January 21, 2014 - 4:01am
Rising too much?
Made a "French" bread this weekend using the basic recipe in 300 Best Canadian Bread Machine Recipes. I cut back the salt a bit. The loaf rose so high it touched the inside top of the lid.
Any ideas what I did wrong? I suspect I should have cut back the yeast when I cut back the salt.
The bread was okay - a bit too fluffy, but tasted okay and the crust was fine for the first two or three days. After that, it became too hard. Any way to keep it more supple?
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I think it is indeed the salt to yeast ratio. If you would like the bread a little less fluffier/high, as you said, cut back the yeast. Did you use any kind of fat? I suppose that if you added fat it would keep the bread a little softer (and I heard that if you added enough fat it would affect the height of the bread. It wouldn't rise as much.) If all else fails, just freeze the bread in slices and whenever you want a piece, just take it and heat it up- a nice way to extend the bread's life!
How did you store the bread? Storing it in a plastic bag keeps the crust soft. I find that if the crust becomes too hard, it still makes great toast and great grilled cheese. For some reason, what is difficult to bite through when at room temperature becomes a crispy delight when cooked in a toaster or frying pan.
Some will also microwave stale bread to give it a temporary boost of freshness.
just store it in a freezer safe bag, sometimes wrap it in foil, etc. But keep I mind the bread I have is usually sandwich bread.
I don't see much difference between the freshly baked bread/frozen bread if I heat up the frozen bread. I heat it up by pouring a teensy bit of water on it, wrapping it in foil, and leaving it in the oven for a bit. Try it! The bread becomes softer and doesn't taste stale. I can't comment on the microwave, though- I don't have one. But yes, toasting it up is a good idea.