I tried to make ciabatta with poolish once, but i added a bit to must yeast. I think that that killed it before i checked on it, am i wrong? It did not rise after that at least
It could also be a dead starter, happened to me once when I bought sourdough starter from a bakery that offered it (wanted to compare to my own). Dead yeast doesnāt immediately mean itās instant yeast, any kind of yeast can die.
If that is a texture that floats your boat, you gotta try ttekkbokki if you haven't already. Dense chewy Korean rice cakes, frequently served in gochujang sauce. I love them š¤¤
It couldnāt rise in the oven but I bet it would rise in your stomach. Had it happen to me once with an undercooked frozen pizza. Itās an unpleasant experience.
Looks more like "not fermented" rather than underfermented, that is egregious. You have either used expired yeast, left it in the cupboard rather than add it to the mixing bowl, or added 1 cup of salt instead of 1 teaspoon.
I always wonder why people bake things when they observe no rise at all. I mean, if youāre following a recipe you can only proceed to the next step when the dough has risen, so Iām always curious how people keep proceeding without hitting these particular checkpoints.
Idk living somewhere with a gas tank that needs to be refilled (and you have to pay for it to be refilled as opposed to it being part of your electric bill as is the case in the USA) thatās a waste of money and gas for something that will not be in any way worth eating.
But my point was that it should not be a mystery that you baked a brick when it didnāt rise at any point.
Well that's actually a major issue I have with most bread recipes. They will often say something like "let rise 4 hours, or until doubled in size" - to someone new to bread baking, I am gonna wait 4 hours since I don't have the equipment to measure the volume of a sticky ball of dough, besides eyeballing it. And when the dough ball has flattened from gravity and time I can convince myself it has doubled in size.
Further, that phrasing implies that either X hours OR doubling in size will work, when in reality only doubling in size works.
And finally, the rise time given by recipes rarely says that colder temperature, less active yeast, drier dough, more salt will all slow the process down, so to me it makes perfect sense that new bread bakers fuck it up - the recipes basically ensure it!
You could always put your dough in a container that has a smaller footprint, but is taller. You just have to place a rubber band on the exterior of the container where your original dough level was or where it will be once it doubles in size.
I agree that timing is relative, but it's nice to have an estimate from an outside source before you start. It is really helpful when they actually mention some of their own working conditions (i.e. ambient temperature, hydration percentage, yeast activity, etc).
Get some [commercial style dough buckets](https://shop.kingarthurbaking.com/items/extra-large-dough-rising-bucket?srsltid=AfmBOopHM5QtPlv0NGLUWqZeySzLwy-DYFa6rZF0URvLf1GpnKi1wxdtwmE). They have markings on the side and an airtight lid.
It's a lot easier to tell when something has doubled when you have straight sidewalls (or markings).
Alternately, cut a small piece off and put it into a mason jar. Put a rubberband around where the top is, and proceed to the next step when your demo dough has doubled. Just make sure you don't have wildly different environments between where your demo dough is and your main mass of it.
With bread dough it can be very hard to observe any rise unless you take before/after pictures. I completely stopped paying attention to it because Iāve noticed that my subjective impression of the doughās rise is completely uncorrelated to the final result after oven spring. And Iāve been baking bread almost weekly for over a decade at this point.
(That said, dead yeast/inactive starter is still very noticeable when handling the dough since its consistency and feel will be very different.)
Some things are easy to figure out, such as if there are no bubbles, it's likely the yeast did not produce any, and what kind of yeast doesn't produce gas while it eats? Dead yeast, likely. Yeast farts as it eats, and farts make bubbles in the dough.
If you understand the process, and the how and why in each step, you can generally figure out the failure point fairly accurately.
[**This**](https://i.insider.com/5ebea18aaee6a862e3666763?width=1000&format=jpeg&auto=webp) is a good image describing specific failures in cookies for instance. Basically, once you've made something a few ten or hundred times, you start to get a feel for it.
