Hi. I just pulled two Honey Wheat loaves out of the oven (and I haven't tried them, although they smell good) and while they are done, and the tops are a lovely golden brown, each loaf cracked on the side. I've only tried bread a few times, and each time with a different recipe. I made some dinner rolls last weekend that were divine, and I thought I'd try some Wheat bread (my second attempt, although a new recipe - the first wasn't good at all).

The recipe I used was this one: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Honey-Wheat-Bread-II/Detail.aspx?prop31=4 (I love allrecipes!). I did everything exactly like the recipe said, with the following exceptions: I used 1/2 of honey instead of 1/3, and I used 1 cup or wheat flour and about 3 cups of all-purpose in the last step (I couldn't add the other cup in).

I spent probably about 10 minutes kneading the bread, let it rise for about an hour (it doubled in size nicely), and I split it into two loaves. I put it in a warm over to rise a second time (I cut the oven off when I put them in, just wanted a tiny bit of heat since it's kind of cold in my house tonight). After 4 hours, my loaves were both about 1/2 inch BELOW the pan edge. The recipe says to let it rise until it's OVER the edge of the pan, and my questions are these:

- How long should this normally take?

- Why didn't mine rise as much as it was supposed to after 4 hours?

- Did it dry out (if that's the cracking?) because I let it rise for so long?

I used a regular package of active dry yeast, and my wheat flour is relatively new.

Any thoughts?

Much appreciated,

Leigh McKagen

Hello,

I have started a bakery in China producing a local type of quick bread. the recipe is below

50 eggs

25kg flour

2.5 ltrs oil

4 kg sugar

we use a sour dough starter that was given to us by a company producing the same type of bread. we combine the ingridients and the prepared sourdough starter and then add luke warm water to mix them in an industrial mixer. we mix for about 1 min and the dough comes out relatively dry, not sticky at all.

we let rise in a warm place over night. in the morning we put the bread in the mixer again and "knead" for around 2 mins and add a 1/3 kilogram of baking soda. then we seperate the dough into small ball, flatten with a presser, and smear a filling onto the dough. we then cut the dough into four pieces and arrange in a small aluminum conatiner. we cook the bread at 270 degrees celcius for around 35 minutes and then turn off the heat and let cook for another 5 mins. we then take the bread out of the containers and let cool before serving.

my current problem is that the bread continues to turn out very dry. when i eat the bread i have trouble swollowing it. the filling we put on it tastes good but the actually bread tastes very dry. we have tried adding more water to the mixing, adding yogurt, increasing oil, letting rise for two days, trying different flours, all to no effect. we have tried the bread at other places and it is relatively "wet" or easier to eat. it is sweeter than our bread. the recipe we have was given to us by the other comany also (we essentially franchised from them) and they do not know what the problem is either.

i think our method is similar to the "epoxy" method used by peter for his new whole grain bread. i just cant seem to get the flavor out of the bread, and get it to be more moist. please if you have any suggestions help me. and if you happen to visit beijing def drop me a message. thanks in advance

Baking in Beijing