This past weekend I was fortunate enough to be gifted a standing mixer.
My first project was James Beard's white bread. The end characteristics that I wish to improve on were:
- When attempting to de-loaf the bread to tap the bottom, the top crust was hermetically sealed onto the loaf pan
- It smelled yeasty instead of a nice baked smell. It didn't necessarily taste as yeasty as it smelled
- It was very, very dense
Some thoughts on why it had these issues:
- I was advised to mix for 5-10 minutes. I mixed for a solid 10 minutes
- For the 2nd proofing, I was advised to go 40-60 minutes. I barely went 40
- During mixing, toward the start, I didn't feel I had the best we/dry mixture. I played around a bit with the water and flour. When I took it out to place it in the bowl for the 1st proofing, the dough was very sticky
Any suggestions to make better bread?
Best Answer
Which takes us to 3.
Rising can be insufficient if your yeast is inactive or doesn't go long enough. As you had a powerful yeasty scent it seems unlikely that your yeast was dead.
When you are kneading don't worry about the time as much as the consistency. You want the dough to be smooth and elastic. It should pass the "windowpane test". That is, you can stretch it into a nearly transparent sheet. 10 minutes could be long enough but it varies depending on the fineness of the flour and how much water is in the dough.
40 minutes is on the very low end for proofing. If your recipe has a lot of yeast and water and the room is very warm 40 minutes may be enough. You should expect an hour. Again- the time isn't as important. You want your dough to have doubled in volume- however long that takes.
Good luck. Even though it's frustrating to have bread not turn out it isn't that hard to get right after a couple times and you get bread that is better than you can buy.