Bread Disaster

[Rozella]

I've never made bread before in my entire life so I decided to experiment last night but the bread turned out as hard as a rock! You could throw at a brick wall and it would stil be in one piece! Seriously, it was that bad. What went wrong? I have no clue. Help guys!

The recipe was:

3 x 11g sachets dried yeast
30g honey or sugar
625ml water
1kg wholemeal flour
30g salt

Dissolve yeast and honey in half the water.

Make a pile of the flour and salt. Make well in the centre and pour in all the dissolved yeast mixture. Mix and then pour the other half of the water into the centre and incorporate all the flour to make a moist dough.

Knead dough for 5 minutes.

Make it into a roundish shape and deeply score the dough with a knife. Cover with clingfilm and leave for 40 minutes.

When the dough has doubled in size, knock it around to bash the air out.

Bake in preheated oven at 190C for 20 minutes.

[grendlesmoder]

Baking bread is not that difficult once you get the hang of a couple of tricks.
I make bread regularly, and after i learned these tricks i never got a hard loaf again. This is particularly important if you use all wholemeal flour. (wholemeal bread is harder to do because it has less gluten, because it has the bran).
Read through this, it's a lot to read but it's not difficult, i just want to explain it.

Looking at your recipe there are two things that don;t sound good to me, and would GUARANTEE a hard loaf. 1. is that you need to let it rise for HOURS not for minutes. Two risings is better. 2. NEVER BASH IT AROUND - i'll explain below.

You need to know a little about two elements, yeast and gluten, because these are what make bread rise. Yeast is a living organism that needs to be able to grow. It needs something to eat and the time to eat it and reproduce. Sugar is eaten quickly, but also the starch of the flour is eaten. As they eat they produce a gas, which is what makes the bread rise.

Gluten are protein strands that are formed when flour and water meet, if they sit there long enough with the yeast, or if they're worked together with your hands (kneading). If you just had yeast, it would make gas that would bubble out and the bread wouldn;t rise. But the gluten sheets are like layers of clingfilm that hold in the air, and make the bread light.

These strands or sheets are crucial in bread because they hold the air that the yeast produces and the bread will rise, and stay risen.

If you bash the dough, you break the strands, and they will release the air and the bread will be hard and dry.

So try this. (I'm sure others will be able to tell you about the quantities. I am very approximate as to quantities and my bread comes out great, they will tell you to measure carefully. At first measure well, but when you get the experience you'll be able to do it all by eye and feel).
The only thing i can see that is bad in the recipe is the quantity of yeast, one sachet should be more than enough, and the less yeast you use, the better the bread, though the longer you have to wait. I would also not put in the honey unless you want the bread to be sweet. Bread develops flavor the longer the dough rises, so much less yeast!!!) If you don;t have time, then don;t make bread. But the nice thing is you don;t have to do anything to it while you wait. You can go to bed and it will rise on its own.

First, just to be sure your yeast is still alive (usually not necessary, but a good precaution) mix the yeast with about a 1/2 cup of your water (approx), which should be nice and warm, but not too hot for your hand, and a dot of sugar or honey). Let it sit for a few minutes to see if it forms a foam. if so it's ok to use. Mix it in with the water and add to the flour.

Then you need to knead it till it's smooth and elastic and you can feel the resistance under your hands. If you take a small amount like a walnut and wet it, you should be able to stretch it gently to make a kind of thin sheet of it. That means you've developed the gluten. if it breaks easily, it's not kneaded enough.
This might be 5 minutes or ten or more - don;t look at the clock, but at the dough. Everyone kneads differntly.

then you have to try to preserve the layers of gluten which will be all wound around from the kneading, which is good, because they;ll hold the air. So GENTLY flatten the dough with your hands, then fold it in from the left and right, and from the top and the bottom, then turn it over so the rounded part is on top. Put on floured board to rise covering it with clingfilm or a dishtowel. or dust with flour and put in a bowl and reverse a big plastic bag over the top.
You can sit it there for hours and even a day, with no damage. Let it take its time.

Then turn out on the board, put the top side on the floured board, flatten again GENTLY and make into loaves. (DON"T BASH IT!). You might make one big loaf, in which case, fold it as before, sides in towards center,. then top and bottom down and up towards center, and turn over. Or make two or three loaves out of it and do the same. (If you use bread pans, grease them and put the dough in.)
Cover with towel and let it sit - this time only until it's risen about double - TO TEST press a finger a cm or two into the ball of dough. If it makes a dent that springs back, it's not ready. If it leaves a dent it's ready. If it collapses all around the dent, you left it too long, you have to flatten it completely, and form the loaf again and re-rise.

