How to let the dough rise

Dough is the raw material for making pasta and many desserts. As people pay more and more attention to food health, more and more people are willing to make some related foods at home. For example, in the process of using flour to make food, it is often necessary to carry out the step of proofing the dough. The proofing of the dough mostly depends on external substances. Yeast powder, baking soda and yeast are all commonly used materials for proofing dough in life.

Method 1: Use yeast powder. Add water at about 30°C to the yeast powder and stir well. In order to make the yeast powder work faster, you can add some white sugar. Pour the mixed liquid into the flour and knead the dough, which will make the fermentation faster. Yeast powder is a natural yeast extract that can protect the vitamins in flour. Therefore, the nutritional value of finished pasta made by fermenting it is several times higher than that of unfermented pasta such as cakes and noodles.

Method 2: Use baking soda. First mix white vinegar and warm water and pour it into the flour, then add a little baking soda and knead the dough. Neutralization of acid and alkali will make the dough ferment faster.

Method three: Use yeast. In some places, yeast is also called old dough. It is a piece of dough left after the last fermentation. After proper storage, it is used as a culture medium to start fermentation. When using yeast, some alkali needs to be added to neutralize it because it will make the dough sour.

Proofing is usually carried out at a temperature of 28-29°C and a relative humidity of about 70-75%. The proofing time for staple bread dough is about 10 to 12 minutes, for fancy bread it is 12 to 17 minutes, and for hard bread it is 15 to 20 minutes. The intermediate proofing environment is generally at room temperature, and most of the time it is regulated by the temperature of the dough itself and the evaporation of water. However, if the ambient temperature is too low, it must be sealed very well to prevent the temperature and humidity from dropping. In summer, we should also pay attention to cooling down. Otherwise, undesirable factors such as softening and drying out will occur on the surface of the dough.

To judge the degree of proofing, mainly observe the multiples of dough volume expansion. The volume when rolled into a ball is usually used as the base. If it expands to 1.7 to 2 times its original volume, it can be considered to be at an appropriate level. If the volume expansion is insufficient, the dough will have poor stretchability. If it expands excessively, it will expand rapidly during molding, which may easily cause the surface to crack.