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Certain smell from bread after baking... Help!

Robinson's picture
Robinson

Certain smell from bread after baking... Help!

After I have baked my bread, the smell of the bread (the inside) smells off... like sour.

I have made this bread before and it did not have the same smell, and it seems to be my yeast or flour.

i have a can of instant dried yeast (the one that looks like grains), I've opened it and it has a plastic cap, and I've closed it (obviously xD) and left it in a storage container under my table. Maybe I'm supposed to refridgerate it?

My flour is in a large container, with a cap (I had bought flour that was inside this container, and reused the container). I bought new flour for the below recipe (I made it twice), I'm not sure if the time I used the new flour if it had the smell or not.

Also, what is the difference between the paste/liquid yeast and the grainy yeast?

What brand of flour is "the best" or most recommended for soft breads (fluffy mm..)/breads that aren't dense.

Should I refridgerate my dry yeast (grainy one)?

the recipe i have used is : http://daddymommyloveraphael.blogspot.com/2009/05/japanese-butter-roll.html

 

Also, I'm looking for an online friend / group of people that I can talk about baking to, preferably a beginner like me so that we can discuss new techniques, problems, solutions etc. :)  maybe around my age (16) but doesn't matter so we can talk about times we make bread and how it may affect it etc. etc. but if you have the time to be on MSN or skype or something to talk about bread, please tell me so I can talk to people about bread!

 

Thanks in advance!

Chuck's picture
Chuck

Quote:
...Maybe I'm supposed to refridgerate [instant dried yeast]?...

Refrigerating it would be a better idea, but leaving it out (so long as it doesn't get too hot and it stays dry) should work reasonably well anyway, and probably doesn't explain the smell. Whether refrigerated or not, it should certainly be in a container with an airtight seal.

The biggest problem with improperly stored yeast is the dough not rising because the yeast is dead (not off flavors and smells), which doesn't sound like it was an issue with your experience.

Quote:
...reused the [flour] container...

Reusing the same flour container over and over risks propagating bugs. If one batch of flour is infested by flour beetles, their eggs will stick to the container and infect the next batch of flour too. So wash the container thoroughly with warm soapy water, then dry it thoroughly before putting the new flour in it. (Don't take any shortcuts on the drying; even a hint of moisture in the container will make a real mess when you add the new flour.)

Quote:
what is the difference between the paste/liquid yeast and the grainy yeast

There are several differences, but so far as I know they don't affect flavor at all.

Often the biggest issue is that cake/fresh yeast is harder to obtain (unless your grocery store is big and thorough). Cake/fresh yeast also only keeps -even sealed  in your refrigerator- for a few weeks. Cake/fresh yeast should be a little "stronger". You can substitute either for the other (there are various conversions available). They often go into recipes at different times: the cake/fresh yeast at the tail end of kneading, but the active/instant dry yeast when you're initially measuring the dry ingredients.

Quote:
What brand of flour is "the best" or most recommended for soft breads (fluffy mm..)/breads that aren't dense.

Any "unbleached, unbromated" flour should work just fine. King Arthur tends to be more consistent than most, but is significantly more expensive. What you use is largely dictated by what your store carries. IMHO, recipe and process make a much bigger difference in the fluffiness than does the kind of flour you use.

(Do watch gluten/protein content though. Above about 12.5% will be "chewy" (like a bagel) no matter what you do. Less than about 10.5% will be hard to get to come together and to rise no matter what you do.

The "nutrition label" on sacks of flour is useless to you, as the differences breadbakers are interested in are lost in the "rounding" and "serving size" malarkey that doesn't make a whole lot of sense for something like flour. Usually something with the marketing term "bread flour" will have more gluten within that brand, something with the marketing term "all purpose" has middling gluten content within that brand and is what you want, and something with the marketing term "cake flour" will have less gluten (probably not even enough to make bread) within that brand.)

Quote:
After I have baked my bread, the smell of the bread (the inside) smells off... like sour.

I'm afraid my response to your key question is along the lines "I dunno". Both the yeast and the flour should have no problem being stored in your kitchen for a year so long as they stay dry.

I'd suspect other things too: something that was spoiling, such as an egg? left to rise uncovered in your fridge for several hours and absorbed some weird flavor from something else in your fridge?

 

Robinson's picture
Robinson

Could it be something in the oven? or maybe over-rising? oh and

Should there be a certain order of ingredients when mixing? like all dry ingredients first?

and how should I mix it?

pmccool's picture
pmccool

If it hasn't cooled all the way down to room temperature, any odors are likely to be more noticeable than they will when the bread is cooler.  Even that yeasty smell can be a bit off-putting when the bread is still hot.

Question: what kind of bread are you baking?  And what ingredients does it contain?

For instance, if you are using a whole grain flour, the oil in the germ in those flours can and will go rancid.  If the flour smells stale, or off, (and it can), so will the bread made from it.  Whole grain flours are best stored in the freezer if you can't use it all up within a couple of weeks.  And who knows how long it has been between the time it left the mill and the time you took it home? 

Paul 

Robinson's picture
Robinson

it is pretty warm when i smell it, it's probably that, but I haven't had that smell before

Robinson's picture
Robinson

Mm, I think it's my butter, I'll go get some butter sometime and check it out

Chuck's picture
Chuck

When you sniff it, does the butter you used have an objectionable smell similar to your bread? While there are of course some exceptions, in many cases you should be able to identify the bad ingredient simply by sniffing, without having to buy anything or bake anything.

(If it just came out of the fridge though, warm it up before sniffing it - otherwise it may not have any smell at all.)