Houzz Logo Print
greekshambo

My bread should have be an unmitigated disaster...

9 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago

But it wasn't. Not perfect, by any means. But much better than I expected. I followed a King Arthur recipe called "Clay's Multigrain Sourdough Sandwich Bread." I chose the recipe because it uses 2/3 cup of unfed/discard starter.

Anyhow, the final rise was supposed to be between 1 - 1 1/2 hours. So I set my timer for 1 hour. When I checked it, the dough was several inches over the pan's rim.

I debated over punching down and starting the final rise again. But I was not in a "starting over" mood. The recipe's author mentioned that the bread doesn't have much oven spring. So my muddled brain thought, "If I put it in a cold oven, maybe, just maybe, it'll be OK." So that's what I did. However, I fully expected the bread to collapse from overproofing.

Twenty minutes later, when I got back from getting the mail, I peeked in the oven. The bread was fine. Still overly puffy but no collapse. It finished baking, and I cut into it. It's definitely a little too "spongy" in texture but a whole lot better than I thought it would be.

So, how come it didn't collapse? Any ideas?

Comments (5)