What is the trick to baking with active yeast? I made some whole wheat cinnamon rolls and they were dense.?

Answer 1

Bread From Scratch Made Easy!"

Everybody has some good memory about the smell of fresh bread... grandmothers cooking, steam rising from the first cut in the loaf, butter melted over a crisp, toasted slice at breakfast... Well, I finally broke down and decided it was time to fling some flour around in my kitchen. Come on, how hard can a loaf of bread be?

I attempted to bake a loaf (without instructions of course) and created an indestructible square loaf of the densest, hardest bread I've ever seen. After four of these bricks (even with instructions), I finally asked around and found some sound advice from none other than a grandma. There's things the recipes fail to mention. So, for all novices who are tired of cutting very thing slices and adding a whole lot of butter to make the bread slices taste better, here's a very short, but bombproof guide to making good bread without fail.

What's the big deal about yeast?
Bread yeast, or "Rapid Rise", yeast is easy to find in the supermarket. I won't go into the complete taxonomy/phylogeny of it, but will say it is alive and can die. Enough said. Here's what the recipe's don't tell you: if you don't activate the yeast, you will make a brick. Your dough will not rise unless it is activated! To activate the yeast, stick it in a cup of 110 degree Faranheit water (let your water get hot out of the faucet, it'll do) and stir in a packet of yeast. Let it stand for a minute until you see it "bloom" as shown on the right.

Make a Good Dough
Make your dough too dry, it won't rise; make it too wet, you have a mess. To get your dough just right, stir flour into the wet ingredients until it forms a doughball. When you can stick a fork in it and let it stand, you're there. For better instructions on this, Jaques Pepin has a great web site with a slideshow for kneading dough.

How do I know if it has risen enough?
All the recipes say, let the dough double... this is exactly right, but it won't happen right unless you have a place for the dough to rise. Stick your dough into a covered container and let it sit in a warm spot. I stick it in the sun, works great. It should rise like the pictures below. If it doesn't, either you didn't wait long enough (20-40 min.) or your yeast is bad.




How do I get a good crust?
The crust will come out dark or light depending on the ingredients. If you add milk, you will have a darker crust. One trick for good crusts, however, is to brush on melted butter and egg white just before sticking it in the oven. This seems to make a light, crispy crust.

Here's a recipe that is perfect for the first loaf:
You will need: Bread flour, yeast packet, sugar, small bowl, large bowl, fork, oil or butter
Add to large bowl: 1 cup flour and 1/3 cup sugar
Add to small bowl: 3/4 cup hot water from tap, activate yeast as described above
Combine active yeast-water to large bowl and stir with a fork.
If too dry, add water in small amounts until the fork can barely stir.
Add flour slowly until the fork forms a doughball with stirring.
Flop dough onto a floured surface and knead.
Let it rise until double.
Flour you hands, remove it from the container, and reknead. Put it into a bread pan, cover, and let rise until double.
Stick it into a preheated oven (350) for 15-20 minutes. This can vary, so the best thing to do is tap the loaf in after ten minutes. If is sounds and feels hollow, it is done. Also, add butter to the crust after 5 minutes if you want.

Good luck! Let me know how it went!

Answer 2

Yeast is a fast growing, but delicut thing. Usually your reciepe will tell you the proper steps to take. If you get it too hot or two cold, it will not work. Aslo the package of yeast has an expiration date. You should always use yeast that has not expired.
Usually you disolve the yeast in warm water. The temperature of the water is just the same as your body temperature. So if you drop a little on your wrist, it will not feel cold or hot. (That is also by the way the way you test the milk in a baby bottle to be sure it is not too hot or cold.)
After you mix the ingredients, they have to sit in a warm place for a while, so that the yeast can grow. The dough will rise up and look more airy. Often the reciepe wants to to punch down the dough, shape it or put it into muffin cups, and than let it rise again for a while before you bake it.
You can tell pretty quickly whether or not the yeast is good, because it should foam up in the warm water. Sometimes you are asked to add some sugar and other ingredients to the yeast water, since they will help to "feed" the yeast.
It just takes experience. Don't worry. We have all baked hard rolls or cakes or something when the yeast wasn't rising right.
Good Luck.

Answer 3

It's Alive! It's Alive! Or Is It?

Q. How do you know for sure that yeast is active? Does it have to bubble???
A. If you’re in doubt about your yeast, you should definitely proof it. Combine the yeast with 1 tsp. sugar and some or all of the warm liquid called for in the recipe (the temperature should be between 105°F and 115°F; 41°C and 46°C). If it begins to bubble within about five minutes, it’s fine.

If there’s no activity, start over with new yeast.

Answer 4

When making yeast based breads, you allow the dough to rise until it's approx. doubled in size; the time will depend on the warmth of where the dough is placed to rise. A tip: turn oven on at 350* for 5 minutes, then turn off. Place dough, covered with a clean dish towel, into oven and close the door. Your dough should double in size in about an hour.

Answer 5

The secret is letting the dough rise several times before baking. Once your dough is made, kneed it, cover it with a clean cloth and set it aside in a warm area for an hour, repeat the kneeding and setting aside a couple more times. Then put it into the oven in your pan, it should come out baked to perfection, if you don't overcook it. Follow your recipe on baking time and temperature. Good luck.

Answer 6

Did you have any white flour in there? Yeast needs gluten to feed on and develop and whole wheat flour, rye flour, oat flours all don't have enough. If you want a real tender whole wheat bread product you have to use atleast half all purpose flour in the recipe. I usually find that 1/3 whole wheat to 2/3 all purpose flour makes something whole grain yet tender. If you're looking for a healthier version you might want to focus on the unbleached all purpose what flours.

Answer 7

If you placed the yeast in some water with sugar and it bubbled it was active and this would not be the problem. If you didn't , it could have been the yeast but also overworking the dough can do the same thing.

Answer 8

The problem isn't your yeast, it's because you made whole wheat ones. Anything made with whole wheat flour is dense. Cinnamon buns made with evil white flour are light and delicious! Save the whole wheat flour for healthy grain bread and buns.

Answer 9

You have to bloom the yeast for 10 minutes before adding things like salt, and let the dough rise long enough.

Answer 10

After the dough rises, you need to punch it down (punch ...not really hammer away at it.; -) just squeeze it and fold it over until the dough is the original size). Then you 'proof' it but letting it rise again. The second time it should be light and airy. Of course, if you're using a flour that doesn't have a lot of gluten in it, like oat flour, your bread is going to be denser.