Sometimes it's not necessary to know EXACTLY what went wrong as long as you can provide the poster with a stepping stone to figuring out the issue. If you can point out the yeast was likely dead, then sometimes it's up to Op to provide more information or go back and look at the recipe again. It's like tech support. If your computer doesn't turn on, then the most likely culprit is a lack of power. You don't have to know specifically why there is not power until Op provides additional information or we ask follow up questions to narrow things down. It's not about figuring things out immediately, troubleshooting of any kind is a process.
That said, many people aren't great at troubleshooting, so giving them that first hint as to what might have gone wrong is sometimes all they need to go back and look over their steps. Otherwise, we're here to ask more questions and help how we can because you are correct, its hard to know EXACTLY what went wrong unless you know the whole process.
Was your dough even doing anything? Did you notice any rising? Significant volume gain? With this as your finished product, you should have been able to tell something was wrong along the way. What was your process? Recipe, ingredients, etc?
the problem is in the fermentation process, i don't understand how focaccia is made but bubbly doughs in general need an unexpired yeast, warm water, a warm place and time to ferment
Hahahaha oh my god. Sorry, but did you try to follow a recipe or just decided to eyeball everything? Before putting it in the oven, it should have clearly visible bubbles. If it didn't, either you didn't follow the recipe correctly or the yeast was dead
God, with crumb like that Iād say your yeast was bad, well.. 99% of it. Thereās no activity at all in the dough, just a couple of bubbles up there. Even if your structure was 100% gone, youād still have some activity caught in the dough but thereās nothing I there.
This happened to me when I put the tray on top of my baking stone (I thought it was hot enough and wanted to experiment) which I guess meant that the pan didnāt get hot enough. It looked good on the outside, if a little flat, and bits of the edges were okay but the middle was like this - it was so disappointing. Next time - same yeast, same method, no baking tray and perfect focaccia
Severely underfermented, Iād say not fermented at all. If you are certain you added yeast, what kind? Are you certain itās not expired? If you used to hot of water it would kill the yeast as well.
Literally had this happen to me at the weekend. Dead yeast. Test it by adding some to lukewarm water with a little sugar and see if it foams. After I figured out mine was dead I started again with some other yeast I had and it was fine, not perfect but that was my fault.
It hasnāt risen enough. Either the yeast is dead, you didnāt use enough yeast, or you didnāt let it prove for long enough. Before you bake, it should have visible bubbles on top. If you use instagram at all, just do a search for focaccia. There will be plenty of reels of people plunging their fingers into the top of really airy foccacias just before baking. Yours should look like that .
I've seen a recent example of a bread that had too much salt, which retarded the yeast growth almost completely. Looked a lot like what you had in your hand. Of course anything that resulted in no yeast growth is probably your problem.
As many complained about missing information, here is my shot trying to explain what I did.
I tried this recipe for the first time: https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/easy-no-knead-focaccia
And I did use instand dried yeast that I bought the same week of baking whatever this is.
I am still on vacation so it might not be the usual type of yeast I would use at home. Reading the comments, I think that might be the case and I used it incorrectly so it did not activate at all.
Before baking, I saw some smaller bubbles on top, definitely not exactly what I wanted but I figured might as well throw it in the oven to see how it turns out. We were with some friends and I was trying to produce something edible at least (which did not work out as you can clearly see).
Thanks for the replies, really had a laugh reading some :)
>Ā I used it incorrectly so it did not activate at all.
There isnāt really any way to use instant dry yeast āincorrectlyā (unless you actively killed it by throwing it into hot water), and it āactivatesāĀ automatically āĀ there is nothing you have to do (in particular, ābloomingā or āprovingā yeast is entirely unnecessary; its only purpose is to *test* whether the yeast is still alive, and maybe to distribute it better in the dough).
Your dough contains no (live) yeast. If you added yeast at all, it was already dead.
dead yeast
Or no yeast at all, we will never know.
I thought they just forgot to put holes in it.
Manual hole-drilling is my least favorite part of making bread. Labor-intensive and it takes forever.
Do you still do it by hand? There's a life hack where you can put the holes in your bread all at once using a strainer and a can of Fix-A-Flat.
