Bread Help

[turtlegirl]

Hey! I've lately become obsessed with trying to bake bread . When i started, i usually ended up with a loaf of bread hard enough to knock someone out with. I seem to have strayed away from that, but now i have new issues.

I made a loaf a couple of days ago and it ended up really holey. The holes in the bread were extremely large and it was imposible to even spread butter on the slices. The bread was kind of like a giant English muffin, but not in a good way...

I figure that there are a couple of factors that could have resulted in this:

1. I let the dough rrise too much. I think it almost tripled in size.
2. I kneaded the dough too much/ too little. (not really sure about this)
3. I got the ratio of water to flour wrong. When i tried kneading the dough it was vey sticky and just ended up stuck to my hands and the counter. I was scared to too much flour. Also, after i let the dough rise in a bowl i had a difficult time getting it out. It was basically stuck to the bowl, even though i had lightly greased it prior to placing the bread inside. For a white bread, what should the ratio of water to flour be?

So where did i go wrong? Or was it a combination of those factors?

[turtlegirl]

Here's what i mean by holey...

[Zukerig]

Turtlegirl, based upon your accompanying photo of the loaf, I offer the following probable reasons for its sponge-like interior:

►Insufficient amount of flour and/or yeast;
►Dough wasn’t kneaded long enough to build the gluten strength;
►Dough was allowed to increase too much in volume during second (in-pan) rise;
►Oven temp. wasn’t hot enough to cause the bread to rise properly during baking.

[turtlegirl]

Thank you for your help. I'm going to go give it another try now.

[KyleW]

Hi TG - Bread baking is both frustrating and addictive You are wise to start with a basic white bread, perfecting that and then moving on.

The 'satandard' percentage of water in a white loaf is 65%. This is expressed as percentage of the total weight of the flour in the recipe. If you use 1 pound of flour, you would use .65 pounds of water. THe finished dough shoud be "tacky but not sticky" This is a Peter Reinhart quote and is one of my favorites. The dough shouldn't stick to your hands but it should feel like it wants to, like the sticky part of a Post-It note. The amounts of flour and water will vary depending on the conditions in your kithcen. More flour on humid days etc. THink of bread recipes as guidelines not gospel. With repetition your fingers will get smarter and you will know when a dough feels right.

ANother issue you may have run into is shaping. Pan loaves should be fairly tightly shaped. DOn;t br afraid to be a little aggresive when you shape your loaves. Try and make sure you eliminate any large air pockets.

Most importantly, keep baking At some point it will just "click".

[karmoe]

Can you post the recipe you used? I teach fun one night bread baking classes in OKC. I think you overproofed prior to baking. This caused deflation as the dough has no where to go when it goes into the oven. I tell my students to let the dough rise only to about 2\3 rather than double in size.
Depending on what else is in the recipe, a general rule is about 1 c water to 3 c flour.

[larcito]

Hey Hey!

I'm convinced that your dough was undermixed - you said it was very sticky, that's because the gluten had not absorbed enough water and strengthened, the carbon dioxde pockets were inconsistent in size because they were not broken up into fine enough cells. Try kneading even a very sticky dough until it is soft and smooth, but won't stick to your fingers when pressed. The best visualisation for dough texture is literally a baby's bottom - soft but firm, silky and not sticky (hopefully).
A big part of the problem could also be if your moulding was too loose, perhaps a combination?

Hope this helps!