Troubleshooting for the Bread BakerSooner or later---mostly sooner-every baker produces a real bomb! The bread didn't rise, or it rose and fell, or the inside is gray, and it tastes like beer. It's embarrassing, to say the least, but you can use the disaster to learn something about breadmaking. This post has been designed to help you figure out what went wrong and , we hope, correct it for the next baking. By the time you finish reading this post you will be congratulating yourself for all the things that didn't go wrong! If you are a beginner, a few basic things cause the most trouble: - Adding too much flour when kneading both in making it by hand and with a machine.
- Not kneading the dough well enough (or in a machine, too well)
- Keeping the dough too warm, or not warm enough, while it rose. Not giving the loaves long enough--or giving them too long to rise in the pans.
Let's get more specific. Yeast: Was the yeast fresh? Did you dissolve it according to the manufacturers instructions or in the case of instant or Saf yeast that we carry, did you add it in with the flour? Was it exposed to water that was too hot, or too cold? That had salt or too much sweetener. As we have said before salt inhibits the yeast so if you leave the salt our the bread rises in half the time and tastes bland. Rising: Is the bread grayish and strong-tasting? Is the crust thick and the inside crumbly? These are signs that the dough rose too long or too warm. Perhaps you used too much yeast. Does the bread have a some-what flat taste? The dough may nat have ha enough time to ripen. (If that's it, the bread will stale quickly too) This can happen if the temperature is too low or the time given is too little, or possibly the yeast was old or its measure short. Don't keep the yeast in the fridge and then take it out and use it immediately. Let it sit out overnight to become room temperature before using. I keep half my Saf yeast in the cupboard for using and the other half in the freezer for storage. If you are rising the dough in an oven make sure the oven isn't too hot or it can kill the yeast. Baking: Is the bread coarse and holey near the top? Maybe it rose too long in the pan. Did it (yuk) collapse or flatten on the top to make what I call T Bread. This is usually caused by overising. Maybe you jarred it as you put it into the oven, over proofed or not. If you use dough enhancer in your bread, this problem is usually non-existant. Is the loaf undersized and dense? Here's a tricky one: are the bottom edges of the loaf rounded rather than square like the pan? Did the crust lift away from the loaf and /or seem darker than you expected? If it's hearth style bread (baked on a pizza stone or flat sheet) , is the bottom rounded and the loaf cracked around the side? Very likely the solution to all these problems is to let the shaped loaf rise warmer and longer. Flour: Only hard wheat bread flour has the gluten content to make bread rise. All-purpose and pastry flours do not, nor do flour made from anything other than wheat. (although Kamut and Spelt will let you make a good loaf of bread if using theBosch Mixer) Is the slice dense and hard? Perhaps you simply used too much flour. Next time measure very carefully, and when kneading , try not to add any flour at all on the board, even if the dough seems really sticky at first. If you are using the Bosch Mixer make certain to add the wheat flour until the sides of the bowl start to become clean and the dough is forming a ball in the middle of the bowl. No matter what the recipe says, STOP adding the flour as soon as the dough is cleaning the bowl. The atmospheric pressure and elevation and moisture in the flour will all affect how much goes in, so the Bosch machine will tell you when to stop adding flour. Use oil on the counter when handling the dough so as not to add more flour. Other ingredients: Adding wheat germ, milk powder, or raw honey can reduce your loaves size, especially if the bread rises longer than 4 hours total. If using other whole grain flours, such as oats, barley, rye, triticale, you will get a denser bread as they don't have as much gluten in them as the wheat flour. Kneading: Did you knead the dough long enough, keeping the dough in a ball and pushing into the centre? Usually this is a non-issue with the Bosch machine as they do a great job of kneading. Did you keep at it for a long enough time? Did you overknead? Not impossible, but unlikely by hand, but easier with the Bosch machines. We recommend 10 min. in the Bosch for 100% Whole wheat or whole grain bread and 5 min. for white bread, and somewhere in between if making is half and half. Look at the slice: is the texture coarse and holey? Next time work it less. Pan Size: Is the loaf squat, but inside, the slice is plenty airy? It sounds like the pan was too big, We will continue in our next post with Crust Problems. 
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