Why is my bread too doughy?

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asked Feb 9, 2022 in Recipes by speakfacts (1,210 points)
Why is my bread too doughy?

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answered Feb 9, 2022 by Wendell (41,840 points)
Bread can become too doughy when the bread is not baked long enough or the oven being too hot and not baking long enough.

Bread can also be too doughy because of improper cooling or not following the recipe correctly.

It is pretty simple to salvage an undercooked bread and create a decent loaf.

Heat the oven to 350 F, return the bread to the oven, and bake for another 10 to 20 minutes.

This will work even if the loaf has cooled, which is similar to par-baking bread.

Kneading in baking is the process of working a dough mixture to form a smooth and cohesive mass.

The Kneading of dough in baking can be done by hand or mechanically.

Proper kneading is essential.

It's important to knead dough before baking as it makes the bread or rolls, chewy, airy and light.

Kneading the dough before baking is a crucial step in making yeast breads.

Without well-developed gluten, your bread or rolls would be flat and tough.

When kneading dough it's much better to use a machine to knead the dough than to do it by hand.

Kneading dough by hand is pretty hard work and takes longer and the machine can do a better job and make it easier to knead the dough.

When making bread you should knead the bread dough for at least 10 minutes.

A great and easy way to knead your bread dough is to hold the dough with one hand and stretch it out over the work surface with the other, then bring it back to a ball and repeat with the other hand.

Keep kneading until it has a smooth texture and can be stretched without tearing – this typically takes 10 minutes.

To make bread soft and fluff you should use eggs, milk and butter in the bread dough.

Soft bread with a moist, close-knit crumb has an amazingly tender texture.

It is accomplished by retaining moisture in the crumb that would otherwise exit during cooling.

We can also increase the moisture by using more water in the recipe or adding a tenderizing agent to make the gluten soft and fluffy!

Before dough rises the dough look like a shaggy, lumpy mass and then will gradually smooth out as you knead.

By the time you finish, it should be completely smooth and slightly tacky to the touch.

Holds Its Shape – Lift the ball of dough in your hand and hold it in the air for a second.

Eggs in the bread acts as a leavening agent to help the bread dough rise better.

If you don't put eggs in bread the bread may not rise as good as it should.

The eggs added to bread dough helps the bread dough rise.

Eggs added to dough help with rising.

A bread dough rich with egg will rise very high, because eggs are a leavening agent (think genoise or angel food cake).

As well, the fats from the yolk help to tenderize the crumb and lighten the texture a bit.

If you use milk instead of water in bread the bread and bread crust will be softer and have a better flavor.

Milk changes bread recipes by producing a softer loaf, due to the milk fat content, which also gives bread a richer flavor.

Bread made with milk browns more easily than bread made with water, as lactose or milk sugar will caramelize as it bakes.

Butter does help to make bread softer and also adds a buttery flavor to the bread.

By introducing fat, such as butter, oil, lard or vegetable fat we will get softer results.

Fat lubricates and tenderizes the gluten to keep it moist and make it chewy.

They reduce the browning temperature, which shortens the time it takes for the crust to form.

What makes bread soft and chewy is the type of flour used in the bread making process.

Using flour that is hard wheat, or that's high in gluten can make bread chewy.

The crust on your homemade bread can become tough as a result of baking the bread at too high temperatures or when you've baked the bread too long.

A thick and hard crust on your bread is primarily caused by overbaking or baking in a temperature that's too high.

If you're making different types of bread and they're consistently coming out with really thick and hard crusts every time, you might need to tweak your recipe, technique, or cooking method slightly.

Steam makes bread crusty because when the surface of the dough reaches 180°F, the starches in the slowly forming crust start absorbing moisture.

The more moisture there is on the surface of the dough, the more abundant the starch gel, and the crisper and more crackly the eventual crust.

When baking bread you should put water in the oven when baking the bread to add steam.

The water in the oven when baking bread helps the bread rise in the oven which benefits it in several ways.

This happens rapidly in the first 10-12 minutes of baking and is called oven spring.

After 12-15 minutes, the yeast becomes too warm and the oven rise ends.

The three major or main purposes of mixing yeast dough's are.

To combine ingredients into a uniform, smooth dough.

To distribute the yeast evenly throughout the dough.

To develop the gluten.

In baking the ingredient that causes the dough to rise are Leaveners which are usually baking powder, baking soda or yeast.

Leaveners come in two main forms: baking powder or soda and yeast.

Baking powder or baking soda work quickly, relying on chemical reactions between acidic and alkaline compounds to produce the carbon dioxide necessary to inflate dough or batter.

If you add too much better in bread dough the excess butter in the bread dough shortens the gluten strands so the bread will maintain less volume when baked and it may even collapse and be doughy.

It's better to make bread with oil instead of butter as bread made with oil tends to last longer.

However making bread with butter gives the bread a better taste so if you're gonna eat the bread pretty quick then making the bread with butter is better.

Adding milk to bread dough adds flavor and enriches the bread dough and gives the bread a creamy color, soft crumb and a golden crust.

To seal your bread dough follow the below instructions.

Dip your finger into a tiny bit of water.
Run your finer around the edges of the dough you want to seal, dipping with more water as needed.
Pull the dough over your filling.
Use a fork to push the dough together to create the final seal for your dough.
Bake your dough.

You can bake bread with milk instead of water and if you do bake bread with milk instead of water you need to adjust the recipe to account for the fact that milk is about 89% water.

For example for every 100g of water in the original recipe, use 112g of milk and you're good to go.

What milk does to bread dough is add flavor and enriches the bread dough and gives the bread a creamy color, soft crumb and a golden crust.

Adding salt to bread when making the bread is important for the best quality bread as it acts as a yest inhibitor and prevents the bread from rising too fast.

If you don't add salt to your bread then the dough will rise too fast which makes the structure of the bread weaker and the flavor not as good.

The salt in bread acts as a yeast inhibitor.

When making bread the salt added to the dough to make bread acts as a yeast inhibitor.

In bread making the salt acts as a yeast inhibitor, which means that it slows down the growth and reproduction of yeast in your bread dough.

Adding salt prevents the yeast from reproducing too quickly, thus allowing you to control the rate at which the dough ferments.

Without salt, your dough will rise faster than it normally would, leading to less flavor development and a weaker structure.

When making bread salt is needed and required for the bread to turn out properly.

However it is possible to make a loaf of bread without the salt, but your bread is going to look and taste better with some salt added.

Salt slows the rising process, or fermentation, of a yeast bread dough.

Salt slows down the fermentation process of yeast and other bacteria present which slows down the rate at which dough will rise.

This is primarily due to salt's propensity to absorb water which essentially dehydrates yeast.

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