In this post I will tell you what to do if the dough does not rise. I think this situation has happened at least once with every housewife: you are getting ready to bake bread or, or pies, or even. You buy the best products - sugar, butter, eggs, knead the dough and after a while you notice that your dough simply does not grow.
This is a common problem for many home bakers: You put in a lot of effort to make good, tasty bread, but your yeast seems to be letting you down. Fortunately, this is a problem that can be solved relatively easily. On this page I will explain why yeast dough does not rise and how to make it become fluffy.
So what do you do if the dough doesn't rise?
Method one: you need to increase the ambient temperature. Nothing improves yeast like a warm, humid microclimate where they live their yeast life to the fullest.
If you want your dough to rise well, you must give the yeast what it wants. Fill a deep baking pan with boiling water and place it on the lowest rack in your oven.
Place the bowl of dough on the middle rack and close the door. Leave your dough in a warm, humid environment for a while and let it rise.
Alternatively, you can boil a cup of water in the microwave and then place the bowl of dough in the microwave along with the water and close the door (not including the microwave!).
Some people put the dough on the stove covered with a wet towel. The stove retains heat, and a damp towel provides moisture.
In this way, yeast dough that does not rise can be made to rise.
Method two: add more yeast
If increasing the temperature and humidity doesn't work and the yeast doesn't activate (you'll know in less than an hour), you can try adding more yeast to the dough.
Note that your old yeast has failed you and don't use it again. Open a new package of dry granular yeast, take a teaspoon and mix with a cup (200 ml) of warm water (about 43 C) and one tablespoon of sugar.
Let this mixture stand for about 10 minutes until at least 3-4 cm of foam rises. If it doesn't, you'll have to buy fresher yeast and try again.
After that, add half of the dough (or all, depending on the amount of dough) to the bowl with the dough and mix thoroughly. Even if the mixture turns out to be thinner than you need, don't worry (you will correct this problem later). Set the bowl with the dough in a warm, damp place and let it rise well (at least an hour at a temperature of at least 38 degrees C).
Method three: add flour to the new dough as needed
Prepare a new dough as described above and add flour to it. The ratio is 60% flour and 40% liquid (this is the best ratio for bread dough).
Knead the active yeast mixture into a dough and let it rise in a warm, damp place. How it rises can also be an indicator of yeast activity. This method makes the yeast very active, so when fresh flour is added to the dough, it should rise just fine.
If the yeast dough still does not rise, this will indicate that the yeast is not to blame for anything and, apparently, there is another problem.
Method Four: Add More Flour to the Dough
Check the dough if it is sticky to the touch. If so, it's probably because your dough is not well kneaded. Knead it on the counter with extra flour until its consistency is smooth and silky to the touch and the dough no longer sticks to your hands.
Put it to "rest" and rise in a warm, humid environment. Repeat if necessary. You may need to leave it warm overnight before baking.
Method five: knead the dough properly
Bakers use the real art of kneading dough when baking bread. If you knead it too little, then the yeast simply did not spread well in the dough. Therefore, such a dough will be too weak to rise.
Knead the dough for at least 10-15 minutes, but be aware that kneading too long can make the dough so stiff that it cannot rise. The dough should be smooth and elastic, but not tight like a rubber ball or soft like a runny dough.
If your yeast dough isn't rising, it's possible that increasing the heat and humidity will fix the problem without further effort. But knowing about the possibility of such a problem, try to take some actions in advance. Check your yeast type. Some sourdough cultures grow very slowly and it may take several hours for the dough to rise.
Make sure the yeast is not past its expiration date. Both fresh and dried yeast are best stored in the freezer. At the same time, both fresh and dry yeast have an expiration date, after it ends, they will act weakly or not fit at all.
Before you dilute the dough and knead the yeast dough, check the temperature and humidity in your kitchen.
The ideal microclimate is about 38 gr. C at high humidity.
If your numbers are too different from those indicated, it is not very good for yeast. This can cause the dough to not rise.
Check flour type. All-purpose white flour is low in gluten and protein, so your dough can rise and then fall. This can also happen if your dough is too runny.
Some manufacturers put antifungal ingredients in the flour to extend its shelf life. Since yeast is also a fungus, these impurities will inhibit their growth.
Organic, unbleached, unbleached white bread flour is best for baking. Using heavier types of flour, such as whole wheat, rye, and other whole grains, will cause the loaf to be heavier and the dough to rise less well, just like fine white flour.
Create the perfect rest for the rising dough. Do not disturb the dough while it is rising, especially if it is a particularly wet dough.
Use the correct container for ascending dough. In a bowl that is too large, the dough has no support to rise up. Instead, it will spread outward and possibly fall off.
The small buns on the baking sheet also need to be placed quite close together to have some support.
