Dough Didn't Rise - why?

To answer more Q's:

1) yes, instant yeast and skip yeast proofing adding it with the dry ingredients.  Whether the water is warm or not is up to you, the yeast will still do it's thing.   Cooler water will have a slower rise, warm - faster.

2) nope

3) I would not worry about it yet and add shortening like you did the first time.  Adding more water to the recipe will change how the gluten develops and should improve the dough.   See what raising the hydration does first.   It may be the only adjustment you need to make.   Don't over think all of this or you'll drive yourself nuts especially if you won't get to baking before the weeks end.   

Hi BakerNewbie,

Thank you for posting the ingredients as this allows for immediate diagnosis of your problem.

The "Soft White Bread Mix" you are using is not just flour.   It contains a number of additives, including vital wheat gluten and bread improver.   The improver contains chemicals and enzymes which impact greatly on your dough during and straight after mixing.   If you want to carry on using the bread mix, that is fine, but, you will have to alter your process and produce what is commercially known as "no-time" dough.   In other words you have to leave out the bulk fermentation period.   The reason is that the chemicals and enzymes in the improver get to work on your dough straight away, and induce much quicker and more powerfully, all the reactions which take place in the dough during bulk proof.   You may also need to up the yeast you use, as in "no-time" dough, yeast is solely used to generate gas [CO2]: as much as possible, as quickly as possible.

You may not yet be aware of it, but when you leave the dough to ferment in bulk, there are lots of other reactions going on besides yeast activity.   The improver makes all those things happen much quicker, much more powerfully.   If using the bread mix, then you should scale and divide the dough as soon as it is mixed.   Pre-shape your buns gently and leave covered for 15 minutes to rest, for what industrial bakers term "intermediate proof".   After that, re-shape and tray up just as you have been doing.   Proceed straight to final proof.

Alternatively, invest in some reasonable quality "Strong" flour, or bread flour, which has not been treated with additives, and keep on with the bulk process you are using now.   If you are New Zealand-based, then what some posters on here describe as AP flour is unlikely to be suitable, as it the soft New Zealand wheat produces inferior quality in flour to that from the North American wheat belts; so stick to strong flour for this particular recipe.

I venture to suggest the nasty taste you mention is the additives, although I could quite easily be wrong on that, and am happy if others have better ideas than me.

All good wishes

Andy

BakerNewbie,

Baking can be done any number of ways using any number of ingredients.  The final factor being one of personal taste.  My personal taste dictates the use of pure unadulterated ingredients.  Organic flour, unrefined sea salt, no chemical additives and mostly sourdough.  I bake this way both for taste and healthy bread.  If you are experiencing "off" flavors, my suggestion would be pursuit of those types of ingredients that I have described.  Also various additives can add to unexpected behavior in the dough and the baking.  It is challenging enough to fully understand what happens when flour, water, yeast and salt come together.  Trying to second guess the ultimate effects of various additives makes the process of bit of a difficult mystery.

Jeff

Those who use just flour & water (autolysis) and those who combine everything at once (rest.)  Either way, improvement in the dough texture and "feel" is noticeable.  

Andy has found the flour problem and I would not use any method of rest with that particular flour.  It would be begging for trouble as the flour is formulated for fast preparation.  Use it as he recommends or follow recipes on the flour package.  But when you do get your hands on standard flour, you can choose to be a purist or lazy.  I've done both, I still do both.  You may not notice any differences now but as you refine your taste buds and skills, you may notice differences between the way the flour is allowed to soak up water.  If you do delay adding yeast and/or salt into the dough, measure it out and have it sitting in front of you (I tend to park little bowls on top of my covered bowl) so you don't forget to add them after the rest.  

I am basically a lazy kneader and will take any advantage to further gluten development and save time kneading.  Now if I'm mad, drank too much coffee, or irritated about something (and want to take out my aggressive energy on dough)  I will mix up and hand knead thru the first 10 - 20 minutes until I'm friendly again.  But it really isn't necessary.  The gluten will form on it's own when just left to sit in the bowl.  One also has a tendency to not work too much flour into the dough.  So if you have better things to do while the dough rests, do them and come back in half an hour.  After the flour has had time to soak up and develop, a little bit of kneading or dough folding lines up the gluten strands in the dough and gives the dough strength to hold itself up as it inflates with gas.  This is especially important with wetter doughs.  It never ceases to amaze me what a little fold (4 point envelope fold) will do for the dough.  And if you find you want to fold the dough several times during the bulk rise, do it.  There is no law that says "you can't touch your dough during the bulk rise."   And don't worry about knocking the air out of it, it will still double and probably sooner.  You can get a good feel for your dough and its progress when you gently handle it often.  Train your hands and mind to feel what is going on inside the dough when you touch it.  You can even be so bold as to cut it thru quickly with a knife and look at the dough bubbles then stick it back together, cut to cut.  Let your dough teach you about itself.