Am I overproofing?

Baking Fails
1

Hi folks. I moved back to an altitude of 5000’ after spending many years at sea level - where I started making no-knead sourdough breads in the Breadtopia way.

Since being at higher altitude I often get great rise during the overnight proofing, but then little rise during the baking. This troubles me. I have not adjusted the recipes in any way for altitude. Most often I bake the seeded sourdough, cranberry pecan sourdough and the artisan rye.

Can it be I am overproofing? Generally I make the dough in the early evening and let sit on the counter overnight for 14 - 16 hours. Our house may get down to low 60s in the wintertime (now).

Oddly, I’ve had a couple experiences where the overnight proofing does not result in much of a rise, and then the baking rise is good (and sometimes not).

Any and all advice welcome.

2

Overproofing is also my best guess for what you’re describing. 14-16 hours, even in a cool kitchen, may be too long – leaving minimal food for the microbes to continue producing gas during the final proof and early stage of baking (before they die off from the heat).

If you can mark the level on your bowl to compare different rises and results that might help with the diagnostics.

Here’s an article about how altitude impacts baking – slightly faster rising and some other differences.
https://www.wheatmontana.com/content/high-altitude-baking-how-make-your-recipes-work-mountains

3

Thanks Melissa, I will use a shorter long ferment and see if that helps.