Check the supplements you are using. Some spices, such as cinnamon, are naturally antifungal. For sweet fruit rolls or cinnamon rolls, use fast yeast, otherwise the cinnamon will eventually kill the yeast.
Some dried fruits are also coated with antifungal additives as a preservative. Therefore, it is better to take natural organic dried fruits, although it is expensive, it is much better for baking. It is best to add dried fruit at the last moment - after the final proofing.
Don't overdo the dough. Salt is essential for the development of gluten proteins, which make dough smooth and elastic.
But too much salt will kill the yeast. Add it at the very beginning only in the required amount, and add it to the flour, not to the water.
Many of us love baking: cakes, pies, cookies, pastries, tortillas, pies, muffins and much more. To make these dishes tasty, you need prepare the dough properly.
Unfortunately, it does not always rise and bake, even when you do everything strictly according to the recipe, which you have used 20 times already. Even experienced housewives sometimes have problems with this. This is not about culinary skills, but about physics!
Many housewives ask themselves the question: "Why didn't my pie dough rise?" According to Gay-Lussac's law At constant pressure, the volume of a constant mass of gas is proportional to the absolute temperature.
That is, when the temperature rises, the volume of the gas also increases. As soon as you put the cake in a preheated oven, the gas begins to heat up, expand, and the cake rises.
Gas is completely different. In biscuit dough, this is the air obtained during whipping. In yeast dough, it is carbon dioxide that is released by yeast during fermentation.
In a dough with baking powder or soda, it is also carbon dioxide, which occurs when soda reacts with acid, if it is present in the dough, and when heated. In wet and oil dough, it is water vapor.
What to do to make the dough rise
- There must be enough gas in the test. For example, eggs for biscuit dough beat well, and gently mix the dough itself. Roll out the puff pastry and cook in the cold so that the butter does not melt and lose moisture.
Preheat the oven well so that the gas expands quickly. To obtain a fluffy dough, the products are baked at a high temperature.
- The dough should not be liquid and contain little flour. If so, the cake will settle as soon as you take it out of the oven. Although in some cases it should be so when it is prescribed by the recipe.
Some types of dough need to be beaten well and mixed gently. For example, biscuits.
- Bake the dough at the temperature indicated in the recipe. Until the dough is baked, do not open the oven.
- When the dough has risen in a uniform slide, without a dent in the middle, then you can check whether the product is ready.
- To check readiness, you need stick a match in the middle of the product. In the center, the dough is always baked more slowly than at the edges.
It happens that after your product has cooled down, it greatly decreases in volume. A properly baked cake should lose a little in volume, if it happened the other way around, most likely it is underbaked.
If you follow these tips, then
Many hostesses, who try to diversify and decorate the dining table as much as possible, begin to engage in yeast dough. From it you can safely cook pizza with greens, and a pie, and many other pastries. But often scrupulously mixed from dry yeast does not rise.
Causes of the problem
To understand the cause of the "breakdown", you need to remember a few basic rules while working with the test:
- the flatness and complex process of shaping the dough can be a sign of excess water;
- the slow fermentation process and the rigidity of finished products mean a lack of water;
- the salty taste of finished products and the insidious pale crust are the surest sign of the excessive presence of salt;
- vagueness and lack of taste is the opposite - there is not enough salt in the existing dough;
- if the crust of the product treacherously burns, and the middle remains liquid, then there is a large amount of sugar in the dough;
- the product is of insufficient height, the middle remained watery and tasteless - lack of sugar.
Yeast dough is quite capricious, and it needs increased attention during kneading. If the dough does not rise, how to fix the occasion, grandmother's advice will help to understand:
- An emergency help can be a new portion of yeast, scrupulously dissolved in a small amount of water and mixed into the dough.
- Doesn't fit and check yeast. To do this, take one pinch of them, combine with sugar and pour a tablespoon of warm water. If within 12 minutes the foam did not go, the yeast was clearly overdue.
Why doesn't it rise?
How much the dough should rise always determines the amount of yeast and its quality, as well as the presence of concomitant factors. The normal process of the “approach” of the dough is considered to be 3 hours, overstaying can lead to the formation of a rich sour taste. The dough can stay in place for several reasons:
- low-quality (unverified) yeast;
- excess fat ingredient (oil);
- low quality or insufficient amount of sugar;
- too basics (milk or water);
- low room temperature for the approach of the dough.
When working with yeast dough, you should not set aside a time frame; a quality product should rise at least two times. Due to the enrichment with oxygen, the products will become soft and melt in the mouth. Too much yeast can lead to an unpleasant taste and aroma. It is not worth increasing the amount of the base, the result will be a significant time saving, but the products will acquire a cottony taste.
Cooking notes
When preparing yeast dough from dry yeast, it is worth considering a few proven remarks:
- Yeast should be used only proven, fresh. In this case, the packaging must be intact. Why? Yes, because contact with oxygen impairs their effectiveness.
