Baking homemade bread has become increasingly popular since the beginning of lockdowns as a result of the pandemic. While it’s easy to throw your ingredients into a breadmaker, cooking from scratch is so much more fun. Here are our top hints and tips to succeeding with homemade bread baking:

Speed Up Rising Time

Use more yeast; or use a bread improver. You can also set dough in a sink with very warm water to speed things up.

We like to set the oven to 30°c and let the bread rise in there.

Speed Up Baking Time

Place the loaves ready to prove in a cold oven. Proving will take place while the oven is warming up/ pre-heating.

Also, satisfactory bread results from only 1 rise, so if you’re trying to speed things up, don’t do a second rise unless specifically stated as necessary. Simply punch down the dough, and set it to proof before baking.

Yeast Equivalents

1 tablespoon of dry yeast = 30 grams of compressed yeast = 1 Tandaco sachet.

Dough Isn’t Rising

If the liquid is too hot, it will kill the yeast and the dough will not rise. Dry yeast is less heat-sensitive and is less likely to be affected by heat.

Another reason that dough may not rise is that the yeast has been in the cupboard for too long. Avoid using expired yeast, because it won’t work.

Finally, if you don’t use lukewarm liquid to activate the yeast, it will take longer than normal to work effectively.

Dry Dough

If the dough is too dry, it will typically be lacking in oil or butter.

Bread Tastes Like Yeast

If the bread rises in a place that is too warm, it will have a distinct yeasty flavor.

The Dough is Soggy in the Middle

When you cut the bread and it’s still soggy in the middle, you’ve simply under-cooked it. By applying a skewer to the middle of the bread before you take it out to cool, you’ll be able to tell if it’s too soggy in the middle.

Bread Flattens Out During Cooking

When the dough spreads outwards while cooking instead of rising up, it usually means that you haven’t kneaded the bread for long enough to give it a good structure.

Bread is Coarse

This is usually a result of the dough over-proving.

For more homemade bread recipes, take a look at our French baguette recipe, or homemade rye bread recipe.

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