Help!! Cooking bread for the first time...

kirsten777

kirsten777

Cathlete
I am trying Tosca Reno's recipe, but she isn't very clear. Am I supposed to either mix the yeast in warm water, or mix the yeast with dry ingredients and then pour in warm water and oil???

It says that I need to combine the ingredients (water, honey, canola oil, sea salt, ascorbic acid, yeast)and then let stand until the yeast is dissolved and starting to rise. How long does that take?!?

TIA!
Kirsten
 
Mix the yeast with the warm water, then put it in a warm place to rise (you could put your oven on and then place in the center on the stovetop, so it gets the rising warm air)....it should bubble and fizz....it will take about 10 or 12 minutes to do so. Then you typically have the other wet ingredients in another bowl and mix the yeast mixture in, then start adding your dry ingredients.
For the warm water - make sure it is warm but not boiling!
 
:( It didn't rise :( I have no idea what I did wrong as I followed the directions. Will try again today - if it works, I'll try to send some your way :D
 
Your liquid that you added the yeast to may have been too hot, or your yeastie beasties were dead. Did they bubble and foam after being in the liquid for a few mins? If not you killed them or they were already dead. The water/liquid should be somewhere around 120 F. I just use the hot tap water from the kitchen sink. Never had a problem. Or you let it rise too long and it fell, but that takes very long time. Or they didn't like the food you provided for them. You have to use real sugar or honey. Artificial won't work, they don't like it. I think you have yeastie beastie issues.

Nan

ETA: Also try just mixing the water, the honey, and yeast, and letting that foam up. Add your salt and ascorbic acid to the flour (dry stuff mix) instead of to the yeast. Make a well, pour in the yeast/honey/water. Drizzle the oil over the top and then mix as the recipe directs. The other ingredients right off the bat may be messing you up.
 
Last edited:
spyrosmom said:
Your liquid that you added the yeast to may have been too hot, or your yeastie beasties were dead. Did they bubble and foam after being in the liquid for a few mins? If not you killed them or they were already dead. The water/liquid should be somewhere around 120 F. I just use the hot tap water from the kitchen sink. Never had a problem. Or you let it rise too long and it fell, but that takes very long time. Or they didn't like the food you provided for them. You have to use real sugar or honey. Artificial won't work, they don't like it. I think you have yeastie beastie issues.

Nan

ETA: Also try just mixing the water, the honey, and yeast, and letting that foam up. Add your salt and ascorbic acid to the flour (dry stuff mix) instead of to the yeast. Make a well, pour in the yeast/honey/water. Drizzle the oil over the top and then mix as the recipe directs. The other ingredients right off the bat may be messing you up.
Click to expand...

I think I'll use hot tap water next time. I heated the water and then used the thermometer until it was 128 F (the back of the packet said between 120-130, but that may have been too hot).

Thanks for the feedback!
 
It could have been that your yeast wasn't alive (was it maybe past the expiration date?) OR it could have been the type of yeast you used. There is a difference between Active Dry Yeast and Instant Yeast. The Active Dry Yeast needs to be activated with the warm water mixture like the recipe stated (although the temp. should only be around 110 degrees, because temperatures higher than 125 degrees will kill the yeast). But the Instant Yeast (also called Rapid Rise) is great because it doesn't need to be proofed in the warm water first, you can just add it directly to the dry ingredients. My guess is if the bread didn't rise, the yeast was either expired or the water temp. was too high. Who knows - bread is tricky sometimes. Keep tryin'!! Mmmm... homemade bread. Makes me feel like makin' some!:p

Dani
 
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