August 23, 2016 - 12:08pm
white bread texture
When I bake white bread my loaf is light and airy. But I want a more dense texture. What's the answer to this. My grandmother always had what I wanted. Any suggestions would b appreciated.
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When I bake white bread my loaf is light and airy. But I want a more dense texture. What's the answer to this. My grandmother always had what I wanted. Any suggestions would b appreciated.
:)
Depends what you mean by 'dense'. I think I know what you mean; my grandmother's bread was more coarse and chewy than what we get today. I suspect it's a difference in flour for one thing, but you might also try adding a bit more water and handling the dough a bit more gently (i.e. not kneading it until it's too smooth and 'tough'). That should make it a bit more chewy and holey (which could be thought of as more coarse or dense).
I've seen recipes for English Muffin bread which has a bit of baking powder, milk and sugar that might be what you're looking for. Check this one out, or google it.
We would first need to know how much flour and water you're using. I think that's is the primary factor before all else that determines how dense it's going to be considering your also using the standard 2 1/4 teaspoons of yeast (believe it is anyways, what I stick to). More flour (your ordinary bread flour specifically) means it's going to be bigger but more water will give you a denser, heavier loaf right from the beginning. Since I like a somewhat denser texture myself with a lot air space in the loaf all the same I use more water while also going for a very long overnight rise. 5 generous cups of flour with 2 generous cups of water is what I start with. I actually think you might also want to be kneading it more since the more you do the more solid it's going to be.
On kneading you need to find your perfect rhythm that produces the result you want and it's all subjective. What one person is going to like from how you knead it someone else may hate it. Not too fast but not too slow either. I'm naturally going somewhat faster since working with wet heavy dough that's a very stick situation before it really takes form but one time I had a little fun going to fast and the texture was just too tough and chewy even though the flavor didn't suffer much. It's like learning how to dance with your bread correctly.