- In the case of manual kneading, dry yeast should be mixed with flour; a bread machine does not require such scrupulousness.
In order for the yeast dough to please with splendor and softness, it is necessary to start with the process of mixing dry ingredients.
The flour should be sifted slowly (2 times is possible), then the products will be amazingly airy. Some housewives sift it after mixing with yeast. Then the effect of airiness is enhanced. Due to the haste of mixing, the dough does not rise for many. How to fix this incident, the advice of experienced housewives will prompt. All ingredients must be warm. If the yeast was previously open and became less active, you can heat the saucepan in which the dough will be kneaded, and then the fermentation process will return to normal.
Tricks of housewives and bakers
There are also variants where everything is done according to the recipe, but the dough still does not rise. How to fix the situation, the notes of experienced bakers will tell you. A bowl of warm water can help disperse the dough based on dry yeast. It is necessary to place a container with a "harmful" composition in it and let it stand there for at least 30 minutes. A basin of water can be replaced with a preheated oven, only this method requires constant attention so that the dough does not overheat.
Other hostesses act differently when the dough does not rise. How to fix the situation, they know exactly. Craftsmen add an incomplete tablespoon of vinegar to the dough. It will definitely react and rise. But you should not put the dough in the oven after adding vinegar, then it will acquire a bright taste of yeast, and the pastries will go bad.
When preparing yeast dough, it is worth using a little trick. It is necessary to start the dough in 150 ml of warm (not hot) milk, into which you need to pour 1 tablespoon of sugar and the same amount of sifted flour, a pack of yeast comes last. The mixture must be carefully mixed and hidden in a warm place, wrapping the container with heated towels. After 15-17 minutes, a foam cap should form in the mixture. It is in it that in the future it is necessary to interfere with the rest of the ingredients. Then the dough will be soft and pleasantly airy. This is how yeast dough is prepared step by step. We hope you understand everything.
People often ask me: “The dough did not work out, the pies are not tasty ... Why? I made everything according to the recipe ... "
General tips for all types of yeast dough
- Yeast dough is better when kneaded in large volume. In large quantities and volume, the dough ferments more actively, warms itself. All biochemical processes are more complete.
- When preparing the dough, it must be remembered that the yeast should not have contact with either salt or fats, as they lose their leavening ability, and must not be kneaded with greasy hands.
- The liquid for kneading any dough must necessarily consist of at least half a glass of water - for breeding yeast. The rest of the liquid may consist of water, milk, sour cream, whey, buttermilk, kefir, mixed in any proportion with each other and taken in any quantity.
- When kneading the dough, do not pour the flour into the liquid, but on the contrary, gradually pour the liquid into the flour in a thin stream and mix.
- Before making pies, flour should always be sifted, while it is enriched with oxygen. Dough made from sifted flour rises faster and its quality improves.
- The steeper and richer sourdough requires more yeast and time to rise.
- Sour dough will work faster if you stick a few tubes of pasta into it.
- In the room where the yeast dough stands (roams), it is impossible to open windows and a window leaf. Yeast dough is afraid of drafts.
- With an excess of sugar in the dough, baked products quickly blush and then burn. In addition, the fermentation of yeast dough slows down and the finished products are less fluffy. With a lack of sugar, baked products turn out pale.
- Follow the sequence of the technological process, for example, add fats after eggs, and add flour in portions.
- Remember that dough with a lot of fat rises more slowly.
- Yeast dough for fried pies should be made of a weaker consistency than for baked ones.
- It is better not to add eggs to the dough for the pie (except for Easter cakes). Eggs, and especially protein, make yeast dough tough, accelerate the hardening of the product.
- In order to prevent the bowl with whipped dough from moving, it is advisable to lay a damp terry towel under it. Whipped dough should be hard to come off the spoon.
- Yeast dough will not stick to your hands if you first rub a few drops of vegetable oil into the skin of your hands.
- If the dough has risen and the oven is not yet ready, you can prevent the dough from rising further by covering it with well-dampened paper.
- After the cake has risen, before placing it in a heated oven, the surface of the cake can be greased:
- - lightly beaten egg
- - egg yolk,
- - strong sweet tea,
- - Sprinkle the cake with a spray bottle of cold water.
- To lubricate the dough with an egg, you must first knock it down; grease only the surface of the dough, and not from the sides, so as not to prevent the dough from rising.
- The unpaired method is used if you need to prepare a dough with a small amount of muffin, for kneading pastry, a puffy method is used.
- Roughly, the moisture content of flour is determined as follows. Pour a tablespoon of flour into the palm of your hand, lightly squeeze it into a ball. If, after unclenching the fingers, the lump crumbles, then the flour is very dry; if it crumbles from a push along the edge of the palm, the flour has normal moisture content; if the flour remains in the form of a lump even after a push, its moisture content is increased.