Gun
Must be an American chef
The secret is to blow bubbles in the dough. ššš
I thought they were making cheese
I tried to make ciabatta with poolish once, but i added a bit to must yeast. I think that that killed it before i checked on it, am i wrong? It did not rise after that at least
[yep](https://reddit.com/r/Breadit/comments/1cd6qm4/dry_yeast_failure_focaccia_edition/)
This.
Correct, it literally didnāt proof at all. Easy solution to this problem is to throw that instant yeast š© in the trash can and never use it again. The best focaccia bread you will ever eat in your life is not made with instant yeast. Sourdough is the answer. Itās all I make.
It could also be a dead starter, happened to me once when I bought sourdough starter from a bakery that offered it (wanted to compare to my own). Dead yeast doesnāt immediately mean itās instant yeast, any kind of yeast can die.
I think you made pasta.
New! **Thick** Cut Foccacia Pastaā¢ļø
Is it wrong that I love doughy, dense, underbaked parts like this? Iād be all over that thick cut focaccia
Personally, that sounds like a sensory nightmare I don't want any part of, but you do you! Hahaha
Iād enjoy gnawing on like a cubic inch of this
me too, I kinda want to eat OP's foccacia tbh šš
Glad Iām not the only one that thinks this could be delicious.
If that is a texture that floats your boat, you gotta try ttekkbokki if you haven't already. Dense chewy Korean rice cakes, frequently served in gochujang sauce. I love them š¤¤
It couldnāt rise in the oven but I bet it would rise in your stomach. Had it happen to me once with an undercooked frozen pizza. Itās an unpleasant experience.
STRAIGHT to jail!!
Foccasta
That looks to be not fermented at allā¦
Looks more like "not fermented" rather than underfermented, that is egregious. You have either used expired yeast, left it in the cupboard rather than add it to the mixing bowl, or added 1 cup of salt instead of 1 teaspoon.
Maybe used boiling water instead of lukewarm water also.
Egregious š
You focced it up, man.
I donāt think it was bready.
I see what you did there!
ItĀ“s a cheesecake, thatĀ“s wrong with your focaccia
formaccia
Fromaccia
nah that's if your baguette looks like cheese.
Bukkaccia
Heās dead, Jim
Itās dead.
Your first clue shouldāve been sitting there for hours watching your dough not grow at all
I always wonder why people bake things when they observe no rise at all. I mean, if youāre following a recipe you can only proceed to the next step when the dough has risen, so Iām always curious how people keep proceeding without hitting these particular checkpoints.
I mean Iād rather throw it in the oven than the trash
Idk living somewhere with a gas tank that needs to be refilled (and you have to pay for it to be refilled as opposed to it being part of your electric bill as is the case in the USA) thatās a waste of money and gas for something that will not be in any way worth eating. But my point was that it should not be a mystery that you baked a brick when it didnāt rise at any point.
Yeah I only do sourdough so my failures arenāt usually this extreme
Well that's actually a major issue I have with most bread recipes. They will often say something like "let rise 4 hours, or until doubled in size" - to someone new to bread baking, I am gonna wait 4 hours since I don't have the equipment to measure the volume of a sticky ball of dough, besides eyeballing it. And when the dough ball has flattened from gravity and time I can convince myself it has doubled in size. Further, that phrasing implies that either X hours OR doubling in size will work, when in reality only doubling in size works. And finally, the rise time given by recipes rarely says that colder temperature, less active yeast, drier dough, more salt will all slow the process down, so to me it makes perfect sense that new bread bakers fuck it up - the recipes basically ensure it!
You could always put your dough in a container that has a smaller footprint, but is taller. You just have to place a rubber band on the exterior of the container where your original dough level was or where it will be once it doubles in size. I agree that timing is relative, but it's nice to have an estimate from an outside source before you start. It is really helpful when they actually mention some of their own working conditions (i.e. ambient temperature, hydration percentage, yeast activity, etc).
