Well, darn.

[rebeccmeister]

Every time I try to make bread, it always ends up too dense. Things looked promising at first today, but the auspicious first rise did not progress to a light'n'fluffy second rise. I could blame it on whole-wheat flour, but I don't think that's the problem. I'm just not sure.

On the other hand, the Syrian Zataar that sytharin gave to me a looong time ago was delicious when mixed with olive oil and balsamic vinegar and applied to the uber-dense bread.

Well, it's just about time for bed. Tomorrow morning I'm back to rowing again. Whee!

Comments

[notlostonme.livejournal.com]

Dear Rebecca,

you are probably right about the wheat flour. It does bake denser and heavier, and adding a bit of regular bread flour or adjusting the yeast content should fix that. You are brilliant. I made bread yesterday, too. We are braintwins.

<3 Jessica

[bootsvalentine.livejournal.com]

Try this recipe. (http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Grandma-VanDorens-White-Bread/Detail.aspx) It is sooo fluffy. If you read the comments, people say they have substituted 1/2 wheat flour.
I also put mine in a warm oven with a dish of water to help it rise.

[sytharin.livejournal.com]

I have been making flatbread from the cookbook you gave me, using a recipe which calls for rolling butter or oil into the rolled dough. It is delicious! It gets so flaky and puffy and good, and curiously enough it also works for pizza dough, though we didn't roll butter into it that time.
Whole wheat flour, in my experience, definitely makes for a denser bread. I find that recipes that use half whole wheat, half white pretty much eliminate the denseness issue, if you're willing to pervert your cooking with white flour.