I've been messing around with breads for a few months now, and I find the whole process pretty fascinating. I enjoy the totality of what makes a success or failure in the bread world. So far, I'm 1/3 successes to attempts. I didn't change much with this recipe, from Yankee Magazine. The description was for a 'sweet, well textured sandwich bread'. Hmmm, sounds good. Plus, combining molasses and corn meal? Crazy!
The taste was alright, but it was damn dense, and didn't rise properly. As far as the rise goes, I had a feeling my yeast might be a little off, and it was Instant, where I think I've decided I'd rather regular active yeast over instant. So, one problem solved.
The problem of density took a little more research. I found these causes:
- Too much flour.
- Too little kneading.
- Those cute crosscuts you see on artisan loafs at the store? They're there for a reason. If a crust forms too fast, it can actually trap the 'growth' of the bread, rather than letting it expand. Cutting the raw loafs will allow the bread to rise more freely.
I found
this web discussion to be very helpful - in fact, ChowHound in general has some great resources for your baking maladies.
Since my bread looked nothing like this and I know I had issues, I won't review the recipe quite yet, I'm going to give it another shot in the near future.
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