With experience comes a sense of how to proceed when things don’t go as planned. In the bakery we look for consensus at these junctures. A dough that is too cool is often discussed, and then may go into a warm proof box for the first hour of fermentation, or a dough that is too warm may be parked in the walk-in cooler for a bit. Dough that feels weak may be given extra folds or a stronger preshape and so forth. In reality, everything we touch requires adjustments. Each season brings different ambient humidity, each day a warmer or cooler environment, each dough or each preferment, endless variance. Thank goodness for this daily chaos, which requires our mental presence, our senses, and our skills. Here are a few tips that may help as you develop your own tool set.
STARTER IS OVERPROOFED, FALLEN: A starter that is overproofed or has fallen is not ideal, but it is not necessarily a sign that you should quit and start over. Preferments such as liquid levain and poolish are more prone to collapse than ones held in stiffer mediums. High water content makes their structure especially fragile. In this case you may proceed, taking notes and making adjustments for subsequent attempts. In the bakery environment (with mechanical mixers) I know that a very active liquid preferment will cause a dough to move more quickly and have more strength. At home, with hand mixing, the strength isn’t as much of a liability or risk. Nonetheless, if a poolish is collapsed due to overactivity, I will reduce bulk fermentation time slightly or aim for a cooler dough temperature.
DOUGH IS TOO COLD: Place the dough in a warmer location and add 10 to 25 percent to the prescribed bulk fermentation time. If a cool dough is mixed in summer and your kitchen is almost 80°F, be patient. The warmer conditions will naturally encourage it; things will often equal out.
DOUGH IS TOO WARM: Place it in a cooler location and reduce bulk fermentation time by 10 to 25 percent. As with cold dough/summer conditions (example above), if it’s winter and the ambient temperature is low, the dough will cool naturally as it rises during bulk fermentation and may solve its own problem.
DOUGH IS TOO LOOSE, UNDERDEVELOPED, OR SOFT: Perform additional vigorous folds and also consider adding 10 to 25 percent to the prescribed time for bulk fermentation, to add strength. When your dough is really, really soft (maybe you accidentally added too much final dough water) you might consider making pizza or focaccia if the dough type is appropriate (meaning a basic white dough—I wouldn’t try to make pizza out of a rye bread dough). Occasionally, though very rarely, I will add flour to bring a dough back to a manageable place in the event of a scaling error (yes, this happens in professional bakeries, too). This can be done in a mixer or by kneading in flour on a bench or work surface. It’s not ideal, but it’s better than discarding dough. If this happens in the bakery, I keep track of the flour added and add salt as well to maintain proper ratios. Doughs are generally salted at 2 percent of total flour weight (see Baker’s Math). If you use 100 grams of additional flour, salt that flour at 2 percent, or 2 grams, in order to make sure that the salt is balanced in the loaf.
DOUGH IS TOO STIFF, TOO STRONG, OR OVERDEVELOPED AFTER MIXING: If a dough feels too tight, strong, or rubbery after mixing, the solutions are in many ways the inverse of the prescription for the dough that is too loose, underdeveloped, or soft. You may reduce the frequency and vigor of folds, reduce bulk fermentation slightly (assuming that the dough temperature and fermentation activity are as expected), or add water. You may add water by simply putting the water on the top of the dough, and then incorporate it during folding. Or you may pour the water on top a little at a time, and then poke and massage it in, briefly kneading the dough until it’s incorporated.
SHAPED LOAF IS UNDERPROOFED: The obvious answer is to proof longer, but sometimes that’s not an option. If you notice that the shaped loaf is moving slowly, place it in a warmer, moist location to encourage activity. You may also effectively pause (to a certain degree, not entirely) a shaped loaf by covering it and placing it in the fridge. If I am baking at home and know that a dough won’t be ready for the oven until too late in the day, I will place it in the fridge, covered, after shaping, and bake it the following day. For more information on this, see “Cold Proofing”.
SHAPED LOAF IS OVERPROOFED: A shaped loaf that is overproofed to the point of collapse cannot be fixed. If you forgot your baguettes, took the dog for a walk, and then washed your car . . . you will be better served using the dough to make pizza. Loaves that are mildly overproofed can be salvaged with a hotter oven (add 25°F to the prescribed temperature during preheating and lower to the prescribed temperature after loading). If the loaf is scored, like baguettes, for example, fewer cuts will be more successful than aggressive cutting.