Baking – successfully bake previously-frozen bread dough

I mix dough in my kitchenAide all the time, and this happens all the time, so through the process I check the consistency and dryness and I've developed a feel for the "just right formula", but being ADHD I don't go in with precise measurements each time, but that would be a good idea once perfection is found. So anywho, I take a strong spatula from time to time and cut it of the hook, to give it a nice restart with hook on outside of dough ball. but your dough needs to be dry enough that it is cleaning itself off the bowl and it will the hook too. It's designed to find that perfect balance so that it starts wet and sticky and then as the gluten starts to web it becomes self cleaning, and the kneading is drying it a little or maybe the material is absorbing the liquid, either way it goes from dry to wet. Another thing I do if the hook is wrapped in dough instead of working against the sides, I briefly turn up the speed and that will throw the dough to the sides and sometimes clean it.

Oil or butter are dough enrichments, and they will change the quality of your loaf. This may be a positive change in flavor and texture, as well as making it stale more slowly, but it is a change. They will also slow the action of the yeast slightly.

Instead, if the cause of your failure to get a second proofing is that the outside of the loaf is drying out (which from the edited in picture appears to be the case), coat just the outside very lightly with oil or butter, then cover loosely with cling wrap. I like to spray cling wrap with spray oil, then lay it over the surface of the loaf.

You may also want to improvise a proofing box with your microwave, by boiling some water in the chamber for a few minutes, then using the cavity as the proof box. You still want to oil and cover the loaf while it rises.

This will keep the outside from drying out and losing its elasticity, so that the proofing can continue.

A second possible cause is that the yeast are running out of readily available sugars to digest, and so their action is just slowing down considerably. You might try adding a teaspoon of sugar to the liquid when you are first making the dough to provide some extra food for the yeast.