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Why does nobody warn beginners about overproofed dough collapse?
I was making my first sourdough loaf last Saturday morning. Followed the recipe exactly, waited 12 hours for the bulk ferment like it said. The dough looked GREAT, doubled in size, jiggly. I shaped it and set it in the banneton for the final proof. Left it 4 hours because the recipe said "until doubled" and it was a cold day. When I flipped it onto the parchment, it just FLATTENED like a pancake. No oven spring at all. Came out like a frisbee. My husband said "is this a giant cracker?" I was SO mad. Turns out that room temp matters WAY more than recipes tell you. Has anyone else completely ruined a loaf this way and figured out the real signs to look for?
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martinez.karen28d ago
Oh man, that exact thing happened to me with my first sourdough... I was so proud of how puffy it looked in the banneton, like a perfect little dome. Then when I flipped it out, it just slumped into a sad blob and I almost cried. My husband called mine a "sourdough frisbee" too, I swear they say the same things. The real kicker was I thought I was being safe by leaving it longer because my kitchen was cold, but it just overproofed anyway. Now I watch for the dough to have a slight dome and not jiggle quite so much, and I always do the poke test - if the indent stays and doesn't spring back at all, it's done for.
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loganm5227d ago
The "sourdough frisbee" comment got me haha. That's brutal but also so true! I think a lot of us have been there with the overproofing. That poke test is everything now for me. If the dough feels like a marshmallow that won't bounce back, I know I messed up. It's a fine line between perfect and flat.
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