Then bake as usual.

Alternatively, for a foolproof loaf, you could try the "no knead bread" recipe that is all over the place. I'm sure on this site there are many versions of it. I know some of them are given in grams.

Good luck and don;t get discouraged. Your recipe was bad, it's not your fault!

[Rozella]

Hehe It was a long message to read and I had to read it a few time to actually visualize the whole folding thing. But thank you so much. It's so much better to actually understand what you're doing before you do it and you definitely cleared the air out for me.

I'll probably look for a better recipe and give it a go. Thanks a bunch! Much appreciated!

[RodinBangkok]

Rozella, here's a whole wheat recipe from a good source, I've made this one before.

Also I noted from your recipe it said wholemeal flour, make sure the flour you are using is wheat flour, as other grain flours may not have sufficient gluten to use 100%. Although wholemeal should be wheat, I've found some bulk packaged here that were not.

Let us know if you have problems.

http://www.kingarthurflour.com/shop/landing.jsp?go=DefaultRecipe&recipe_id=R428

[jonesg]

"Dissolve yeast and honey in half the water."

if the water wasn't warm the yeast was never activated.
Thats all you need to do wrong to make rock.

[Rozella]

Thanks for the link Rodin. It sounds good and easy enough to make. Really Appreciate it! Will give it a go as soon as I get to make a trip to get more supplies.

Thanks for the tip Jones. I didn't know that you need to add warm water. It wasn't specified in the recipe. Will definitely keep it in mind!

[jonesg]

You probably need a recipe written for a beginner, complete with all the little details and explanations,

its as simple as gardening but if you don't know the basics the flowers won't grow.

Keep slugging.

[Rozella]

Thanks Jones!

[Rozella]

Hey Rodin! Been away for a while but I finally tried the recipe according to the link that you gave me. It turned out way way better but it's still quite dense. Is it suppose to be that way? The flavor is great tho. I think maybe it might be the problem with my yeast...?

[RodinBangkok]

Rozella, I guess its difficult to describe density. As compared to say a store sandwich wheat bread that would recipe would be considered a bit dense. Was it moist, did the hole size look somewhat like the picture? Did you get a good rise from the dough?

[Treasure]

Whole grains need help to rise.
I bake bread twice a week, and have been doing so for quite a while. We can not eat store bought any more.

Start with a quality flour, I use Dakota Maid or King Arthur.
I send for Dakota Maid for the quality is always uniform.
https://www.ndmill.com/ndmill/store/prodpage.cfm?CFID=21379&CFTOKEN=41199174&CategoryID=3

Do add Vital Wheat Gluten to your flour, especially whole grain. It will give you higher rising loaves, extends freshness and improves shape as well as increasing protein.

I use Hodgson Mill Vital Wheat gluten with vit C. You can get it at some walmarts... If not, send for it from Hodgson mill. Here's the address:
http://www.hodgsonmill.com/roi/673/Baking-Aids/

Vital wheat gluten is also available in health food stores.

Practice, practice practice! Enjoy your bread....

Happy Baking!

Treasure

[Rozella]

Hey Rod, didn't really get a good rise. It was kinda flat actually and it wasn't moist. It was a tad dry actually, but the taste was good tho. Any suggestions on how to fix it?

[Rozella]

Thanks for the tips Treasure! Yeah, store bought bread or anything as a matter of fact just isn't that good anymore once you start making it at home.

[RodinBangkok]

Hey Rod, didn't really get a good rise. It was kinda flat actually and it wasn't moist. It was a tad dry actually, but the taste was good tho. Any suggestions on how to fix it?

Rosella, did you perhaps add too much flour, in baking bread one common mistake is following the recipe to the letter, when your flour could have a different moisture content, and require less. When I'm doing new formulas, I always leave out the last 1/2 cup or so, then add in as needed to get a good elastic, yet still moist dough. Also insure you get a good full rise, how long did your dough proof? Perhaps too short a time.

One thing to make sure you do as you start baking bread is measure accurately and take notes on what you change. Don't change too many things at once. You can for instance add a portion of a different type flours or types of yeast. If you liked the result but just was a bit off, then try it again with a little change, and see how that batch turns out. If you continually change recipes its difficult to ever understand what particular technique you may not be doing correctly. That was my case years ago, I was consistently adding too much flour to the dough.

Hope that's of some help.

Rod