When purchasing frozen dough loaves, you let it thaw/rise and bake. Turns out GREAT!

So now, I've been trying to make bread from scratch. Not having any luck. It never seems to rise enough to get a bread like density. I've tried a few web recipes.

No matter what I try, it turns out dense like biscuits. Heavy and not light like bread should be.

Any ideas or have a fool proof bread recipe?

Please provide details about the bread that you intend to make such as, the amount of flour, sugar, yeast, time for proofing/rising, temperature, humidity...

Without the detailed information I will make the general suggestion to allow more time for the dough to rise on the second proof.

Also, homemade bread is often more dense and chewy than store bought bread because the store bougbt is extruded under pressure.

The one I just made was a recipe from this link.
https://www.kingarthurflour.co...y-white-bread-recipe

I made a half batch:

1 1/2 cups of water (heated to 105 F)
3 1/2 cups of flour
1/2 Tablespoon of salt
3/4 Tablespoon yeast

Mixed it up, kneaded and let it rise in the microwave with high humidity for 3 hours. It stopped rising at about 2 1/2 hours. Didn't change in the last 1/2 hour or so.

Then in the 350 F oven for 15 minutes.

I didn't punch it down this time, as in the past it wouldn't rise as much as the first time.

*I put half of this half batch in the refrigerator to bake at a later time.

Here's the results from the above recipe.
It's great with grape jam, but pretty dense for bread.

based on your pictures, I conjecture that you may not have kneaded enough to develop a good gluten structure. I'd also make sure your yeast isn't expired. I'd also add a small bit of sugar.. your yeast needs food. And there's no way your loaf is going to bake in 15 munutes. 30 to 45 more likely. (look at the instructions in the recipe you linked. It requires preheating the dutch oven in a 450 degree oven.) An instant read thermometer should give you an internal temp of 205 to 210 when it's done. Wait until it's cooled before slicing.

A basic loaf I often recommend to beginners;
https://www.jamesbeard.org/rec...me-style-white-bread

This is what the loaf from your King Arthur recipe you linked should look like when done:

that recipe does indeed require almost no kneading... but you have to follow the directions.

Yeast is good until Oct. 2018.
I'll add sugar and knead more next time.
Is there such a thing as 'over kneading', when it comes to pizza or bread dough?

The 15 mins. comes from cooking the frozen dough, which turns out great. This is in a toaster oven, which cooks much quicker than a conventional oven.

Thanks for the temps, I had no idea there was an internal temp for bread.

I agree with zoom. I've never over kneaded a loaf. Kneading takes a lot longer than one initially suspects. One way to tell if you have good gluten structure as Zoom referenced is to look for a gluten "window". After kneading take some of the dough and stretch it between your hands. If you can get it to stretch thin enough to see light through the dough you've kneaded enough. If you can't get a window, keep kneading. It doesn't have to be perfect. I included a picture. Mine never comes out quite this good, probably a patience thing on my part, but the closer you get to the picture below the better.

When dissolving the yeast, it needs to go in warm water, not hot, and needs to have sugar or honey (or something similar) as the starter to activate the yeast. I let it sit for about ten minutes until sort of cloudy bordering on frothy before adding other ingredients. If the water is too hot initially, it will kill the yeast and the dough will be dense and won’t rise properly.

If you're using traditional cake yeast instead of rapid or quick yeast it will need to proof for about 10 minutes in warm water. Kneading will take around 10 minutes by hand, you'll know you're done when the dough is smooth and elastic. Don't add more flour when you start kneading because the dough's too sticky, once the gluten strands form the stickyness will be gone. Bake around 30-35 minutes at 375 in a traditional oven until the internal temp is around 190. The dutch oven bread is a great beginner bread and just as good a bread for non beginners, it's one of my family's favorites and it's so easy.

Get a bread maker. Although you can, do not bake in the machine. Have the machine make the dough, take it out and put it in a bread pan, let it rise in a warm place—like on top of the pre- heating stove in the winter.

We’ve had great success with a Zojirushi.

The main reason I make bread from scratch is to get a dense bread with some body to it. Not milk that is trained to stand up crap that you get with store bread.
Rod

quote:

The 15 mins. comes from cooking the frozen dough, which turns out great. This is in a toaster oven, which cooks much quicker than a conventional oven.

