Thread: Who bakes bread?

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

I have a few King Arthur cookbooks and I've found their recipes are very inexact and require adjustment to get the correct result.

When you add all those ingredients in a bread recipe it tends to make a heavy dense dough and rise times can be quite lengthy. I usually add add vital wheat gluten and use a bit more yeast than it calls for.

It's funny you mention that, the dough was a bit on the sticky side from other doughs I've seen/made. Though, I prefer to blindly follow a recipe on the first crack. I'll hold off on adding gluten until I'm a bit more well read on breads...

Also, in a bit of carelessness, I assumed 1 package of yeast would be the 1 tablespoon of yeast required by the recipe. Turns out, that is not the case and ended up having only about 2/3 of the required yeast.

So, I'm thinking I'll pitch the leftover dough and take another shot at this recipe this weekend.

Originally Posted by dinnermint

It's funny you mention that, the dough was a bit on the sticky side from other doughs I've seen/made. Though, I prefer to blindly follow a recipe on the first crack. I'll hold off on adding gluten until I'm a bit more well read on breads...

Also, in a bit of carelessness, I assumed 1 package of yeast would be the 1 tablespoon of yeast required by the recipe. Turns out, that is not the case and ended up having only about 2/3 of the required yeast.

So, I'm thinking I'll pitch the leftover dough and take another shot at this recipe this weekend.

Don’t pitch it. The yeast will continue to multiply and eventually give you the rise you want.

If the dough is sticky, it might just need some additional kneading. Doughs like pizza, French baguettes, Italian white loafs etc often start out as a sticky mess, but come together with extra work. Try using a dough scraper (a wall scraper properly cleaned works well) and scrape-fold-scrape-fold until the dough starts to show some body. Alternatively, if you have one, use a dough hook on a machine.

Try adding a little flour at a time if it continues to be sticky, but don’t judge it until it has risen completely - you can tell by putting a finger into the dough and seeing if it pushes back to fill in the indentation. WHen the indentation stays, it has fully risen.

Before icing

Originally Posted by DZEC

Don’t pitch it. The yeast will continue to multiply and eventually give you the rise you want.

If the dough is sticky, it might just need some additional kneading. Doughs like pizza, French baguettes, Italian white loafs etc often start out as a sticky mess, but come together with extra work. Try using a dough scraper (a wall scraper properly cleaned works well) and scrape-fold-scrape-fold until the dough starts to show some body. Alternatively, if you have one, use a dough hook on a machine.

Try adding a little flour at a time if it continues to be sticky, but don’t judge it until it has risen completely - you can tell by putting a finger into the dough and seeing if it pushes back to fill in the indentation. WHen the indentation stays, it has fully risen.

If the dough uses whole wheat flour it has an affinity for moisture and is usually on the sticky side.

If the dough is heavy the small amount of yeast you used will only do so much. You can leave it but after 12 hours or so that's as much as you'll get from it.

I took another shot and now I think I might just be a crap beginner bread baker.

Same recipe, followed it to a T this time. Yeast was a wee over measured, intentionally.

I made sure to reserve some flour to dust my cutting board and not over flour, I've made this mistake a couple times before. It helped with consistency and kneading a lot

Good news, it rose alot more in the initial rise, but second rise was pretty disappointing. Even after 2.5 hours, a full hour longer than the previous batch. After the bake, the bread was almost identical to the first. I think I might not be developing the gluten enough....

Looks like a third try is on order, but this time I'm going to increase the knead time.

What temperature is the area where you're letting the dough rise? Needs to be warm.



I put mine in the oven a few minutes after I turn it off from a temp of 150F (I only leave it on for a couple or a few)

Probably around 70F. During second rise, I had the bread pan with the dough sitting on top of my oven after I was done baking something else. It gets some added warmth there.

Originally Posted by dinnermint

Probably around 70F. During second rise, I had the bread pan with the dough sitting on top of my oven after I was done baking something else. It gets some added warmth there.

You really need at least 80F for rising dough and more like 85F. At 70F it could take a mighty long time to rise.

How do you knead your bread? Is it by hand or with a machine?

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

You really need at least 80F for rising dough and more like 85F. At 70F it could take a mighty long time to rise.

How do you knead your bread? Is it by hand or with a machine?

I knead by hand, been going for 10-15 min.

I did a classic white sandwich bread yesterday, and it did seem to be rising well in front of my heat vent. Although, what height I had (bout an inch over the pan) dropped down in height during the bake. Let that one ruse about 3 hrs.

I do have a stand mixer, but I'm too lazy to lug it out.

I use a stand mixer for the initial mixing of ingredients, but hand knead the dough. I've made cinnamon rolls, french bread, and dinner rolls on many occasions. If the weather is cold, I always warm the oven a bit then put the dough in to rise. Usually takes no longer than the directions call for (1hr first rise for cinnamon rolls).