Half a loaf.

[serinde]

I felt baking urges this morning. Ostensibly this is to get rid of a lot of second-tier ingredients cluttering up the kitchen (like the 5lb bag of bread flour), but see also "reversion under stress".

Banana bread: old familiar turf, I scarcely need to post about it at this point; except that I'm trying half whole-wheat flour and half all-purpose white.

Standard White Loaf: This is my second Epic Fail at the same recipe (out of Nigella), and I don't know why. It just won't rise. Not a yeast problem, 'cos both times I used more from the same purchase in other recipes and it did fine. Bah.

Parmesan Herb Loaf: This, on the other hand, is working well. The recipe is from the back of the yeast package, of all things. I've shaped the loaves and they're just about done rising & ready to bake. Smells lovely so far.

Comments

[lillilah]

If you are going to make lots of yeast breads, I'd suggest going with instant yeast. No proofing necessary. The only important bit is that salt kills yeast, so you need to mix the salt in well before you add the instant yeast. Did you have the breads rising in the same location? You know, if my bread was too dry, sometimes it wouldn't rise well. I'm really lazy about breadmaking. I have some 1 quart yogurt containers and I fill them with 80% white flour and 10% whole wheat. Then, when I'm making pizza, rolls or cinnamon buns, I just bust out a container, dump it into a larger bowl, add salt, instant yeast and hot water, mix it up and let it rise. Very very simple.