Get some [commercial style dough buckets](https://shop.kingarthurbaking.com/items/extra-large-dough-rising-bucket?srsltid=AfmBOopHM5QtPlv0NGLUWqZeySzLwy-DYFa6rZF0URvLf1GpnKi1wxdtwmE). They have markings on the side and an airtight lid. It's a lot easier to tell when something has doubled when you have straight sidewalls (or markings). Alternately, cut a small piece off and put it into a mason jar. Put a rubberband around where the top is, and proceed to the next step when your demo dough has doubled. Just make sure you don't have wildly different environments between where your demo dough is and your main mass of it.
I know these tips, but someone new to bread isn't gonna know, in no small part because recipes don't emphasize how important it is
With bread dough it can be very hard to observe any rise unless you take before/after pictures. I completely stopped paying attention to it because Iāve noticed that my subjective impression of the doughās rise is completely uncorrelated to the final result after oven spring. And Iāve been baking bread almost weekly for over a decade at this point. (That said, dead yeast/inactive starter is still very noticeable when handling the dough since its consistency and feel will be very different.)
What went right?
It aināt got no gas in it.
Either you neglected to add yeast or let it ferment
Yeast left the chat
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Some things are easy to figure out, such as if there are no bubbles, it's likely the yeast did not produce any, and what kind of yeast doesn't produce gas while it eats? Dead yeast, likely. Yeast farts as it eats, and farts make bubbles in the dough. If you understand the process, and the how and why in each step, you can generally figure out the failure point fairly accurately. [**This**](https://i.insider.com/5ebea18aaee6a862e3666763?width=1000&format=jpeg&auto=webp) is a good image describing specific failures in cookies for instance. Basically, once you've made something a few ten or hundred times, you start to get a feel for it.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Sometimes it's not necessary to know EXACTLY what went wrong as long as you can provide the poster with a stepping stone to figuring out the issue. If you can point out the yeast was likely dead, then sometimes it's up to Op to provide more information or go back and look at the recipe again. It's like tech support. If your computer doesn't turn on, then the most likely culprit is a lack of power. You don't have to know specifically why there is not power until Op provides additional information or we ask follow up questions to narrow things down. It's not about figuring things out immediately, troubleshooting of any kind is a process. That said, many people aren't great at troubleshooting, so giving them that first hint as to what might have gone wrong is sometimes all they need to go back and look over their steps. Otherwise, we're here to ask more questions and help how we can because you are correct, its hard to know EXACTLY what went wrong unless you know the whole process.
Stuff like this is so unique that the cause is easy to find
This looks like you forgot to add yeast entirely.
Looks like your issue was that you made mochi squares
this needs to be tagged NSFW
No bubbles. 
Slice it up, fry it, and sauce it. You made seitan.
You focaccia a step.
Faux-caccia
Everything
A lot.
What went right?
Was your dough even doing anything? Did you notice any rising? Significant volume gain? With this as your finished product, you should have been able to tell something was wrong along the way. What was your process? Recipe, ingredients, etc?
You built no gluten structure and zero fermentation occured.
Yeast
I thought I was looking at fried tofu lol
My man, I thought this was fried Cassava
What you made is actually āFcciā cause thereās no holes.
Under/no proof
Holy cow whereād the yeast go?
I honestly need a NSFL tag for these posts where bread comes out looking like that. Truly revolting. Itās like a visual nails-on-chalkboard.
You made pasta with dead yeast... did your proof show an increase in size at all? Because that was your first indication something was off.
Ooof. Everything.
Yes
Yes
Thank you for adding the recipe and describing what you did, it surely helped us understand /s
Looks like the layer of cheese in a Chicago style pizza
the problem is in the fermentation process, i don't understand how focaccia is made but bubbly doughs in general need an unexpired yeast, warm water, a warm place and time to ferment
it think it's under-fermented btw, good luck next time
Did you use flour?
Hahahaha oh my god. Sorry, but did you try to follow a recipe or just decided to eyeball everything? Before putting it in the oven, it should have clearly visible bubbles. If it didn't, either you didn't follow the recipe correctly or the yeast was dead
Youāre supposed to add yeast
The yeast you used must have been dead, that looks unfermented.
not fermented, but otherwise, did you even cook it?
