What is Bread Proofing? And How Do You Do It?Category: Food
Article posted by: Andrew Penner
Proofing bread is a critical procedure in making bread. Over the course of bread proofing, the doughmust be kept in ideal temperature and heat.
So what might these conditions be? These conditions are around eighty five degrees F and seventy percent humidity. If the dough is kept at such conditions, the yeast in the dough ferments and releases CO2, creating the bubbles in the dough that cause it to grow and fluff up. Dough that is incorrectly has a texture that is heavy and rubbery, but dough that is proofed in the ideal conditions comes out moist, airy and fluffy. Julianne Corbin, co-founder of Bread Bed Enterprises assimilates the texture of bread proofed in ideal conditions to “eating a cloud.” Some may refer to this comparison as a tad ridiculous, however the difference between bread that is proofed in the ideal conditions and bread that is incorrectly or not proofed at all is easily noticeable.
Currently, a lot of home bakers try to proof their dough with two steps. Step one is to put the dough in a covered bowl and let it stay until it is ready for the second step, which involves letting the bread proof in the open in a bread pan. So when do you switch the bread from the covered bowl to the bread pan? This is not an easy question to answer, seeing how each type of dough is different. a standard method to see if the bread is proofed enough is to poke the bread lightly using your thumb. If the dough rebounds back into position, it is not finished proofing; however, if the dent you made with your thumb remains in the dough, then the bread is done proofing. Ryan Kaye, a co-founder of Bread Bed Enterprises calls this his rule of “thumb.”
Posted By: Andrew Penner
Contact: e-mail
| About the Author: |
| Andrew Penner is the co-creator of the Bread Bed, a professional quality bread proofer made affordable and available to home bakers |
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