16 March 2008

I failed again :(

Sigh...recently I discovered that bread making is not as easy as what I used to think it is.

Today I tried to use a tested recipe, wholemeal cream cheese bread, to incorporate the remaining 65°C water-roux starter in my fridge to see if I can improve the texture of the bread. In the end, I failed again. :(

I had used 80g of the water-roux starter and reduced about 13g of bread flour and 67g of water from the recipe. I thought my understanding was correct. The bread rose well for the first proofing, I didn't have any problem with that. But after I had punched out the air and shaped them into 3 rolls (to make a loaf), the bread rose much slower and not very tall. In the end I just baked it in the oven, left it to cool on the wire rack and went out.

When I came back, I tore a little of the bread to test. Disappointing! It was not soft and fluffy like my tested wholemeal bread. :( It tasted a little chewy, expected since the bread didn't rise much.

Now I'm left with all the questions of what could have gone wrong.
- Could it be the second proofing is too short?
- Did I do my water-roux incorporation calculation wrongly?
- Did I punch out the air too hard after the first proof?
- Was my dough too dry? Coz the top kind of "splitted open" as it was expanding/rising in the second proofing

Anyone wants to give me any clue? I feel like a deflated balloon, a little like my bread that didn't rise well.

Mood: ......

13 comments:

Yuri said...

Hey wf, don't be discourage k? Check out Florence's blog, she has posted this golden bread ratio, may be this can help to solve your problem. After you figure that out, may be you can share with us. I think I may just try TZ tomorrow...

KWF said...

yuri, i did read about the golden rule, but still no clue what went wrong. I suspect I didn't let the bread rise enough for the 2nd proof. I may test the TZ on the plain cream cheese bread to see if my way of calculation is correct.

Yuri said...

Cool wf, I'm looking forward to your analysis :D I'd better plan when to make the TZ cos I want soft and fluffy bread for Good Friday! Hmm, cannot be too fancy tho

KWF said...

If you intend to use the TZ on Fri, then maybe make it on Fri morning or thurs. Bear in mind that you'll have to finish the TZ within 3 days. Good luck!

Rei said...

Hi WF, actually, the cream cheese bread recipe is very easy to modify for water roux method. For me, I would just reduce the water to 100g, using 80g of starter. The rest to remain untouched. My experience with the dough is that you have to ensure it reaches the membrane stage, even more so when you add wholemeal. You didn't mention the texture of the dough so I can't comment on that. Also, I seldom 'punch down' the dough. Handling and shaping the dough is enough to release the air. You must 'sayang' the dough lah, don't abuse it. eheheh..

KWF said...

rei, thanks for your suggestion. I very "si ban", will follow formula to the last dot! hahaha.... And I really punch the air out quite hard, so "chor lor" :P I'm going to try incorporating the TZ into the wholemeal bread again. See if there's any improvement.

Gina Choong said...

WF, today very hot leh..why never do experiment? I am writing my grandmother stories on bread making first. Coz want to start basic bread making in end April, maybe May. Getting ang mo to do a Country Bread roll or Rustic Roll session.

KWF said...

gina, I did. :D I finetune my orange bread and tested another new bread (which wasn't very successful yet). So need to experiment again. Compared to last week, these few days' weather very good for bread making.

Gina Choong said...

oy WF, you should try the Panettone next round. that's a cross between a Bread and a Cake. and usually eaten during Christmas. Never mind, its over. but i love it anyway. Its a very tall cake. which you can use a condensed milk can to bake. Some time ago in KC, this Panettone causes a big stir too. Everyone go crazy trying to find a tub to bake it in.it was a recipe that got deleted becoz the person left KC. Sigh..
i will upload mine tomorrow..with pictures too.

KWF said...

yes yes! Pls upload the recipe...heee.... Got so many to-do-list on hands!

Gina Choong said...

oy WF, found the panettone recipe liao. its at Cake n Pastries, under the title of Yeast Risen Christmas Cake(Pandoro & Panettone). The texture is very bread like but because its sweet, it is also cake like. Very interesting recipe.

KWF said...

gina, I couldn't wait, so I've gone ahead to find the recipe before you did. Looks interesting, but not sure when I'm going to try it. Is this a very sweet bread?

Gina Choong said...

wf, its sweet due to the dried fruits. so you can cut down on sugar if needed. your bento sets coming in today. I am more kan cheong than you! :)