Ignore the instructions for the frozen dough, it's not what you're working with here. I'd also say give the regular oven a try... speed isn't what you want here, the heat also gives an "oven spring" for more rise. Too hot and the exterior sets too soon and kills that secondary rise.

the reason the Dutch oven method works so well is that it gives you the high temps while holding in the steam.

Bread making is more of a science then other types of cooking. You need to stick with a recipe at first, then start doing variations.

So, first, you need to follow the directions about letting it rise. 2 hours counter, room temperature then at least 2 hours in the fridge. Preferably overnight. I am not sure what you mean by "high humidity" in the Microwave but it doesn't sound like a step in the right direction.

This bread is not designed to spring up all at once. It gets a first rise, then slow rise in the fridge to build glutens and flavor.

Second, you baking is off. Do you not have a regular oven? If you do, follow the instructions. Get the oven to 450, preferably with a baking stone.

And you need the steam/moisture in the oven. Either as described in the recipe, or using a spray bottle.

This bread is designed to have good oven spring. When you put the bread in the 450 degree oven the yeast start to grow like mad. The bread will dramatically increase in volume - often twice as high.

The yeast will grow like crazy until the heat kills them. The steam helps keep the outside of the dough moist so that the yeast has a little bit more time to grow before the heat kills them. If you don't have the moisture in the oven the yeast on the outside edges of the dough will die first and encase the rest of the dough. The yeast closer to the center will try to keep growing but there is no place to go. so either the bread has a blow out, or you don't get good texture.

The other think I will add is that ratios are really important - it is far better to weigh your flour than to use volume. See the "Tips from our Bakers" on the recipe page. There are some really interesting studies out there looking at how putting flower in the cup impacts how much flour you end up with. It can very by up to 15 - 20%.

If you are really interested in bread making there are some fantastic courses on Craftsy. If you keep your eyes open you can find deals where they are only 19.99 a class. The Peter Renihart class is really good. He is a James Beard award winning baker. His books are quite good. Artisan Breads Every Day is a good starting point.

https://www.amazon.com/Peter-R.../ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

Basically the Artisan Bread in 5 minutes a day took his techniques and made some big bucks.

The first thing I wold do to eliminate any problems is get new yeast. I know it says it's not expired but if your going to commit to an involved process like making bread from scratch, buying new yeast is an easy fix, if that's the problem.
Storage can have an impact on its viability.
Also, if you are following the packet's instructions to rehydrate in warm water, make sure you are not adding salt at this stage. Salt will inhibit/kill yeast so keep those two separate for as long as possible.

Check this video and the recipe using the "no-knead" method.
Video : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13Ah9ES2yTU

Recipe: https://cooking.nytimes.com/re...11376-no-knead-bread

And, this is the recipe, after 10 years of original publication of the No-Knead bread recipe: http://markbittman.com/no-knead-bread-10-years-later/

Hope this helps.
-Sid

I’m no baker but maybe your using town tap water with a lot of chlorine? It could retard the yeast.

No Knead Peasant Bread recipe on the Food Network site. It is a great recipe with the cycle through the refrigerator.

We got a Cuisinart bread maker for Christmas, OK but has been very finicky on the mixtures, compared to traditional bread making, which for me has been very forgiving, since many things you might say are foolproof, until they intersect with me....:

quote:

Originally posted by Chance:
...
The Peter Renihart class is really good. He is a James Beard award winning baker. His books are quite good. Artisan Breads Every Day is a good starting point.

https://www.amazon.com/Peter-R.../ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

Basically the Artisan Bread in 5 minutes a day took his techniques and made some big bucks.

I have the Artisan Bread in 5 min. a Day. The 1st Ed. can be had pretty cheap in used Hardcover at Amazon.

my wife has a killer from scratch bread recipe, it looks as good as it taste, last thanksgiving the bread looked so good my fnl took a picture of it, trust me he doesn't do that often I will see if I can get here to post the recipe. when she comes home from work.

Lots of goodness posted. For recipe books, I recommend Beth Hensperger's books; Baking Bread, Old and New Traditions; Breads of the Southwest; and Bread. Some of the recipes overlap so look for online reviews. If I find a book that has one or two interesting recipes priced for $10 or less then I will buy it. The Pan de Muerte recipe is a fave for Halloween.

Molly Katzen has some good recipes in her vegetarian cookbooks. Sunflower-Millet is a good one. And Challah!!

The recipe book that I return to most often is 'the Bread Book' by Linda Collister and Anthony Blake. Buy It Now!







The recipe book that