Baking – Home made yeast cinnamon rolls deflating

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I use an old time recipe that uses high-gluten flour, mashed potatoes flakes, sugar, salt, oil, yeast, eggs – I make them very often and lots of times have no issues. However, lately I'm having issues with them falling after I get them out of the oven. They come out looking wonderful, but as they sit they fall flat. Any idea of what is happening?

More details:

I proof the yeast each time to be sure it's alive. I use active dry with 3 tbsp yeast + 1 tsp sugar in 105-115 degree water to proof it. I could have gotten sloppy as mentioned, being in a rush to get them done might have made me try to hurry things a bit too quickly. I will also try putting half the batch back in for 10 additional minutes to see if that cures the problem along with working the dough just a bit longer.

Best Answer

Next time pop half of the batch back in the oven for an extra 10min and see if they too fall. Getting the gluten to really set may be all that is needed.

If not, dough might be a bit weak -shorter strands of gluten with a lot of starch- and decreasing water or working the dough longer are the next possible experiments.

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Baking – How to two pies made and baked identically have differing flavor qualities

After reading your full accounting, the pies were after all, not really identical. My best guess is that the moister pie crust leeched softened crumbs into your pie filling, giving the pie an overall muddier quality. I've had similar experiences with apple pies going muddy from either the thickener not gelling or the crust not holding up to the liquid filling. (Your filling sounds very interesting though! Yum!)

Baking – How to make the exterior of the croissants less hard and more flaky

this is a technique that might help with the shell issue:

I suspect your croissants are losing humidity during proofing, possibly freezing the butter block, and possibly baking resulting in a harder shell. If you have a humidity controlled proofer and oven, then those parts may not be your problem. Otherwise, read on:

Peter Reinhart in The Bread Baker's Apprentice suggests pouring boiling water in a flat pan/container and placing in the bottom of the oven during the baking (of breads) in order to keep up the humidity. This Link has the recipe published with Peter's permission. Notice how the freezer doesn't come into play (freezer is a dehydrator and pretty good at it, too) although some recipes call the freezing part a must.

Croissants are lighter than bread loafs so they may require a different humidity profile than breads during baking (as noted by commenters). However, for proofing humidity levels should be high and the temperature around 80F or 27C.

To achieve that, for the proofing period keep the dough in a turned-off-oven and turn on the oven light a long with a the boiling water method. This usually prevents 'the skin' formation and a dried out crust. It also helps with getting a better rise during baking. The oven light bumps up the temperature but if you're room temperature is close, don't bother.

You may wish to read this piece on humidity and baking and generally the Maillard Reaction. Here's an excerpt that might explain the problem:

"Under dry oven conditions, the dough will have rapid evaporation of the water from
the exposed surface. This will cause premature formation of a dry inelastic outer shell
on the bread surface"

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Baking – How to two pies made and baked identically have differing flavor qualities

Baking – How to make the exterior of the croissants less hard and more flaky

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