shape the loaves
The shaped loaves collapse in the pan
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 you have to add salt, unless the dough was overkneaded in the first place, it is worth rolling it out on the kneading board, sprinkling the salt measure evenly over the dough, rolling it up, and kneading until you think the salt is distributed evenly. One way to be sure is to mix the salt into a tablespoon of molasses or poppy seeds so that you can see when it is all mixed.
The most usual and least serious cause of tearing is not letting the deflated and rounded dough rest long enough before you shape the loaves. Give it more time. 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 if you prefer, to minimize friction.
With weak dough, extra handling will just make matters 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.
Although it may mean a yeasty-flavored loaf, turn the dough out, shape it again, and let it rise once more. If you suspect that the dough has gotten old, adding ½ cup of chopped toasted walnuts will mask the beery taste.
The bread is underbaked
If the loaf has cooled, it is too late to put it in the oven for more cooking. Pull the wad of raw dough out of the center of the loaf and throw it away.
Make the rest into crumbs or croutons, toasting them well.
The bread is overbaked
Dry and hard, it will make good crumbs, croutons, or French toast.
Troubleshooting
Sooner or later—mostly sooner—every baker produces a real bomb. The bread didn’t rise, or it rose and fell, or the inside is gray and it tastes like old beer. It’s embarrassing, to say the least, but you can use the disaster to learn something about breadmaking. This section has been designed to help you figure out what went awry and, we hope, to prevent a recurrence. By the time you finish these pages, you’ll be congratulating yourself for all the things that didn’t go wrong!
If you are a beginner, a few basic things cause the most trouble:
Adding too much flour when kneading.
Not kneading the dough well enough. (Or, in a food processor, maybe too well!)
Keeping the dough too warm, or not warm enough, while it rose. Not giving the loaves long enough—or giving them too long—to rise in the pan.
It is really worth reading through A Loaf for Learning