White Bread Plus (Success!)

[2ManyHobbies]

EDIT: I meant for this to go in the Guess What I Just Baked thread. Rats!

I posted the -Fail! So Sad- thread other day. After that failure I tried with the old French Bread standby and had another failure. Same disaster. Flat as a fritter after carefully following directions with a recipe with a previously successful endeavor. To make matters worse, the soap that I made is sitting on the counter and refuses to harden after 4 days. Something else to figure out. Maybe it's the moon?
Anyway, today I tried again to make White Bread Plus and had success. Granted the oven got a little hot but I fixed that in mid bake and the first loaf disappeared in a hurry. One went to a neighbor and the third, well, it probably won't make it beyond tomorrow evening.

I used regular yeast this time and went through three rises instead of trying to use Rapid Rise that I didn't read the directions for. My previous successful attempts were with Red Star and I'll probably go back to it. Also, I remembered to do the last rise before putting it in the oven this time. Ah, the trials of a new baker. And what a mess in the kitchen! I don't care, the bread was killer.
I sure need a decent bread knife.

The bread ended up about an inch from the top of the oven. I probably should drop it down one level next time. Not burned, but close. The two darker loaves were at the back of the oven, the lighter was in front and I peeked a lot. Small oven also. That was ok until I started cooking..


Still warm, it was all gone shortly after this picture was taken. No redo.
: [/img]

[Donna M.]

Your bread looks fabulous! Glad you perservered and got it to work for you. Keep up the good baking!!

[duonyte]

Terrific loaves! Glad everything worked out. The more you bake, the easier it will get.

[JoeV]

Me and my wife go to a little Slovenian restaurant sometimes for dinner, and your slices look EXACTLY like what they serve with dinner...soft & pillowy. The crumb came out beautiful with nice air pockets. Fine job, and as was said before, you just have to keep doing it to get it right. There are a lot of great bakers here, so never be afraid to ask for help.

[pammyowl]

Looks beautiful! Personally I like a dark crust.

[Red Apple Guy]

Ta-dah! Beautiful!!

Red

[Bonnie G #2]

Lovely, and I can't begin to tell you all the failures I've had with mine, just makes the success all that much nicer. You know I never thought about the type of yeasts. So sounds like with the rapid rise you need less rising and with the regular you have 3 - am I understanding that right??

Hope you'll come and join us over in Guess What I just Baked we have a lot of fun trying a LOT of differant breads.

[JoeV]

Bonnie G #2 wrote:
Lovely, and I can't begin to tell you all the failures I've had with mine, just makes the success all that much nicer. You know I never thought about the type of yeasts. So sounds like with the rapid rise you need less rising and with the regular you have 3 - am I understanding that right??

Hope you'll come and join us over in Guess What I just Baked we have a lot of fun trying a LOT of differant breads.

Bonnie, I very rarely prove my dough more than twice, and I use nothing but Instant Yeast. The same can be said for Active Dry Yeast as well if properly proved nice and bubbly. I've used SAF red label, Fleischman's and Red Star...it never makes any difference in rise time if you use the prescribed amount. I mix my dough for 7 minutes, let it prove (rise) for 60 minutes, stretch the dough & shape my loaves, prove for 45-60 minutes then into the oven. The instant yeast ALWAYS goes in with the flour & salt and gets blended before introducing into the BLENDED wet ingredients. Blending, IMHO, is another key to success. It take a couple of seconds to whisk the wet ingredients and use a flat spatula to blend the dry.

Another key to "reasonable" rise time is liquids that are at room temperature...that includes eggs. If your liquids are cold, you can expect increased rise time (up to double the time) until they get to room temperature. I use only purified water from our Brita jug in the fridge, and bring down the temp in the microwave.

Keep plugging away, and try lots of different recipes.

[2ManyHobbies]

Biology, chemistry, physics. Should have paid more attention in school.
Great info all. Thanks so much. I should be able to gain another 10lbs this winter.
My daughter said her lunch made with yesterday's bread was fantastic. Made me want to bake some more. I'm going to try the instant/rapid rise again now that I've got more info. I didn't even think about the different temperatures when putting everything together. Hot lard and cold eggs. Thanks Bonnie G and JoeV.

[Donna M.]

Just to clarify, Instant and Rapid Rise are two different yeasts with different usage requirements. Personally, I stay away from the rapid rise. I never did have good luck with it. In my area the instant yeast is not sold in the small packets. I buy it at Sam's Club in a very large package (freeze the excess). In the grocery store you may see 'bread machine yeast', which is actually the same thing as instant yeast. I have found it is much cheaper to buy the big bags and freeze it, though. It keeps for a very long time in the freezer.

[duonyte]

Yes, don't use the RapidRise - a lot of people say there are issues with it. I also use two rises only.

I buy my instant yeast at GFS, a pound package costs around $5, which is much cheaper than buying the strips. I know both Costco and Sam's Club carry the pound packages of active dry. Either one of those is a bargain compared to the strips or the small jars that the supermarket carries.

[pammyowl]

I agree with the class, rapid-rise is a no go for me, too. I use instant, and rarely go beyond two rises, unless I am busy and need more time. Then I just punch down and reshape.

[Bonnie G #2]

You know, I never realized there was so much differance in yeast - I do try and keep my liquids all at the same temp; but have never really paid a lot of attention to the type of yeast (except of course for my sourdough starter) I've always just grabbed the strips without paying much attention. When I checked the lot in my fridge - it's a mixture of rapid and active, and I usually just use one pack per recipe.

From now on I'm going for the bulk (didn't know you could keep it in the freezer - is the fridge side enough?) and will sure pay close attention to the process and see if that helps my end results.

So glad I read this thread and can't wait to try this out.

[pammyowl]

I buy in bulk, and keep the large bag in the freezer and keep a smaller amount in the fridge in an airtight container. You can, however, use it directly from the freezer, esp. instant. So much cheaper!

[JoeV]

pammyowl wrote:
I buy in bulk, and keep the large bag in the freezer and keep a smaller amount in the fridge in an airtight container. You can, however, use it directly from the freezer, esp. instant. So much cheaper!

Pretty much the same practice here. I still have the 4oz jar from the "Bread Machine Yeast" when I began baking bread. That stays in the fridge and gets refilled from the sealed jar in the freezer. It keeps a very long time. I just looked at the 1# bricks I just bought, and they have a date on them of July 16, 2014.