Can anyone advise what went wrong with my bread please?
Hi,
This is my regular recipe for bread:
200 g strong white flour
800 g strong brown / wholemeal flour
5 g salt
20 g sachet fast-action yeast
80 g butter
640 ml tepid water
Cooked for about 25 minutes on gas mark 6.5 with a tray of water at the bottom of the over.
It normally works fine.
I made bread yesterday, and during proving it rose very high, for both proving sessions (once in bowl, then again in loaf tins after I had bashed the air out and left it for another hour).
Once it had cooked, I cut it open, and it was very ragged as per the photo, with a lumpen doughy base.
Any advice much appreciated on what might have caused the bread to go wrong (over working dough maybe? or, could it have gone wrong because it was a pretty hot day generally yesterday?)
Thanks
The first thing I thought was that the baking time seems a little short. Try baking it for maybe 5-15 minutes longer, just until the crust is a nice brown, as your bread looks quite pale. Also, the doughiness could be a result of under baking.
Ragged and doughy bread could possibly mean that the bread wasn't fully cooled before you sliced it. I'm not sure if you left the bread to cool, but if you didn't, leave it for at least an hour (I'd say) after baking.
Overworking the dough is pretty difficult. There is a slight chance that your bread dough collapsed somehow (leaving it for too long maybe? But I honestly don't think this is the case.) Hot weather plays a part in this- but I don't think it collapsed.
You say the recipe normally works fine. There's not too much detail here, so I'd suggest just thinking about what you did/went differently. However, it seems like the error lies in the baking phase. Hope I helped. :)
it looks under-baked to me. Also, your recipe seems a bit odd, you have 2% yeast and 0.5% salt; the other way around would give better flavour as it would allow for a longer fermentation/proof and salt enhances the flavour. for my loaves which weigh less than half of yours, i bake them about 45 mins at 230C.
Heya! I agree with the comments above, but would like to add this: If you have a (core) thermometer, stick it into the bread after about 30 mins in the oven. The temperature I always aim for is 93c or above. I've read that that's the temperature where the bread is 100% 'cooked', and it has improved my baking.
Also, I have had loafs of bread looking like that. For me, the though was not kneaded enough, and proofed to long, so the whole thing collapsed :-)
Enjoy your breadquest!
I agree with the suggestions above, especially the amount of salt and yeast needing to be reversed. As far as over working the dough, I don't know that I would degas as much but it depends on what you're going for. From the formula it looks like you're going for a soft but less airy whole wheat loaf. Like others have said, it looked under baked and or over proofed.
Since you have baked this recipe before with results that you liked, maybe it's a simple as something like an old or under active yeast that caused the problem.
before cutting open, might improve crumb but the loaf appears under baked, or worn out. Did the gas go off? Or tank go empty?
I baked a loaf with that fast action yeast once and deflated that beast several times before I got it tamed down, perhaps they ate up all the available sugars so the loaf wouldn't brown. If I'm not mistaken, that sort of yeast is used without a bulk rise. Just knead, shape and pan, then bake before it gets too big. Might want to try that ... skip the bulk rise and see what happens.