Bread Making: Development, Fermentation, Shaping, Proofing, Baking
Domain 3 follows the dough from mixing to the cooling rack. The exam checks whether you can recognise a stage - under-mixed, over-proofed, under-baked - and explain a correction, plus simple baker’s percentage and dough-temperature calculations.
Dough development
Mixing passes through pick-up, clean-up, development and breakdown. Fully developed dough stretches thin enough to show light through it (windowpane test). Under-mixed dough is weak and gives poor volume; over-mixed dough is sticky, slack and collapses.
Fermentation and proofing
- Bulk fermentation at about 27 °C and 75–80 % RH until roughly doubled; punch down to degas and equalise temperature.
- Divide, round, rest (10–15 min) to relax gluten, then shape.
- Final proof 45–60 min: the dough should spring back slowly when pressed. Under-proofed dough tears at the score; over-proofed dough collapses.
Baking
Bake at 220–240 °C with steam for the first 10 minutes to set crust and allow oven spring; the internal temperature should reach 96–99 °C. Cool on racks so the base does not steam. Staling is starch retrogradation; freezing slows it, refrigeration speeds it.
Worked example
Desired dough temperature is 26 °C. Water temperature = (DDT × 3) − (flour temperature + room temperature + friction factor). With flour 30 °C, room 30 °C and friction 6: (26 × 3) = 78; 78 − (30 + 30 + 6) = 12 °C water. Use chilled water, adding ice if the figure is above tap temperature; if the calculation falls below 0 °C, chill the flour instead.
Traps that cost marks
- Judging proof only by the clock rather than by feel and volume.
- Omitting salt, then blaming the yeast for a pale, flat loaf.
- Using hot water that kills the yeast before mixing.
- Shaping without a rest, so the dough fights back and tears.
- Opening the oven door during the first minutes and losing oven spring.