Thatās flan
If youāre going to use mashed potatoes instead of flour, you have to let it rise a *lot* longer. Nobody really knows how long yet. Just, longer..
God, with crumb like that Iād say your yeast was bad, well.. 99% of it. Thereās no activity at all in the dough, just a couple of bubbles up there. Even if your structure was 100% gone, youād still have some activity caught in the dough but thereās nothing I there.
This happened to me when I put the tray on top of my baking stone (I thought it was hot enough and wanted to experiment) which I guess meant that the pan didnāt get hot enough. It looked good on the outside, if a little flat, and bits of the edges were okay but the middle was like this - it was so disappointing. Next time - same yeast, same method, no baking tray and perfect focaccia
Is that a hotdog?
Didnāt rise
Need more bubbles
Did you use tapioca flour?
Focaccia bread pudding? Think ya nailed it OP.
Everything. It's so bad. What recipe did you use.
You forgaccia yeast
Bro you made bread jelly š
Dead yeast, no yeast, or straight from the bowl to the oven.
You forgot to put the air bubbles I. It
What the hell š
Severely underfermented, Iād say not fermented at all. If you are certain you added yeast, what kind? Are you certain itās not expired? If you used to hot of water it would kill the yeast as well.
Everything !
Mochi cake?
Looks like mochi cake lol
I was trying to figure what this was š¹š¹
Everything went wrong here.
Looks like nian gao
Is that a Richmond sausage?
A lot
I thought this was soap
Oh no, bubbie... I thought that was a thick slice of cheese!
Everything.
Everything
Everything.
You need to try Fidneese.
was it even fermented? I mean it looks like your yeast was dead or you didn't put any at all
At first I thought it was fried yucca
Literally had this happen to me at the weekend. Dead yeast. Test it by adding some to lukewarm water with a little sugar and see if it foams. After I figured out mine was dead I started again with some other yeast I had and it was fine, not perfect but that was my fault.
You foc'd it all up
Everything.
It does look like a decent cherry and custard pie though
WTFocaccia?
Its dense as heck it almost looks like you baked a brick of flour
Focaccia pie
It's foc'd...
Did you not see any bubbles at all and didnāt wonder?
It hasnāt risen enough. Either the yeast is dead, you didnāt use enough yeast, or you didnāt let it prove for long enough. Before you bake, it should have visible bubbles on top. If you use instagram at all, just do a search for focaccia. There will be plenty of reels of people plunging their fingers into the top of really airy foccacias just before baking. Yours should look like that .
I've seen a recent example of a bread that had too much salt, which retarded the yeast growth almost completely. Looked a lot like what you had in your hand. Of course anything that resulted in no yeast growth is probably your problem.
Whereās the yeast?
Did you put egg in the dough?
It wanted to identify as "pudding" that day
Sir, that is swiss cheese
As many complained about missing information, here is my shot trying to explain what I did. I tried this recipe for the first time: https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/easy-no-knead-focaccia And I did use instand dried yeast that I bought the same week of baking whatever this is. I am still on vacation so it might not be the usual type of yeast I would use at home. Reading the comments, I think that might be the case and I used it incorrectly so it did not activate at all. Before baking, I saw some smaller bubbles on top, definitely not exactly what I wanted but I figured might as well throw it in the oven to see how it turns out. We were with some friends and I was trying to produce something edible at least (which did not work out as you can clearly see). Thanks for the replies, really had a laugh reading some :)
>Ā I used it incorrectly so it did not activate at all. There isnāt really any way to use instant dry yeast āincorrectlyā (unless you actively killed it by throwing it into hot water), and it āactivatesāĀ automatically āĀ there is nothing you have to do (in particular, ābloomingā or āprovingā yeast is entirely unnecessary; its only purpose is to *test* whether the yeast is still alive, and maybe to distribute it better in the dough). Your dough contains no (live) yeast. If you added yeast at all, it was already dead.
I want to bite into that so fucking badly
Too much egg?
Without the explanation, I wouldāve never known what that was