I've been trying in vain to bake french bread here in the Philippines and it has never turned out to be anything worth eating. It always ends up yeasty, hard/rubber-like and small! Would shortening the rising time or decreasing the yeast amount work?

Some details:
-instant yeast was used
-slamming was employed for the kneading
-the dough was given 2-4 hours for the first rise, 1-2 hours for the second, and 1-1/2 hours for the final rise
-the typical temperature around here is 36 C or roughly 97 F
-there was difficulty slashing the loaves because it sticks and it doesn't rise much in the oven

Good morning and happy holidays to all.

I have just started making my own bread, and I have made three or four loaves and a pan of dinner rolls, and they all came out pretty good.  I made the dough in my food processor and then let it rise according to instructions.  BUT,  the the bread is too dense and crust is too thick and hard for my particular liking.  I was wondering if anybody here has a recipe that would yield a semi dense, yeasty soft  dinner roll.  Tonight,  I'm making puttanesca with homemade noodles and hopefully some great homemade dinner rolls. 

Thank you in advance for your help.

Bart

Hi, I'm new to this forum and recently returned to the art of bread baking. Yesterday I tried Brother Juniper's Struan Bread (Peter Reinhart, Brother Juniper's Bread Book, 1991) with mixed success; it's such a wonderful recipe I'd like to perfect my results. My main confusion about bread baking at the moment is about the right moment to put the bread in the oven. I thought I was too hasty in the past, for scheduling reasons, getting a smaller dense loaf as a result.  This time I waited till the loaf domed over the top a little more, and as it wasn't really very high, I waited patiently.  I finally put it in the oven.  I suspect I had let it get past its prime because it didn't really spring in the oven and it had a slightly bitter yeast taste. Not bad texture-wise, although I thought it should have been a little lighter since I used all white (hard wheat) flour, along with the other grains called for. So what can I do to (1) assess when to put the bread in the oven (2) assess whether I'm doing something else wrong? I'm aiming for a perfect loaf!