Help! Air bubbles making shaping pretzels very difficult!
Hi everyone, I'm a fairly new baker, I was recently promoted from dishwasher to baker at the restaurant I work at with only previous home baking experience and I had never worked with yeast before being promoted. They had one of the former bakers come in to train me ( I make pretzels, rolls, and crackers primarily) and at first all was going well. Recently I have been having some major issues with air tunnels/bubbles during the SHAPING stage. I don't get it, when the former baker trained me, I didn't have any issues with bubbles and yet now its a consistent problem even though I haven't changed anything from the way she taught me. I have tried contacting her with no luck. So basically now I'm reaching out to you guys because I'm desperate with summer coming up, I need to get faster at shaping or I'm in trouble. So, I make large batches of Bavarian pretzels (recipe below) and rolls. I have recently been reducing the water because it seems that if I use the entire amount my dough is incredibly sticky and filled with air. I know yeast produces air, but I have had the dough come out before perfectly, with few air bubbles, and i've been able to shape it quickly when that happens. When I reduce the water, the dough is drier but still has lots of air bubbles and is rubbery or starchy and it takes a long time to stretch the dough string long enough to twist into a pretzel. I am desperate now to figure out what i'm doing wrong! I use a large mixer to knead the dough, perhaps i'm kneading it too long? I really dont have a lot of experience with yeast/gluten baking and any advice is highly appreciated. Thanks!
Bavarian pretzels (yield 96)
1/2 cup molasses
1 cup yeast
8 oz. butter (chopped)
4 qt warm water
15 lbs high gluten flour (divided)
1/2 kosher salt
2 cups spent grain
I mix the molasses, water, butter and yeast then let the yeast activate. Then I add the first half of flour, mix for about six minutes or so then I add the second half with the salt and spent grain (we're also a bar/brewery so we try to use beer in everything, the spent grain adds texture/flavor) and allow the mixer to knead it for about 6-9 minutes or until the dough is smooth. Once the dough is done I cover it with a damp towel to prevent a skin from forming and then I start portioning it into 4 oz dough balls. I cover those with damp towel while I portion more until my cutting board is filled. The problems start when I try to roll them into a long string to twist into pretzels. Air bubbles are rampant throughout usually and I never had that problem during training. I also have the air bubble problem with my rolls but sometimes the dough comes out perfectly with few air bubbles and I don't know why. Not sure what I'm doing differently but I really need some help. All my experience is practical and so there may be something I'm missing between the relationship of yeast and gluten. If anyone knows how I can reduce the air bubbles during shaping without losing the rise during baking, please let me know! I'm at my wits end here, seriously want to give up my job and stop baking forever if I can't figure this out soon. Thanks again!
I should add that my bakery is in small closed room so it gets very warm and humid in there. I have a humidity tester but it doesn't seem to be helpful at all because it seems inconsistent (says low humidity when its feels very humid for example). Also my recipes do not say to let the dough rise so as soon as its done kneading i begin to portion it.
Hmmmm, I don't make pretzels but I do make bagels; lots of similarities. First, the difficulty you're having stretching the dough into ropes is probably because the gluten has tightened up with all the mixing. That makes it very resistant to stretching; it tends to snap back. Let the portions rest for a bit longer before shaping them into ropes. If you're working on one and it starts resisting, again lay it aside for 10 minutes or so until the gluten relaxes, then try again.
I think the bubbles are from trapped gases. The yeast is getting active after all the mixing and doing its job, consuming the nutrients in the dough and releasing gas. Do you have time to let the mixed dough rise for a couple of hours before you divide and shape it? After this initial bulk rise you can deflate the dough and then shape it (letting the little portions relax as described above).
Hope this helps!
Thank you for your response. I don't really have the time or space to let it rise for a couple of hours but I try to let each dough ball rest for at least a few minutes covered with a damp towel before I shape it. I also let the rest of the dough rise while I portion sections of it then punch it down to cut off another section and let it continue to rise. The dough balls are much easier to stretch after resting but still have the air problem. I know there must be a way to reduce the air because I saw a video of the former baker shaping a pretzel and he did it in just a couple of stretches with no air bubbles at all seemingly. Okay so perhaps I should try to let it knead less in the bowl to keep the gluten from tightening too much? I try to multi task as much as possible while the dough is rising but there's only so much I can do before having to return to shaping it. I am just feeling a little out of my league here..I appreciate the promotion my work gave me but I'm still very much an amateur when it comes to baking. I've tried to research stuff online but its hard when you don't have someone you can ask questions too. Thank goodness I found this forum lol.
Without a bulk fermentation phase, I don't know where the bubbles would be coming from, because the short time between mixing and shaping doesn't seem to allow enough time for the yeast to do much. The yeast quantity doesn't seem excessive.
The molasses is acidic...could the spent grain be alkaline? that would generate gas.
A photo would help a lot, too.