- The drier the flour, the higher the yield of finished products.
- Defective flour should be used first and mixed with good flour.
- To obtain a fluffy product and increase baking, you need to take flour containing 35-40% good gluten *.
- If the recipe indicates the amount of flour in glasses, then the flour is measured in a glass without tamping before sifting.
- Yeast dough cake stays fresh longer if you add 2-3 tablespoons of vegetable oil to the dough.
- You can put the dough not on water, but on rice water - then the dough turns out to be especially white.
Yeast:
- To prepare the dough, you need to take fresh pressed yeast from 2 to 5% by weight of flour, and dry - four times less.
- Yeast must always be fresh. If they are stale, you can try to update them; grind in a spoonful of warm water and add a teaspoon of sugar. If after 10 minutes they begin to bubble, then they have come to life. Take away dark, not revived pieces and discard.
- Pressed yeast should be brittle, light-yellow in color, not musty.
- Yeast is considered good if a piece thrown into hot water floats to the surface.
- If there is no yeast, take a glass of flour, pour a glass of warm water and a glass of any beer, add 1 tbsp. a spoonful of sugar, stir and put in a warm place. When the mixture ferments, knead the dough on it.
- 20 g yeast = 10 g dry yeast
- A small amount of yeast can be placed for 8-14 days in a closed glass and placed in a cup filled with water.
- Yeast can be replaced with slightly fermented sour cream (a glass).
- Fresh yeast packaged in a plastic bag can be stored in the refrigerator for 6 to 8 weeks. If you keep them in the freezer, then the shelf life will reach 6 months.
Dry yeast should be soaked in cold water for 20-30 minutes before use.
If the dough does not rise, what to do in this case? This article will be devoted to this culinary issue.
What kind of dough can not rise?
Asking the question of why the dough does not rise, many housewives imagine a sponge base, which, after kneading and aging, remained sticky and practically did not increase in volume. The reasons for this failure can be completely different factors. We will present them below.
Now I want to tell you about why the dough does not rise during its baking in the oven. In most cases, this question refers to the base that is kneaded with the addition of baking soda.
Baking soda won't rise
If the dough does not rise, what to do and what measures to take? After the formation of the flour product, it is immediately sent to the oven. If during the heat treatment you notice that your pastry did not rise, but remained sticky, then you should remember whether it was added to the dough. If not, then the product will not bake properly.
If the soda was laid out in the base, but the cake did not rise, then this may indicate that this ingredient was not quenched with vinegar, or other acidic food liquids (for example, kefir).
Baking on the baking powder does not rise
Baking powder is often added to baked goods instead of baking soda. But an inexperienced hostess? To do this, check the expiration date of the product. If it has expired long ago, then it has already lost its "elevating" properties. In this case, you need to purchase a fresher baking powder or replace it with slaked baking soda.
Yeast dough does not rise
Most often, housewives complain that they do not rise precisely. The reasons for such a failure can be various factors. Let's consider them in more detail.
expired yeast
If the dough does not rise, what should I do? In case of such a failure, look at the expiration date of the yeast you are using. If it has expired a long time ago, then there is nothing surprising in the fact that your dough remained sticky and did not increase in volume at all. In this case, this product should be replaced with a fresh one, and you will definitely get lush and tasty pastries.
Little yeast
If you decide to make a large amount of baking, but put only a little yeast in the dough, then as a result it will not rise. Therefore, it is very important to observe the correct proportions in the process of preparing the base. Most recipes call for at least 4g of fresh granular yeast per 600 ml of liquid.
no sugar
This is a very common reason why yeast dough does not rise. After all, granulated sugar is essential for the activation of yeast. If you did not use it or added a small amount, then your base will remain glued.
Too much oil
Cooking fat and vegetable oils can easily cause yeast dough to fail, especially if they are added in excessive amounts. To avoid this result, it is advisable to add these ingredients only after the yeast begins to act in the dough.
Yeast brewing
There are cases when housewives put yeast in hot milk or water, and then wonder why their dough did not rise. According to the recipes, to prepare a good and lush base, the yeast is laid out only in a warm and sweetened liquid.
The dough is cold
If after an hour you notice that your dough has not risen or has increased slightly, then pay attention to where you left it. To obtain a lush yeast base, it is placed in a large container, well covered with a "breathing" cloth and placed in a warm place. It can serve as heating radiators or a window sill, where the hot summer sun hits. With the right kneading and dough arrangement, you will definitely get delicious, and most importantly, magnificent pastries.
Rise time
How much does yeast dough rise? As a rule, to obtain lush and soft pastries, cooks keep the sponge base for 65-85 minutes. During this time, the dough should increase several times in volume and become porous. If you overdo it, then it can turn sour and become not very tasty.
