There’s a new baking group in town across the world and it start today. Old readers of mine may remember years ago that I used to join in with the Tuesdays with Dorie baking group. I learnt loads from the few recipes that I joined in with but business and babies meant that I couldn’t keep involved every week.
We are starting afresh with a new book – Baking with Julia and we have a new recipe to follow every 2 weeks. I’m going to do my best to stick with this one – there are loads of recipes in the book that I’d like to crack. Some of them seem complicated, some of them a real challenge but all of them look yummy (and a teeny bit fattening too!)
Our first challenge seemed like a nice introduction – White Loaves … until I remembered I have NO luck baking bread. I don’t own a bread machine but think after this attempt I need to acquire one.
The bread smells and tastes lovely but is as heavy as a wet house brick – It did improve a LOT with toasting and lashings of butter (I seem to have gone all Enid Blyton) but I’ve got a long way to go before the Warburton family are quaking with fear. I have no idea why my bread always turns out so heavy – I followed the instructions to the letter, kneading for a full 10 mins and allowing to prove twice. Any ideas?
We have agreed not to post the recipes but to link up to whoever is hosting that week so click here if you fancy making a better effort than me.
Looks great! Welcome back!! My bread did not turn out but Im so glad to be baking again with all my TWD friends!!!
Hmm…perhaps you kneaded too roughly? I started my dough in my mixer and then finished it by hand. Its dense, but not brick-ish. Also, check that your water isn’t too hot or else it will kill the yeast, resulting in a much denser loaf that doesn’t rise as well (although from your picture it looks like it rose just fine). Check out this discussion thread on troubleshooting dense bread – http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/510101
Happy baking, I’m excited to go on this journey with you and the rest of the TWD-BWJ crew!
Your bread looks good to me!
Well, it could be that you overworked the dough with your kneading also. Once it requires the desired consistency and tackiness, then you should stop and if you dont, then you need to allow the gluten to relax as much as possible – which may mean leaving your dough to proof a bit longer but if you over-develop the gluten then you will get a dense loaf.
It’s great to see you got the loaves baked and enjoyed them to boot!
Well, it could be that you overworked the dough with your kneading also. Once it requires the desired consistency and tackiness, then you should stop and if you dont, then you need to allow the gluten to relax as much as possible – which may mean leaving your dough to proof a bit longer but if you over-develop the gluten then you will get a dense loaf.
It’s great to see you got the loaves baked and enjoyed them to boot!
lol, that’s ok… my cousin’s 12 year old daughter was helping me by reading off the directions. she skipped the salt. and i didn’t catch it… so, my bread, while it looks beautiful, tastes like flour. lol, oops…. i didn’t even realize it until AFTER it came out of the oven and cooled and we tried it… LOL, although, i will say, i is great with butter and garlic and rosemary on it, toasted. maybe some cinnamon and sugar tomorrow morning… or maybe use it for french toast. lol
the last time this happened to me was when my yeast was “old”. I got a batch of new yeast and it solved my dense bread issues. Hope this helps?
Your toast looks awesome. You can’t tell it turned out dense. Welcome back to baking with TWD!
I loved mine slathered with butter, too! And I was like you, babies got in the way of weekly baking and blogging. It’s nice to be back in saddle, again!
You are the first an my post comes after lunch
Hi! My bread was similarly dense. I think it rose as it should of, but I was expecting a light fluffy bread and this was definitely not what this recipe produced.
From across the pond,
Julia
Congrats on being the first post! I am so excited too. I also think your bread looks great, but will take your word for it that it was dense. I agree with Matt, I would start with the water temperature. It’s hard to judge water temps I think, but I try to equate it to a hot tub. I think a hot tub temp is about 104, so I usually try to make my water feel about like that. I also try to take into account that my metal bowl for my mixer will be cooler than that, but if you aren’t using metal, wouldn’t be an issue. Even when I feel like I am on a roll with bread, I will still have a flop sometimes!
mine turned out ok, maybe it’s what Matt sais!! Also the type of flour you used, bread flour always turns out better and the temperature of the oven although by what you’re saying I’m guessing you already did that ok
Also even if you let the dough rest for the time the recipe said, did it actually double? Because there could be a problem there! A little good tip is to spry with water the oven.
Still your bread looks yummy!!
It looks pretty good toasted!
The bakers above gave you some pretty good suggestions (hot water, over kneading) – too much flour can dense things up a bit too! Good luck.
Mmmmm, that toast looks yummy! I don’t know what makes dense bread…when my stuff turns out heavy like that I always look at whatever leavening agent I used and that usually fixes things. Maybe it wasn’t warm enough for your rises? I ran into that problem.
I’m not sure what I expected when I started this recipe, as I’m not much of a bread fan, and I’ve certainly never baked it before. Light and fluffy it is not. It is thick and heavy, but still quite good…for bread. Congratulations, yours looks great!!
Looks gorgeous! I agree with a little less knead and check your yeast.
Congratulations on being the first post! Looking forward to getting to know your blog through Baking with Julia. I think it could be a the kneading , and or the yeast that cause heavy bread.
Try using bottled or filtered water instead of tap… the yeast might not like what’s in your tap water.
There’s also a great video tutorial at TheKitchn on how to knead bread…. really helped me determine when I was done (or rather, when I still had a while to go 
http://www.thekitchn.com/-home-hacks-108771
I think yeast would be the best place to start. Until I switched to SAF instant yeast (ordered from King Arthur) I had inconsistent results. Cool water or cool room temp just equates to longer proof times in my experience and longer proof times means better tasting bread! If you are kneading by hand its hard to over knead. That said..this is a dense white bread which is why we loved it. Glad you are enjoying the toast!
Mine was a dense bread too but we all liked it. Perfect for toast!
I felt the same with mine! It was ‘okay’ but that was about it. I was quite disappointed with all the effort i put in!
Your toasted bread looks very good. I think everyone gave you some good advise. Years ago, when I first started baking yeast bread, I made several bricks! I was very discouraged but my hard head was not going to let me give up until I got it right! Happy Tuesday!
hmmm… mine is in the oven right now, so you have be a tad worried.
i’m not a yeast bread expert so i’m enjoying all your helpful comments.
Looks like some great toast! Hope you continue to find success with your bread making!
I think your bread looks good. I love the picture you took. I read three things would make a dense bread: 1. AP flour 2. over kneading 3. not letting the dough rest enough. I love bread fluffy or dense. It is all good to me!
Happy Baking!
Welcome back! I think the 2 recipes per month is going to be so great for everyone. The bread looks lovely!
Your bread looks lovely. I think we all have different expectations for bread. Mine was somewhat dense but that’s what we loved about it. It made incredible grilled cheese sandwiches.
I had trouble with my loaves as well-but they were GOOD!
Nicely done!
Wow, how helpful are all those suggestions? I’ve got some yeast and bread flour in the cupboard, I’m going to have a go at this. I’ve only used bread mixes before but must have got adventurous when I bought the yeast. ps I quite like dense bread for toast, the stodgier the better ;0)
I cheat and knead mine in the Kitchen Aid with the dough hook… I’m all for cheating when it comes to this stage of the recipe!
I’m sorry your bread didn’t turn out like you wanted. It still looks good to me! I hope you have better luck next time. Maybe the next recipe will be the charm
Well, I think you bread looks great. Love the cupcake border on your blog
It looks delicious in your photo. There are great pointers in your comments – I learned a lot as I scrolled through.
I’m one of the French Fridays with Dorie participants and a bunch of us have joined this group, too. I’m looking forward to getting to know the TwD crew, too.