Dense and flavorless- all my breads
Hi All,
I've posted a few times. Am new to baking and still haven't gotten a nice loaf. All my breads are turning out to have the same density- no crumb, little flavor and a hard to eat crust.
This last attempt was a sourdough- using a borrowed "fail-safe, robust" starter. But, I got the same results as a prefermented attempt, and a simple no kneed attempt. Is the window pane test supposed to work on all breads? I kneeded this bread for 50 mins and still didn't get a nice thin pull that didn't tear. This time I tried the Mike Avery kneeding - for his San Francisco Sourdough. On others, I tried the pull and fold method.
I am at altitude (boulder) and it's cold in my house (out of my control). I have the bread rise in the oven, it all seems to rise but this time when I went to slice it (forgot term) it collapsed. I had pretty big bubbles forming on top. I also did only 1 rise (as said in directions) for half the dough, and a second rise for the other half. No changes. Same thing happened.
I may have had the dough too wet in the beginning since it was sticking to my floured board and never really got unsticky until about the end of the kneeding where it felt stiff. Still, I also think it dried out.
Oh well, can't figure out how to insert photos, just think of sandwich bread.
Thanks, leslie