wholemeal bread

Submitted by Anti-Distinctlyminty on February 6, 2011 - 4:04am

changed to active dry yeast = no oven spring :(

Hi all,

Firtstly, I'm sorry if this is the wrong bit of the forum or if this has been answered a million times before. I've done some searching but can't find much about my particular problem.

Firstly, my recipe is super simple:

500g wholemeal flour

0.5 tbsp of salt & sugar

7g packet of dried action yeast

I mix everything together rub in some butter, tip onto a surface and titrate just over 0.5 pints of water at 110 degrees F, then knead, put in a tin and wait to rise.

Preheat oven to gas mark 6 and bake for about 30 mins

I've been trying to learn how to get my (basic and simple) bread to rise properly for some time, and I think I just recently managed to get it under control. I had a lot of issues with wholemeal breads not rising and being more or less inedible, but I eventually realized that I was not kneading the dough enough. It lakes about 10 mins of kneading for white flour and about 30 mins of kneading for wholemeal flour (or a mostly wholemeal mix). The yeast I was using was tescos fast action dry yeast and after many failures I've gotten it to the point where I can consistently make a decent loaf. Some things I've learnt are that if I leave it to rise for too long it deflates in the oven, so I've got into the habit of putting it in a preheated oven when it's risen to about 1 inch over the top of the tin, then I tend to get a nice oven spring.

It's always been my biggest problem is either it not rising at all, or not springing in the oven. And now I changed to Allinson active dry yeast, these problems are back. With my last loaf, everything seemed to go as planned, and I put it in the oven at the usual point (risen to 1 inch above the tin) and...nothing, it just sat there.

Any suggestions before I go mad? What the heck do I have to do to get a consistent oven spring?

4 comments

Submitted by jennyloh on March 7, 2010 - 6:37am

Wholemeal Roll - Another attempt using the Water Roux Starter

2 bakes in a day. This wholemeal roll is a mixed of bread flour and wholemeal. Wanted to try something else for a change small rolls using the water roux starter, with 2 bites and they are gone. I didn't expect it to turn out so tiny, measured carefully at 40g per piece. Anyway, the most difficult I find is try to shape this. I read the instructions and

after the 5th ball, I think I got it. Shape the ball into a cone shape, roll flat into triangle, and roll it up from the bottom (wider part of the triangle). Give it a few roll to tighten it a little. Let it proof for about 1 hour, until it is puffy. I always wonder if I proof enough? Well, it had a good oven spring, and certainly the taste is pretty good, soft and sweet and a little salty. To read more: here's the link.