Dough won't rise...

[Bleenie]

I made a batch of cinnamon rolls last night. the recipe included dry yeast and the dough had to rise once after mixing and again after rolling into cinn. rolls. I mixed everything correctly but the dough didn't hardly rise at all after the mixing or after i rolled them up. All the reviews online said their dough doubled or even tripled in size both times. Needless to say, mine turned out crappy with WAY too much "filling" because the dough didn't rise like i expected it to.

I rarely use yeast dough recipes & I think maybe i kneaded to dough too much? would that make it not rise like it's supposed to?

 

[halo]

You're yeast might have been too old. Next time, "proof" the yeast to make sure it is viable.

 

[caspernc]

Old yeast is one, another is your water or milk was too hot when you added the yeast, you could have added the salt to soon(salt will hinder yeast activation). I always make sure my water is luke warm and I have added suger for the yeast to feed on and I put my salt into my second cup of flour. My sister swears you have to knead your dough the same way all through. Years of expereance and you can still have a flop. Humidity and warmth all are part of it also.

 

[cassie]

As others have posted, your yeast was dead. Either it was too old to start with or you killed it. I am an expert at killing yeast. That is why I gave up on making bread.

 

[wyoDreamer]

Test your yeast by putting it in a bowl with a little water and a sprinkling of sugar. The water should be slightly warm to the touch, if you think you are using too hot of water, use water that you can't tell if it is warm or cold - it will just take longer to start to work. It should start to foam at the edges within 10 min. The sooner it foams, the fresher the yeast.

 

[Bleenie]

I guess it's old yeast, I used 80* water(checked temp) and sprinkled sugar and it did foam/puff up but it took a few minutes. I picked up a new bottle so I will have to check it before I go making anymore rolls.

Thank you guys for the help!

 

[caspernc]

If your yeast foamed it wasn't the yeast! it was the heat in the room or the humidity OR as my sister says you didn't kneed it right. Don t go with the kneading thing but I did a BUNCH of bread yesteday with out of date yeast. All did well, I even used my dehydrater to proof my first rise got some dry spots. I might try it again, I even didn't use the first rise and made rolls right from the first rise and all turned out well. I wish I could have had you here to feel it. My daught er is still learning and will for the next 30 some years.

 

[Bleenie]

I bet it was the room temperature. We have a wood stove so it's normally around 80F in here but the night i made the dough I didn't feel like trekking for a load of firewood so it wasn't real warm in here. I did turn the over on and had the dough next to it but the power went out so i moved them into the oven and closed the door to keep them warm.

So yes, it was probably the room temp! I will have to make sure its good and warm in here next time.