The Telltale Sign You Are Overproofing Your Homemade Donuts - Tasting Table (2024)

FAQs

The Telltale Sign You Are Overproofing Your Homemade Donuts - Tasting Table? ›

The telltale sign of overproofing is in the dough's appearance and feel. Ideally, when you gently press your finger into the proofed

A young or underproofed dough is tough, elastic and springy, and retains no impression when touched. An old or overproofed dough retains the impression of the finger and may even collapse.

Dough that has expired yeast, too much salt, all-purpose or cake flour, or antifungal spices like cinnamon might have trouble rising.

Gently press your finger into the dough on the top. If the dough springs back quickly, it's underproofed. If it springs back very slowly, it's properly proofed and ready to bake. Finally, if it never springs back, the dough is overproofed.

Overproofed is when the dough has rested too long and the yeast has continued making carbon dioxide while the strength of the dough (gluten bonds) have begun to wear out. The dough will look very puffy, but when you touch it or move it you may notice it deflate or sag.

If you've overproofed your sourdough bread dough, you can bake as soon as possible, pivot, and use the dough as a base for focaccia, or drop it into a loaf pan and bake sandwich bread.

Over proofing or fermenting the dough can also result in the gluten structure weakening causing sticky dough.

If your flour is weaker, then you may need to lower the hydration. If you are using active dry yeast, then you may need to let it sit in the water for 10 minutes before adding the other ingredients or else it could take a lot longer to raise the dough.

Rather than do that, I would look to extending fermentation if your dough isn't rising quickly. Or just go ahead and bake your bread.

Can I let donut dough rise overnight? ›

Ordinary yeasted donuts should probably rise until almost doubled if you want to bake them the next day. They'll be fine overnight, but not longer. Sourdough donuts will need a few stretch and folds over about 90 minutes, then a brief rise, but I've left those in the fridge for a full day with no problem.

What makes a doughnut soft and fluffy? Yeast. Raised doughnuts made with yeast are light, fluffy, and airy.

You can refrigerate the doughnuts, but leaving them at room temperature for one to two days is safe as long as they don't have a creme filling. Most of the time, you can stash the container in your cupboard. You want to remove the doughnuts from direct sunlight to prevent them from drying or growing mold.

Look: Your dough should be about double the size it was when it started. If it's in a bowl covered with plastic wrap, then use a marker to trace an outline of the dough on the plastic — the dough is done rising/proofing when it stretches beyond that mark by about double.

If the bench time is too long, volume could be lost in the proofing process; the donuts will shrink during frying; the texture will be coarse; and the flavor will not be up to your standards. Always let the dough rise on the bench for approximately 45 minutes before proofing.

If the dough springs back right away (it's saying, “Hey, why'd you do that!”), let it rise for a few more minutes. If the dough springs back slowly, like it's waking up from a long nap, and your prod leaves a small indentation, it's ready to go.

The donuts cook for about 2 minutes per side, depending on thickness. Flip them with tongs, chopsticks, a long fork…it doesn't matter. Just be safe! If you want to check a donut on the first batch through the cook, you can stick it with a Thermapen and look for a reading in the range of 185–190°F (85–88°C).