Cathryn
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Bread questionOver the last few weeks I keep making bread that rises well and tastes fine but makes quite flat loaves. They spread out a lot at the second rising. This hasn't happened before. 
Is this too much water to flour? I have tried adding less water more flour but doesn't seem to have made any difference. The dough is quite sticky even after kneading. I changed the flour I use recently from Bacheldre to Y Felin, could this be it? It's the only thing that I have been doing differently that I can think of.
Oh and VSS if you get to this after haymaking do you use all wholemeal for your rolls? They were good and not too solidly wholesome.
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wellington womble
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That only happens to my bread if I leave it too long for the second rising - they rise too much, the dough can't support itself, and it goes flat - maybe that's it?
It might also be too much yeast (which would make it rise too much and then go flat, same as rising for too long) or too little, so it's not rising enough (or not having long enough to rise) Different flours need different amounts of yeast and water, so that may be why it's happening now.
How much yeast do you use and long do you leave it to rise? If you are a bit of an erratic baker (like me) leaving it overnight in the fridge to rise is a good trick - it also make possibly the nicest bread ever
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Snowball
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I was wondering if it is too hot where you leave it to rise.
The bread is still very tasty anyway. 
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Cathryn
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Possible it could be too much yeast as I read the recipe properly a few weeks ago and started adding what it suggested. I'll try that.
The other things though. I haven't done anything differently and it used to rise perfectly. And I do the overnight in the fridge at times.
I wonder if it is the change of flour...
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JB
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Its always possible the flour you're using has changed. Recently I've noticed that my bread dough is a much slacker mixture than before even though I use the same flour to water ratio. For whatever reason it's not absorbing the water as well as before. Could be a different season's flour, could be weather either way it might be worth adjusting the recipe even if the ingredients are the same.
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wellington womble
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Flour is very variable. I believe that big bakers and flour millers have a weekly meeting, where they discuss the characteristics of that weeks flour - depends on all sorts of things, as JB said. A change in flour brand may well mean a recipe needs tweaking, or a change in flour over the seasons etc etc.
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VSS
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Re: Bread question | Cathryn wrote: |
Oh and VSS if you get to this after haymaking do you use all wholemeal for your rolls? They were good and not too solidly wholesome. |
I use a flour that i get from the local bakery - nature's gold i think it is called. its about 80% wholemeal. most commercial bakers use it for their brown bread. it is solid enough to do brown bread, but also light enough to use for general baking.
if your dough is still sticky after neading, use more flour when neading to mop up the stickiness. this might make the dough more solid and less likely to spread. alternatively, put it in a tin.
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judith
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Re: Bread question | Cathryn wrote: | | I changed the flour I use recently from Bacheldre to Y Felin, could this be it? It's the only thing that I have been doing differently that I can think of. |
Possibly. I find that Bacheldre flour is more thirsty than other flours - it always needs more water than my normal recipe calls for. So you could be still overcompensating with the Y Felin flour, and adding too much water.
But if you do what VSS says, that should sort the problem.
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