Dough contracting

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Sep 15, 2020
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Hello all.

I’ve been making Ukrainian vareniki / Polish pierogies lately and have had issues with my dough sometimes. It seems that every now and then my dough tends to contract as I roll it out and cut into circles. For example, I use a 2.5” cup to cut out circles but as soon as I lift them off of the table they shrink to 2.25”. I’m rather new at this but sometimes I’ve nailed a few recipes / batches but can’t seem to be consistent. I know this might be like going to a mechanic, telling them that your car is making a funny sound and hoping that they know the answer, but does anyone have ideas about what could be going wrong? Thanks.
 
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Hello all.

I’ve been making Ukrainian vareniki / Polish pierogies lately and have had issues with my dough sometimes. It seems that every now and then my dough tends to contract as I roll it out and cut into circles. For example, I use a 2.5” cup to cut out circles but as soon as I lift them off of the table they shrink to 2.25”. I’m rather new at this but sometimes I’ve nailed a few recipes / batches but can’t seem to be consistent. I know this might be like going to a mechanic, telling them that your car is making a funny sound and hoping that they know the answer, but does anyone have ideas about what could be going wrong? Thanks.

Extensibility is ability of dough to stretch.

Elasticity is ability of dough to spring back


There has to be the right balance between extensibility and elasticity.



A dough that is weak (too much extensibility) can't hold its shape and cannot trap air bubbles very well. So it has a tighter crumb and little oven spring. A weak dough is caused by over-fermentation.


A dough that is too strong (too much elasticity), is difficult to shape as it springs back into a tight ball when shaped. It will bake up tough. This is caused by too much gluten development.

When you over-knead your dough, you develop too much gluten in it.
 

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