Hi

I am an amateur yeast baker, just wanted to ask, because all the thing I've baked have come out  great in terms of taste, but their crumb is often really dense and heavy. I was wondering whether anyone knows what the cause of this is? I've used all purpose flour and whole wheat flour, with rapid rise yeast.

 Thanks!

I recently tried the bagel recipe from The Bread Baker's Apprentice. At the end of two hours, the sponge did not double in size, nor did it look foamy or bubbly. In fact, it took about 12 hours to become foamy and double in size. Also, it seemed much thicker and stickier than pancake batter after mixing. It did achive a pancake batter-like consistency after the 12 hours, however. What could be causing it to take so much longer than two hours? I weighed my ingredients and room temperature is about 70° F. I used King Arthur bread flour and Fleischman's bread machine yeast. Thanks in advance for any advice.

Another beginner haveing problems, useing 1/2 A.P. and 1/2 W.W. flour to make a pullman loaf, as I try to ball the dough for rising, the top tears. What am I doing wrong, I've machine Kneeded, hand kneeded, not too dry, just wondering what is it that I'm doing to cause that problem.

I'm a retiree living in the Philippines, and flour is get what you can get, when you can get it. Not a lot of choices, here it is just AP hard wheat flour.

I don't have this problem when making sweet breads, but it seems that I do when adding the WW flour.

TIA for any suggestions.

(My apologies in advance for my poor command of baking terminology).

I'm having some trouble understanding why sometimes my some of breads puff up nicely, and at other times they do not, after I follow the exact same recipe for them each time I make them. For example, twice I've made a sesame seed bread that included some whole wheat flour. The first time it came out well (though perhaps a little too puffy), but the second time it barely rose at all. I followed the recipe as directed both times, and as the first time that bread was a success I did not include a dish with water in the over to help it rise and be less dense while baking. The same has been the case for another bread I've baked.

I know this is a very general question, but does anyone know why something like this would happen?

Thanks in advance for your help!

Hello,

 With the recent increase in food prices everyone is suffering under, I've been making more and more of my families food in the kitchen, rather than buying it pre-fab (or whatever you call pre-made food).  Among many success at this I've "conquered"*: english muffins, crumpets, granola bars, bread, hot dog/hamburger buns, fruit roll-ups, salsa, tomato sauce, etc...  However, I seem to have one daily commestable that eludes my cooking genius**; the bagel.

I've made many attempts at these wonderful, round, single-serve, vehicles for cream cheese, but have met with limited success.  The first attempt left me with rather dry, salty, uninspired little rounds.  They were servicable, but not nearly what I think of when I picture a bagel.  The second attempt met with more success, producing "bagel sticks" (as I lacked the ambition for proper shaping) that were fluffy, nicely chewy, tasty, yet homunculus looking and with no outer crust (very homogenious softness).  I figured my failures there were due to the accidental omission of salt, and a low baking temperature.

 Undaunted I tried again, this time carefully setting out all the ingredients I would need so that the salt wouldn't fall by the wayside.  I also cooked them at a higher temperature, dropping it after 5 minutes (as I do with bread 500 -> 450).  However, they still failed to produce a nice, shiny, chewy/crunchy crust.  Rather, they looked shriveled and raisen like.  They hadn't lost any size during the baking... they just didn't seem to grow and smooth out any.  They just seemed to "freeze" in the same semi-wrinkled, post-boiling shape that they went into the oven with.

So I'm asking for help to tweak my method so that I have a chance at producing truely impressive "bagel shop" bagels.  Here is my method so far:

-Make the dough and allow to double in size (You're basic mix and proof).  During the ferment, I do one de-gas and fold.
-Seperate dough with a sharp knife and shape.  Shaped bagels are placed between two sheets of wax paper and allowed to rise for 45 minutes to an hour... until puffy.
-Bagels are placed in boiling water and allowed to boil for 2 minutes, turned, and boiled 2 minutes longer.
-They are removed from the water and placed on a baking sheet covered in corn flower.  The bagels are allowed to rest for 15 minutes, then baked.
-Last batch was baked at 500º F for 5 minutes, then lowered to 450ºF for another 15.
-Finally, they are cooled on a wire rack.

I wish I could provide a picture of these bagels, but I'm pretty sure my wife ate the last one yesterday morning (as I said, they looked funky, but tasted pretty good).  If I find a spare one sitting around somewhere... or if I have another partial success, I'll take a snapshot of it and post it here.

I'm planning on giving the sourdough bagel recipe I saw here a try, since the bagels pictured are exactly what I'm trying to accomplish... and I have some starter that's looking at me with big doe-eyes, wanting to be used in something.

Any help is greatly appreciated in this endevour.

Cheers,
Taco

*Conquered read as "Met or exceeded market quality."

**Genius read as "Base level of competence".

2 eggs

375ml/ 13 floz rice milk

1 tspn lemon juice (I just used half a lemon)

1 tspn salt

1 tbspn honey

50g/ 2oz dairy free spread

175g/ 6oz white rice flour

200g/ 7oz brown rice flour

(or a 375g/ 13oz white/brown rice flour blend, which is what I used)

25g/ 1oz rice bran

1 tbspn xanthum gum

1 tbspn active dried yeast

Warm the rice milk in a microwavable jug for 50 seconds on high. Stir in yeast and leave ten for minutes.

Mix together flours, bran, salt and gum.

In a large bowl whisk together the eggs, melted dairy-free spread, honey and lemon juice.

Add the flours and milk to the egg mixture and mix slowly for 5 minutes.

Tip the dough into a greased loaf tin, cover with a tea-towel and leave in a warm place for approx 40 minutes.

Preheat oven to 200 C/ 400 F/ Gas Mark 6

Lightly brush olive oil on top of loaf and bake for 45 minutes.

Remove from oven and cover top with double layer of foil for ten minutes before turning out onto cooling rack.

Cool completely before slicing.

I just made some dough for English Muffins from Reinhart's "Bread Baker's Apprentice".  The ingredients were:

10 oz flour

1/2 tsp sugar

1/4 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsp instant yeast

1 Tbsp shortening or unsalted butter (I used shortening)

3/4 to 1 cp milk room temp

I mixed it like it said, and kneaded it.  Now, I don't know the proper term for it, but when I turned it out to knead it, it just shredded.  It did hold together, but there was no way I was going to get a skin to form or pass the window test.  It just broke apart when I tried.  Any ideas?  I have made it twice and it has turned out the same both times.

Hello.  I am new to a "blog" and not sure how all of this works.   I have a question about yeast.  I am presently using SAF instant yeast.  When a recipe tells me to disolve my yeast in warm water to proof it.........do I have to do this with instant yeast?  Now, when I return to this blog, where do I go to find any responses.  Sorry for any dumb questions.  Sandy in Fl

Hi guys, I have been having trouble cleaning my baking equipment. Washing them with water results in wet dough and scrubbing them with scrubs result in wet dough on all my scrubs which are really difficult to wash away. Does any one have the same problem or good solutions?

Hi, i am a new member posting from South Africa. I just started milling my own grains with a Kenwood grain mill attatchment. Very happy so far. I wonder whether anyone knows how to make cereal from cracked wheat grains? Thanks