Fortified I'll Rise

[redrikki]

 Today I had my first experiment in yeast bread making. It could have gone better. I've been growing my own yeast. It started off well, but by today it was smelling a tad vinegar-y. I decided to use it anyway. By then I'd already hauled down my mother's ancient stand mixer from the attic and I meant to use it, by gum! It was completely filthy, so I spent a good half-hour getting it clean. And then I went and dirtied it back up.

I decided to make the Cuban bread recipe from my New York Times Cookbook because it seemed fairly easy and I had all the ingredients. After mixing, I let the dough rise in a greased bowl in a sink full of hot water while I talked with my mom. Did I not let it rise long enough? Don't know, but it didn't rise again once it was in the oven.

In the end, the flavor was good, but it came out dense and chewy, rather than fluffy. Tomorrow I will take down the fondu pot that I've never used and make something to dip it in for lunch.

If anyone has any suggestions for my next to around, please let me know.

Comments

[musesfool]

If the recipe is this one (https://www.food.com/recipe/cuban-bread-147540), it sounds like it wouldn't be fluffy but crusty and dense, so it sounds like it came out right to me.

[redrikki]

Mine don't look quite like they're supposed to, but they taste darn good. Not thick enough for sandwiches though.

[rose_griffes]

Yeah, I was going to say the same thing as musesfool: recipes for Cuban bread here in the US do make a rather dense bread.

This is the recipe I've used with a food processor, and the first two comments both mention how dense and chewy it is. (I liked doing this recipe because there's no expectation of a picture-perfect loaf at the end. It's a nice roundish lump, and that's okay.

[redrikki]

Sounds good. Mine never really lumped is the issue. I'll try again once I've eaten these.

[rose_griffes]

Here's another write-up of the same recipe. The original source was a newsletter called The Tightwad Gazette. You can search for that + Cuban bread and get multiple people writing up their adaptations of the recipe.

[redrikki]

Cool! Thanks.

[st_aurafina]

Maybe the water was too hot for the second rise, that's all I can think of? But as long as it tasted good, I would be happy.

I do my proofing in the microwave with the door ajar - the light apparently provides enough warmth for bread to rise.

[redrikki]

Now that's an idea. Maybe I'll try that next time. In the sink, I kept having to add water and the towel I covered the bowl with got very damp. Thanks for the tip!