Comments on: Wednesday Baking | Troubleshooting Yeast Bread

By: Kristen

Kristen — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 13:47:17 +0000

Usually denseness is a matter of the dough being too stiff, which makes it hard for the yeast to do its work. Try adding a little less flour and see if that helps.

By: Liz Morris

Liz Morris — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 07:15:59 +0000

My bread is not as white as it should be it is also rather heavy and dense, what am I doing wrong.

By: Moonwaves

Moonwaves — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 12:53:25 +0000

After not having baked bread a few years (got out of the relatively new habit of making my own bread after moving into a rented house with a really bad oven and then went through a phase of only making soda bread about three years ago) I gave it another go yesterday. I picked up a hand-operated bread slicer on freecycle over the weekend and wanted to give it a go but hadn’t bought bread and decided it would be a good idea to use up that packet of yeast I bought months ago and still had sitting on the shelf.

The recipe I have used successfully before is a very simple one which calls for fast action dried yeast which is simply added to the other dry ingredients (flour and salt) before adding the wet ingredients (tepid water, honey and sunflower oil). Living in a different country now, I wasn’t too sure if what I had bought could be used in that way and as the instructions on the packet said to activate it in water first I decided to wing it and see what happened. So I used part of the water and a spoonful of sugar to activate the yeast and added that to the dry ingredients just after adding the rest of the wet (I used a smidge less honey to make up for the sugar). All seemed to go okay, I made sure to knead properly for at least the ten minutes mentioned and left it to rise. Added the sunflower seeds, kneaded again and left for a final quick rise before putting it into the oven. It’s only a small electric oven so it took a bit longer to cook than normal but eventually it seemed ok. My question is more about the taste. It’s an incredibly yeasty, nearly beer-like taste. No, it doesn’t really taste like beer but that’s as close as I can come to describing it – it’s nearly sweet but that’s not it either. It’s still edible and I have to say I’m loving my new slicer (and pile enough cheese and chutney on top and it doesn’t matter what it tastes like) but if anyone has any tips I’d be interested to hear them. Thanks.

By: Ramona

Ramona — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 23:19:14 +0000

I have a question. I use a bread machine (I work 40 plus hours, mother of 3) so I try to “cheat” as much as possible. My bread always comes out to stiff. It is not soft and/or fluffy like other loaves of bread. Do you have any thoughts or suggestions??

Thank you
Ramona

By: Frugal Liz

Frugal Liz — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 22:59:22 +0000

I didn’t think of it either, Steve!

By: Steve

Steve — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 12:36:57 +0000

Our house is super cold at the moment so the idea of heating the oven for a minute and then putting the dough in there is so obvious, why didn’t I think of it?!

By: Heidi Partin

Heidi Partin — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 12:26:43 +0000

I made your Challah bread yesterday and the loaves came out beautiful. I braided one and plopped the other half in a pan unbraided. Most importantly, my family LOVED it. They asked me why haven’t been making it all along? I guess I will be baking more often.

By: hiptobeme

hiptobeme — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 06:08:37 +0000

My mom taught me to “knock” on the loaf. If it seems hollow, it’s done. If dense, bake it a bit longer.

By: Travis

Travis — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 03:12:38 +0000

I’ve heard that chlorine in the tap water can have a negative affect on dough rise.

By: Ellen

Ellen — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 23:14:28 +0000

I usually bake sweet dough and if my house is too cold – I’ve learned a trick by using your microwave – I just take a 2 cup measure of water – boil the water in the microwave and after it has boiled put the water off to the side in the microwave – take my dough, put it in a container that would fit in the microwave – cover it with a cotton cloth and the warm moist air in the oven lets the dough raise very nicely and quickly. I have been doing this for years and it always works beautifully.