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The old baker in Santa Fe who told me to stop proofing by the clock
I was in Santa Fe last month for a wedding and stopped into this tiny bakery off Canyon Road just to grab a coffee, and the guy working the counter was probably 70 and had flour on his apron like it was part of the fabric. I mentioned I bake at home and was always fighting with my dough rising too fast or too slow, and he just laughed and said 'the clock doesn't know your kitchen.' He took me in the back for like ten minutes and showed me how he pokes the dough with two fingers and watches how fast it springs back, and if it springs back slow it needs more time, and if it barely moves it's done. He said his oven has run hot for 15 years and he's never once set a timer for proofing. I went home and tried it on a batch of rolls and I swear they came out better than anything I've made in the last two years. Now I'm second guessing every recipe that says 'proof for 60 minutes' and wondering how many loaves I ruined by trusting a number over my own hands. Has anyone else switched to the poke test full time, and do you have a feel for what 'springs back slow' actually means when you're doing it?
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emmaallen23d ago
The thing nobody talks about is how much your fridge temp changes the game too, like my dough proofs way slower in January than July and the clock thing never made sense to me either once I noticed that. What the old guy showed you is basically reading the dough instead of the recipe, and once you get the hang of the poke test you start noticing stuff like how the dough feels tacky or how it smells a little boozy when it's ready, which is way more useful than staring at a timer. Spring back slow just means you poke it, the dent stays for a second or two, then it fills back in halfway and stops, like it's saying it's got a bit more to give.
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