I have recently started making bread (up to my sixth batch). All I am trying to do is make super soft, plain, white bread/buns.
I have tried a different recipe each time, but none of them have even come close to the softness that I want.
Am I missing something, or have I just not found the right recipe?
I hand kneed every batch (as I do not have a mixer).
This recipe is my current attempt:
http://dinner-inspiration.blogspot.co.nz/2008/11/super-soft-white-bread.html
Best Answer
Soft bread is soft because CO2 produced by yeast and water that gets turned to steam by the baking process gets trapped into pockets by a mesh of gluten, causing the dough to expand. The dough then solidifies, keeping its shape. If your bread is not soft then it hasn't expanded enough for one or more reasons:
For a nice soft sandwich bread I start with a really sticky dough. I then use it's stickiness to stretch the dough, smearing it all over the countertop and using a pastry scraper to bring it back together. This is a really quick way to build some gluten. Then I knead in flour bit by bit, kneading for at least 1 minute between adding flour until I have a soft dough that still sticks a bit to the counter. That stickiness means that there's enough moisture in the dough. I'll add a bit more flour to that and then stop adding flour to avoid drying the dough. If I want to knead it more I'll knead with a bit of vegetable oil instead to keep it from sticking.
It's consistency you're looking for, not time. Time is relative depending on your strength and kneading technique, 5 minutes for a skilled and strong baker may translate to 15 minutes for normal humans, so knead until you have the consistency you want. When you start kneading the dough it will pull into pieces easily, and have a rough texture. As you knead that roughness disappears and it will stretch longer without breaking. For a sandwich loaf I'll knead until I can stretch the dough from the middle of my torso to my knee without it breaking.
Next, rising your dough may take much longer than recipes say as it all depends on the ambient temperature of the room, humidity, the activity of the yeast, and other factors. Again, make this results driven, not time driven. A good sandwich bread dough should rise a lot, not the "doubled" many recipes say. For me tripled is more like it. Make sure you put it in a big enough bowl! This advice goes for the initial as well as the secondary rise in the pans. Let it rise enough in the pans until it looks like the recipe picture, that's about right. Ideally your oven will have been pre-heating for 30 minutes by now.
Now, slash your loaves the long way with a razor blade like a carpet knife, about 1/2 an inch down. Do it quick and avoid punching down the dough. Slashing will split the top skin and allow the dough to rise efficiently after you put it into the oven. Once you put it in the oven it's going to rise a lot as the yeast goes crazy before the heat kills it, and the moisture in the dough is going to vaporize into steam. If you don't slash you won't get as good a rise.