Thread: Who bakes bread?

What type of yeast are you using?
Rapid rise or active dry or cake

And more important what type of water?
If tap water than the Chlorine could be killing your yeast

Edit: just noticed that you are using cake yeast. It is notorious for dying on you. It's the best to use when you do a lot of baking but dies quickly. Active dry is my go to when I'm baking. It lasts longer. And can be refrigerated for longer storage. But your yeast maybe mostly dead and the chlorine could be taking out the rest.

Glen,
I dissolve the yeast (Active Dry from Walmart)in the water with a table spoon of flower and sugar. Yeast lokies sugar, that is what makes it grow.
Keep the mixture in a warmer place, the raise should take ~15 min.

For the dough rising I cover with plastic wrap and leave it in pre-warmed oven for 45 min, that is the first raise. When I make the loaves, I do the same procedure and then bake.

Obviously if you are making a more specialized bread then the procedure may vary.

Here is what I get when I make my bread. Those are about 14" long, by 7-8 wide. by 4-5" tall

This is the actual recipe I am following for the first attempt,,,

I think you guys were right and the yeast was dead, trashed it and moved on...
No Chlorine that is just not an issue here on the ranch

Third attempt worked with the normal packet of Yeast, I could see the bubbles and blooming like the vid showed,,, Dough is now made and **Crossing Fingers** Rising as I type
Now if I could just remember what I did with our Baking Stone for the oven

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCzsLurWUFE

I can see why this has an appeal to many of us here, more of an Art to learn, then a Recipe to follow

Having fun

Bread making is truley an art,esp if you dabble in making your own Sourdough starters.
My wife bakes all ours,she is a master at times,but the other day she made a loaf of sourdough that I may use as an anchor for my little fishing boat;the birds will not even eat it

Originally Posted by gssixgun

I can see why this has an appeal to many of us here, more of an Art to learn, then a Recipe to follow

Having fun

Its actually a little of both. The recipe is extremely important. When it comes to baking of any kind, precision of measurement is important. All of my recipes are measured by weight. It's the best way to ensure consistency and to eliminate a lot of questions should things not work out as planned. If you find yourself interested in it, a $25 kitchen scale is a great investment. The part that is art is how you manipulate these precisely measured ingredients.

First Loaf is in the oven

It rose very well both times seemed to do just like in the vid

That was pretty cool "Punching it Down"

Just told the Wife "Way Cool, just spent 3 hours and $10 on a loaf of bread I could have bought at Wally World for $1"

LMAO this really is like SR shaving, "You can save money and get a better shave"

Glen, it only gets better, and more addictive. One word of warning, you will know if you have an addictive nature when you start devouring a fresh loaf of bread before it's fully cooled and then realize you don't have enough left over for your wife and/or dinner.

Not bad

Room for improvement but not bad at all, pretty happy right now

Originally Posted by gssixgun

Not bad

Room for improvement but not bad at all, pretty happy right now

Glennthis looks very yummy.
I love freshly baked bread with butter and turkey breast and some oregano...I usually eat half one of the loaves I make right after it comes out the oven.

Great job. Looks good and yummy. What did you use for the glaze? Egg wash or butter. Oh makes me want to get my flour out and make a loaf. Yummmmm

Next time try scoring the top of the loaf before placing on the hot stone. There is another use for DE and sharp razor blades other than taking off whiskers. Haha.

The scoring will allow for a better oven rise. But as for this loaf looks like over proofing and incomplete gluten development (not enough kneading). Looks like my first loaf. Keep at it it only gets better. Not to mention the taste will get better the more you tinker with the recipe. Happy baking. Lol