Dense or heavy bread can be the result of not kneading the dough mix properly –out of many reasons out there. Some of the other potential reasons could be mixing the yeast & salt together or losing your patience while baking or even not creating enough tension in the finished loaf before baking the bread.
Boost the fluffiness of your bread by using a dough enhancer like Vital Wheat Gluten. All it takes is a small amount of dough enhancer per loaf to create a much lighter and fluffier result.
My bread is like a brick – it has a dense, heavy texture
The flour could have too low a protein content, there could be too much salt in the bread recipe, you did not knead it or leave it to prove for long enough or you could have killed the yeast by leaving the dough to rise in a place that was too hot.
Under-proofing is the most common cause of a dense (and occasionally, gummy) crumb texture. A rushed final rise produces less gas, making the crumb compact and dense. To resolve under proofing, let your bread rise longer the next time. In most cases, this alone will fix your dense bread.
Dense or heavy bread can be the result of not kneading the dough mix properly –out of many reasons out there. Some of the other potential reasons could be mixing the yeast & salt together or losing your patience while baking or even not creating enough tension in the finished loaf before baking the bread.
Getting the amount of flour right is vital due to the high flour ratio to the other bread ingredients. Measuring one or two tablespoons too much per cup (easy to do) can cause your bread to be dense.
There may be several reasons for a dense, cake like texture in bread. It may indicate the kneading wasn't enough for the gluten to develop properly, or the dough was proved for too short a time or the dough may have been too dry. It is also worth checking the flour you used.
For a fluffy bread texture, the key is to let the bread rise long enough. Now, you may be wondering “how long does it take for bread to rise?” The short answer is that it depends on the temperature of your kitchen. For bread to rise, yeast must be activated, and yeast is very sensitive to temperature.
Final answer: Carbon dioxide gas given off during fermentation of sugar makes bread soft and fluffy.
An excess of flour can create a stiff, dry dough. A perfectly kneaded dough springs back when poked with your finger and will feel soft and silky in texture.
Then it's just an addition of a teaspoon of yeast, about 0.3 ounces of salt, and sugar (if you're proofing the yeast, otherwise it's not necessary unless you're going for a bread with some sweetness). No matter what amount you choose, the rules hold. The ratio is 5:3.
Over-kneaded dough can become very hard to work with and produce a more flat and chewy bread. It's vital to stop mixing at the first signs of over-kneading, as a fully over-kneaded dough cannot be fixed.
Kneading for 10-12 minutes by hand or 8-10 minutes in a mixer are the general standards; if you've been massaging the dough for that length of time, you can be pretty confident that you've done your job.
This technique is the best way to figure out if you sufficiently kneaded your bread dough. Insufficient kneading will result in underdeveloped gluten, creating a bread dense as a brick.
Loaves made with over-kneaded dough often end up with a rock-hard crust and a dense, dry interior. Slices will be very crumbly, especially toward the middle. If nothing else, over-knead loaves make great breadcrumbs! Bread-baking is a learning process.
Dust your hands with flour then shape the dough into a ball. Then push the bread away from you with your palms using a rolling motion. After every push, fold the dough over on itself, then give it a quarter turn and repeat. You may need to add more flour as you go if the dough sticks.
Consider vitamin C. Vitamin C strengthens the gluten in flour, which can give a better rise, and help dough to rise more quickly. You probably won't need it if you're making white bread, but if you make wholemeal bread and it doesn't rise as well as you hoped, you could try a little vitamin C next time.
Adding salt prevents the yeast from reproducing too quickly, thus allowing you to control the rate at which the dough ferments.
If the bread dough is over-kneaded, it will not rise in the oven because the stiff gluten prevents the gasses from inflating it.
Baking with oil not only requires less work, and results in fewer dirty dishes, than butter, but it also produces tender, moist baked goods that get better with age and boast an impressively long shelf-life.
Commercial bakeries use two types of ingredients to slow spoilage — emulsifiers and enzymes. Emulsifiers keep bread from going stale by preventing oil and water from separating. Adding emulsifiers sometimes goes by the names “crumb softening” or “dough conditioning” because it works to preserve texture.
It helps to make these soft and spongy.