Fixing Mistakes | Paul Hollywood (2024)

FAQs

How long to proof bread in Paul Hollywood? ›

When kneading, you need to stretch the dough out and then fold it back on itself and flatten it, and then repeat the process, making sure you turn the dough round between stretches.

If your cake crust is soggy, you may have under-baked it, cooled it in pans without proper ventilation, or wrapped it before it completely cooled. If your cake is crumbly, you may have used too much flour, not enough sugar or shortening, or over-mixed the batter.

If Your Dough Is Too Wet, Rosemary Says...

“Other times it's too much water. It [also] depends on how much butter is in the pastry. It can be solved by putting it into the fridge for a few hours!”

If you leave your bread dough to rise for too long outside at room temperature, there is a risk of overproofing the dough. It might look alright in appearance, but when you bake the bread, it will not rise much in the oven. The end result will be a dense loaf of bread.

Retarding bread dough (proofing at cold temperature)

I often proof my sourdough bread dough in the refrigerator overnight because I find the baking schedule easier for the home baker. But in addition, I love the depth of flavor a long, cold fermentation brings to the final bread.

What bakers call the “poke test” is the best way to tell if dough is ready to bake after its second rise. Lightly flour your finger and poke the dough down about 1". If the indent stays, it's ready to bake. If it pops back out, give it a bit more time.

Knocking back

This is a technical term for punching or pressing down on the dough after the bread's first rise. This process bursts the tiny air bubbles that have formed in the dough and then forces them to reform again in the final shape you want, which results in a smoother texture.

With steam in the oven for the first 10-15 minutes of the bake the crust of the loaf will stay moist and the loaf will be able to expand. Steam will also improve the colour of the crust helping with the caramelisation and developing a darker crust colour.

A cake needs air bubbles to give it its delicious texture, and mixing is a great way to add air to a mix. However, over mixing can actually reduce the number of air bubbles in your mixture, leading to a flat, sad cake.

What happens if you add too much butter to a cake? ›

Too Much or Too Soft of Butter

If the butter yields too easily to pressure and appears melted and oily, it will produce a silky batter that rises too soon and collapses. Your cake will have big air pockets and an uneven texture.

Your cake is too dense A cake that is overly dense typically has too much liquid, too much sugar or too little leavening (not excess flour, as is commonly thought).

too wet : if the dough to be sticky and challenging to work with. It may also collapse while baking due to the weight of the water. You can fix it by adding more flour. You can also let the bread dough sit a little longer to dry out naturally.

What causes sticky sourdough or bread dough? Overly sticky dough is normally caused by a combination of using the wrong flour and using too much water. I discuss these points in more detail above but in short: choose a flour that's produced for bread baking. These are normally labelled “Bread” or “Strong” flour.

This step is often called first rise, first proof, bulk fermentation, or bulk proof. It typically takes around 1 to 2 hours, depending on the dough and the environment in which it's left to rise.

If you're checking on shaped dough for the second rise/proof, then it should also be about double in size. Feel: Bread dough that has successfully risen/proofed will spring back slowly when poked and leave an indent. If it snaps back too quickly, it needs more time.

Warm bulk fermentation is when bread dough is fermented at a temperature warmer than typical refrigerator temperatures. This is the most common type of fermentation and generally lasts between 2 and 5 hours.

This technique will keep the temperature and humidity level in the oven for about 1 hour. If your dough is denser and needs a longer proof time than an hour, simply change out the water when it gets cold. While the dough is proofing, don't open the door unless you absolutely need to.