Buttery Cloverleaf Yeast Rolls (2024)

FAQs

Can you still use dough if it doesn't rise? ›

Fortunately, this is a problem that's relatively easy to diagnose and solve. If your bread dough doesn't rise, you can still use it and fix it by changing up the temperature or mixing in more yeast.

Too much flour, or not the right kind, could be to blame. Dough made only from flour with a high or even average amount of protein (like bread flour or all-purpose flour) can become tough from overmixing. Protein gives bread structure in the form of gluten—the more you mix and move the dough, the more gluten you get.

“The first thing that springs to mind,” Bertinet says, “is that your dough is probably too cold.” Or, put another way, the water you're using isn't warm enough. “It's vital you give the yeast a helping hand, otherwise it'll just slumber lazily,” he says, adding that your water/ flour/salt/yeast ratio is also crucial.

Add Milk

To make your bread soft and fluffy, another trick used by commercial bakers is replacing water with milk. Milk has fats which make bread softer.

But almost as good as a proofing box is taking a Mason jar filled halfway up with water, microwaving it for two minutes, then putting your bowl of dough into the microwave with the jar to rise. The other thing you can do is place your lidded container or bowl of dough into a second, larger bowl of warm water.

To fix dough that won't rise, try placing the dough on the lowest rack in your oven along with a baking pan filled with boiling water. Close the oven door and let the dough rise. Increasing the temperature and moisture can help activate the yeast in the dough so it rises. You can also try adding more yeast.

A vacuum-sealed bag of yeast stored at high temperatures, however—e.g., in a hot kitchen over the summer, or in a hot warehouse before delivery—will fairly quickly lose its effectiveness. After awhile, if stored improperly, yeast cells will die. And if you use dead (or dying) yeast in your bread, it won't rise.

You can also put hot water in a heat-safe dish and place it on the floor of a cold oven (or on a lower shelf). The steam and heat from the water will help the temperature rise just enough that the yeast is active. The steam will also assist in keeping the surface of the dough moist so it will stretch as it rises.

Can I substitute butter for shortening (or vice versa) in a recipe? The short answer is yes, butter and shortening can be used interchangeably in baked goods as one-to-one swap.

Too much yeast could cause the dough to go flat by releasing gas before the flour is ready to expand. If you let the dough rise too long, it will start having a yeast or beer smell and taste and ultimately deflate or rise poorly in the oven and have a light crust.

What to do with failed dough? ›

Now the best part: Uses for that lump of dough that didn't rise. Never throw it out! Instead: Roll some of it very thin, sprinkle with herbs and/or coarse salt and bake homemade crackers.

Too Much Flour

The big lesson here: too much of any ingredient can make your bread not rise—even flour. Too much flour can make your dough stiff and dry. And we all know what happens if there's not enough liquid for the yeast to use: It doesn't work how it should.

“If the dough has risen too long, it's going to feel fragile and might even collapse as you poke it,” says Maggie. If this is the case, there's a chance you can save your dough by giving it a quick re-shape. Learn more about this fix in our blog on saving overproofed dough.

Sugar: When yeast is mixed with sugar it consumes the sugar and produces carbon dioxide gas, which causes the bread dough to rise and become light and airy. Instant Yeast: Instant dry yeast can be added directly to the flour mixture without needing to be activated first.

For baking light and fluffy bread, it is necessary to choose flour that has high levels of protein. If you choose to use flour with lower protein levels, you'll be left with the bread being dense.

Adding dry milk powder to your bread dough will help your loaf rise higher. In addition, the loaf will stay soft and hold moisture longer which again means it will last longer. It also helps brown the crust. If you want a lighter fluffier bread loaf just add 2 Tbsp of dry milk to the flour per loaf of your bread.

Fermentation is at the heart of many of them. (FYI: Fermentation refers to the process yeast goes through to make bread rise or proof.) If the fermentation is too fast or too slow, too long or too short, or not as predicted, dense bread is often the result.