Help me get my bread to rise!

frannyann

Hello, new visitor to OS and hoping some one can help, I have searched but not finding the answer I need!

My white bread rises fine, I use 500g of white flour, 3 tablespoons olive oil, pinch of salt, one sachet of quick yeast and 300ml warm water. This makes a really nice fluffy loaf, however daughter likes wholemeal but however big the ratio of white to wholemeal it is still too 'dense' I have tried adding Vit C as suggested by a Google search with limited effect and am now down to 400g white/100g wholemeal, and still I get a 'dense' loaf!
Any tricks you clever people may know?

ETA: I hand bake, not bread maker if that makes any difference

Justamum

Wholemeal bread will always be denser than white. You won't get the same 'fluffy' rise that you get in commercially made wholemeal bread because of the processes they use. Wholemeal bread has a crumblier texture than white so it can be more difficult to cut.

I've tried various proportions of wholemeal to white flour, and at the moment I use 100g wholmeal flour and 900g of white (I make two loaves out of this!).

I also rise mine for a long time on the first rising - I make the dough the night before and leave it overnight in the kitchen before knocking back the next morning. It really makes a tasty loaf with quite a nice rise to it.

frannyann

Thanks Justamum, whilst I knew it would not be a 'fluffy' didn't get why it was sooo dense, clearly I have not let it rise enough on first rising, instead I've just done the hour like I did for white.

ETA, Sorry Zip, probably should have posted in Quick Questions, didn't realise the answer was that simple

jackieglasgow

I also make the water a bit hotter for brown bread than white

LJM

i tried the baking made easy tip of throwing some ice cubes in a tray at bottom of oven it did rise a little more than usual perhaps worth a go

Soundgirlrocks

Hi I make a wholemeal yogurt seed loaf which is lovely ( My other half’s word not mine!)and not to dense slightly sour bit like a sour dought but much quicker. Here is the recipe

In a jug :
300ml hand hot water
1 tsp dried Allison’s yeast
1 tbls Ground nut oil
1 tlbs Runny Honey
Top up to 450ml with natural yogurt

Add the ingredients in the order above (the yeast dissolved better if it goes in before the oil and the oil helps the honey come off the measuring spoon!) give it a good stir

Leave to activate for 20 min (you will see it bubbling on top)

Dry ingredients

250g wholemeal flour
300g Strong white flour
75g mixed sunflower and pumpkin seeds

Make a well and kneed as usual ( I use my food mixer with a dough hook)

Cover bowl with oiled cling film and let it double in size. Knock back and place the dough in the bread tin (Mine fills just over half way) . Recover with the oiled cling film and place in a very low oven and let it rise again to a nice dome above the tin. Remove the cling film and turn up the heat to around 200 bake for 40 min ish turn out tap the bottom if it sounds hollow it’s done!

Makes great crunchy toast

frannyann

Thank you all for some great ideas, you are a lovely bunch x

frannyann

Just made another loaf, left it to rise all day and used slighter warmer water and it turned out really well, nicely risen with a good texture! Many thanks x

rosie383

When I am making a wholemeal loaf I also add a wee touch extra yeast. That seems to make it much lighter.
Mind you, the other day I did the same and left it in the BM to rise. ( I make the dough in the BM and then finish by hand and bake in the oven). Anyhoo, I forgot that the pack of wholemeal flour that I had used out of the cupboard was a bread-mix ( inc yeast) that I had bought cos it was cheap. I put my usual amount of yeast in. When I went back to check it later, it was like an explosion in my BM!!!!!! It had obviously risen so much and then !!!!POP!!!!! Took me 2 days to clean the machine. Had to pull all the sticky dough off, leave it open to dry out and then chip the rest of the bits off!!!!!!