I ruined some dough the other day. I was trying an experiment with a no-knead sandwich bread and I actually ended up kneading it. I had left the dough in the refrigerator overnight and when I took it out I thought it looked like it could use some kneading. I threw it in my Bosch and set the timer for 5 minutes. About half way through the kneading the machine suddenly started going faster. It had been working harder and suddenly there was less resistance and the machine started going faster.
After taking out the dough and playing with it, I discovered that it was now a bit like pancake batter and didn’t stick together anymore. I over-kneaded it (a first for me)! I was about to throw out the dough and decided to see if I could make something useful out of it. So I let it sit for the rest of the day to ferment.
That night, I threw in some baking soda and baking powder, poured it out on an edgeless cookie sheet, and baked it. It spread out to about 1 inch thick. It was very tender – almost muffin or biscuit-like – and nothing like a yeast or sourdough bread should be. However, it had a very nice crust and nice flavor. We ate it up much faster than we usually eat a loaf of bread as it made a very nice munching bread.
Moral: Don’t throw out ruined dough.
