So far when baking bread I have only used the Regular or Quick Baking Cycle with the "Light Crust" option.  For what types of recipes would I use the "Firm" or "Soft" option? Can someone please explain how the bread results will differ if I use the "soft" option for a Whole wheat bread recipe?  Also I love a bread texture that has holes.  Is there a particular name for that texture?

Use to bake bread every weekend until my company moved me to San Francisco, (a town were the bread is as good as it gets!).  Retired and moved back to Northern Minnesota and started baking again after 27 years.  Have been trying to make pugliese and ciabatta with little success.  Have tried several variations of recipes with the same result.  Have used bread flour, all purpose, biga starters, etc.  I get a fine grained soft interior loaf that tastes okay but not the chewy bread with large holes that I am going for.  I get plenty of rise, get a nice crunchy crust but the interior is wrong.  Since it is Winter here I tend to put my dough in front of the fireplace on a bench to rise, (about 78 degrees).  The humity is low in the house but keep my first rise covered with plastic wrap, second rise under a damp towel.  Have tried no punch down handling the dough with care to keep as much of the rise as possible... still no success.  The birds love me as they have been eating more of my creations than I have!!!  What am I doing wrong???

Hello Everyone!  I finally got around to baking my first bread... I baked the Light Silesian (Chleba) Rye recipe which called for German Rye sourdough (Saurteig).  It took me 5 days to get the starter just right and after I made the sourdough from the starter last nite, I mixed the dough, kneaded the dough (by machine) but found the dough to be too dry so I added some more water.  After fermenting the dough, I followed the receipe.  I got two nice loaves...but the texture seems rather dense and not a lot of air in the bread.  Can anyone tell me what I did wrong?  The bread tastes good but is a little heavy.  I threw away all the other starter because I have to go out of town for two weeks..but will be ready to get back in the saddle when I get back.. any comments would be appreciated.   I have pictures of the bread but cannot see how I can upload... will do if I can figure that out !!

 I have been making bread of various kinds for more years than I care to remember, but lately have a problem.

The crumb of the finished bread is coming out coarse textured.

Could this be some thing different in the flour, I am useing the same as always, but I have been using all milk instead of water in the dough to give a little more nutrition.

 I know, I should go back to just water again and see if that will solve this problem.

 But I wondered if any one has any other idea as to what it can be. The bread does not have that nice soft texture that one associates with new bread, also it seems to stale quickly.     

 Thanks,,,,,, qahtan