Vent: Almost ruined 3 loaves before I learned about the poke test

I kept getting dense, flat bread from my no-knead recipe and was about to give up, but then a guy at a baking class in Omaha said to just poke the dough after the rise and watch how slow it springs back. The dough should barely bounce at all before you bake it, and now my loaves have that open crumb I was chasing for months. Has anyone else messed up timing because they thought the recipe's rise time was more important than how the dough actually felt?

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wren_jackson4d ago

Oh man, that reminds me of my friend Clara who went through this exact thing with sourdough. She followed the recipe times like the Bible, letting her dough sit for the full 12 hours even though her kitchen was cold and the dough barely moved. She kept getting bricks and was SO frustrated until I told her to just go by feel. The next batch she poked it after 8 hours and it was perfect, open crumb and everything. Now she swears by the poke test and ignores the clock completely. It's crazy how something so simple can save you from ruining loaf after loaf.