Thursday, February 28, 2008

A Chilly Breeze Does Not Help Bread Rise!

Well, this month's challenge was a big flop for me. Usually bread bakes beautifully in my kitchen, but not today.

First of all, this morning I started my bread just fine. I left to run a few errands as it had 3 hours to rise. Well, I'm in Arizona where the weather was a perfect 81 degrees F, but quite a bit chillier in the house with the slight breeze once my husband thoughtfully opened all the windows. Needless to say, my bread didn't rise. At that point there was no warm area in my house, so I put my bread in my warming
drawer on the proof setting. It did rise a bit, but nowhere near the 3 1/2 times it was expected to. I continued on, hoping for the best. The second rise did do much better, so again I continued on to make medium sized boules. Once I shaped them and allowed them to rise for the 2 1/2 hours needed. And once again, they didn't rise. I was completely dumbfounded. They only rose during the second rising period, so I knew I hadn't killed the yeast. Well, I stuck to it, and turned the boules onto my baking sheet. Although I was very gentle they collapsed. I've never let my bread rise upside down before, so this was a new way for me. I scored it, baked it, cooled it, and finally cut into my boule.

Tina E

Although I sprayed it with water the bread didn't turn a nice golden color. Instead it stayed a pale white. The bread itself was very dense and smelt very yeasty, almost as if it had been sitting in my bread box green for over a week. Yowser, it was strong! With the aroma we (my husband and I) weren't to keen on trying it, so I just photographed it instead.

Tina E

Besides the cool air of my house I have no idea what I could have done differently. I'm going to start again tomorrow, hopefully with better success. A great challenge though- always learning and moving on.

- Tina E

7 comments:

Janet said...

I got the same pale loaves although mine did rise. I was very disappointed, but like you, have vowed to try again. There are plenty of people who have had success and that certainly is encouraging, huh?

L Vanel said...

Tina, you rose to the challenge and it still was a good effort. It's right in the spirit to go back to the drawing board and give it another try !

Sandicita said...

I'm sorry your bread didn't turn out! Hope your second try works out better. I put my dough in the oven (light on, oven off) to rise and it worked well, even though our house was New England cold!

Mer said...

I am so sorry you weren't able to try your bread. I hope that your second try is a smashing success!

Way to go for trying again!

breadchick said...

Sorry you had a failure the first time. It could have a combination of cool rises and bad yeast.

Glad you will try again.

Thanks for baking with Sara and i this month.

Sheltie Girl said...

Great job on your bread! My first batch turned out a bit pale, but the second batch browned nicely. Neither rose to the heights obtained with gluten containing bread, but well that gluten free bread for you.

Natalie @ Gluten A Go Go

Aparna Balasubramanian said...

My loaves were pale too. And the first rising was ok. But then onwards the dough didn't rise all that well and I live in the tropics! I thought it might be my yeast but bread I made after the challenge turned out good.
Here's to wishing the next challenge works out better.