Bread!

[nolly]

Bread!,
originally uploaded by menolly37.

I made bread yesterday, using ozarque's recipe. I used whole wheat flour instead of regular, because I prefer wheat bread. Research afterwards has made me realize that my yeast did not proof properly, which is why the bread is not very fluffy. It is, however, quite edible, and will make tasty sandwiches for my lunches this week.

Comments

[magicheide.livejournal.com]

Often, the yeast makes a difference, but whole wheat flour is also heavier, resulting in a thicker dough and bread with a chewy and dense texture. Commercial bakeries litereally blow air into their "whole wheat" bread to make it fluffier! Congrats on two lovely loaves and good eating to you! :D

[nolly.livejournal.com]

I didn't know what I was looking for at the time, but from later reading, I'm quite certain that the yeast did not proof. The bread did rise during the first rise, and a bit during the second, so it wasn't completely inactive, but the yeast-water-sugar didn't go all foamy like it should have. But this will do nicely for my lunches this week; I just have to make two sanwiches because the loaves are so small.

[linenoise.livejournal.com]

I never actually proof my yeast before using it, so I can't comment on that, but the times that I've made bread with whole wheat it's always much heavier. It's a denser flour to begin with, and it's harder for the yeasts, so they're less active and it rises less.

Generally, if I'm making french-style bread, I'll use *at most* 1/3rd whole wheat, and the rest white. With sandwhich style bread, I just have two different recipes, one for mostly-white, and one for mostly whole-grain.

I made rye just this afternoon, and even than was 3 parts white flour out of seven parts total flour. (2 rye, 1 whole wheat, 1 cornmeal)

[nolly.livejournal.com]

Well, the first step of the recipe is roughly "Put warm water in bowl. Add yeast. Add sugar. Wait for bubbling." I got very little bubbling. From what I've read since, I should have gotten lots of bubbling. Thus, I conclude that either the yeast was bad or the water was an incorrect value of warm.

[linenoise.livejournal.com]

It's pretty hard to achieve the wrong value of "warm". And yeast can easily go south if it sits too long. So the obvious next question is: "how long ago did you buy the yeast?"

[nolly.livejournal.com]

Thursday. Red Star, in packets, as it was what I could find. Well before the date on them, but I don't know how well they'd been stored/transported before I bought them.

[tmdmesmer.livejournal.com]

I would be glad to give you all kinds of advice on bread making, because I have done it many, many times, and always with some whole wheat flour. Ask me on Saturday if you are here for gaming, as I suppose you will be. Congratulations on your edible loaves!

[nolly.livejournal.com]

Sounds great! I'm pretty sure that the yeast was the main problem this time, but I'd be happy to get more advice.