Final proofing of the dough and its influence on the quality of the finished bread

[Final proofing of the dough and its influence on the quality of the finished bread]

Final proofing of the dough and its influence on the quality of the finished bread

(From the book of Auerman L. Ya. "Technology of bakery production)

In the process of forming dough pieces, carbon dioxide (carbon dioxide) is almost completely displaced from them. If the formed piece of dough is immediately put into the oven, then the bread will come out with a dense, very poorly loosened crumb, with tears and cracks in the crust. To obtain bread with a well-loosened crumb, the formed pieces of dough are proofed.

For pieces of wheat dough that have already passed the preliminary proofing, this will be the second, final proofing.
For dough pieces made from rye dough, this will be the first and at the same time the final proofing.

During the final proofing, fermentation takes place in the dough piece. The carbon dioxide released during this process loosens the dough, increasing its volume. With the proofing of pieces of dough for hearth products on boards or sheets, simultaneously with an increase in the volume of the pieces, their shape changes: they blur to a greater or lesser extent.

Unlike preliminary proofing, the final proofing should be carried out in an air atmosphere of a certain temperature (within 35-40 ° C) and relative humidity (within 75-85%). The increased air temperature accelerates the fermentation in the straying dough pieces. A sufficiently high relative humidity is necessary to prevent the formation of a dried film - a crust on the surface of the dough pieces.
The dried film (crust) usually breaks during proofing or baking due to the increase in the volume of the dough, which leads to the formation of tears and cracks on the surface of the bread.

The readiness of the dough pieces during the proofing process is usually determined organoleptically, based on changes in the volume, shape and rheological properties of the proofing dough pieces. The ability to correctly determine the readiness of pieces of dough in proofing requires experience and practical skill. Unfortunately, sufficiently verified objective methods for this determination have not yet been developed.
If you put three loaves of wheat flour into the oven, one of which was clearly insufficient, the other normal, and the third excess proofing, then after baking these loaves will differ sharply from one another.

An under-proofed loaf will be nearly round in section, a normal-proofed loaf will be slightly oval, turning into a rounded one from the bottom crust to the sides, and an over-proofed loaf will be very loose and flat. In addition, under-proofed bread usually has cracks, through which the crumb sometimes protrudes.


Shallow bread with insufficient proofing has a strongly rounded top crust, usually torn up along the side or side walls; in case of excessive proofing, on the contrary, the upper crust is concave in the middle. In addition, with tough doughs (both hearth and tin bread), insufficient proofing can cause breaks in the crumb.

The duration of the proofing of the formed pieces of dough varies within a very wide range (from 25 to 120 minutes), depending on the weight of the pieces, proofing conditions, dough recipes, flour properties and a number of other factors.
An increase in air temperature from 30 to 45 ° C at a relative humidity of 80-85% reduced the duration of proofing by 23-30%.

An increase in the relative air humidity from 65 to 85% at a temperature of 35 ° C caused an acceleration of the proofing by about 20%.The greatest acceleration of proofing was observed with an increase in air temperature to 45 ° C and relative humidity to 90%. However, the relative humidity should not be kept above 85% as this can cause the pieces of dough to stick to the boards or cradle pockets where the proofing is taking place.

It has also been found that the higher the air temperature in the proving chamber, the correspondingly lower the relative humidity of the air can be. The air velocity in the proofing chambers should not be too high.

On the basis of industrial practice and the research carried out, it can be noted that the duration of proofing of dough pieces increases with the use of strong flour, with a decrease in the humidity and temperature of the dough, with the introduction of significant amounts of fat and sugar into the dough, already inhibiting the fermentation process, with increased mechanical processing of the dough, with the use of improvers of the oxidizing effect, with a decrease in the mass of dough pieces and with a decrease in temperature and humidity for proofing.

[Shallow bread with insufficient proofing has a strongly rounded top crust, usually torn up along the side or side walls;]

Shallow bread with insufficient proofing has a strongly rounded top crust, usually torn up along the side or side walls;

Please tell me, what else can lead to such an affect in rye-wheat in KP?
Little water? A lot of yeast, etc.?
After all, if there were problems at the kolobok stage, then increasing the proofing time probably won't help?
And how to increase the moisture content during proofing in HP?

Forgive me if not in the subject.

The quote you quoted refers to baking bread in the oven and bread on the hearth.

You have a x / oven, the dough is held by the sides of the bucket, so there will be no cracks at the bottom of the bread.

In any case, you need to use trial and error to select a recipe for rye-wheat bread, and work out this bread for yourself. It is even difficult to describe the dough, since there are so many dough options here: from liquid to normal consistency.

Please note that there are:
wheat-rye bread
rye-wheat bread

Bread differs in the content of rye flour in relation to wheat.

I understood theoretically, but practically - put the bread for proofing in the oven at 30-40C (I can heat the oven, then turn it off and put it in a little warm ...). But how to create the necessary humidity there ?! When heating, still put a container of water? But with minimal heating, the water will not evaporate ...
In a word, how can all of the above be done at home?!

There are a lot of topics and recommendations, technologies for your question here. CONTENTS OF THE SECTION "BASICS OF KNEADING AND BAKING"

especially in subsections:
SELECTED TYPES OF BREAD
BAKERY TECHNOLOGY

and below ...