Tasteless bread

SailorSam

Plan_for_Chaos wrote: »

On a side note is anyone else having trouble with their breads rising in this cold weather? :mad:

I've started putting in extra yeast and it's raising better.
I was using Doves Farm and it said to use 1 teaspoon, last time they had no Doves so i got a tub of Allisons easy bake which says to use 2 teaspoons. I thought that sounded a lot so have done 1 and half.
I usually use 70% wholemeal/30% white and half teaspoons of salt and sugar.

Raksha

Strangely I don't use any salt of sugar in my bread, and haven't had any complaints - and believe me, with a 14 year old and a 16 year old, they'd be letting me know

My recipe is 450ml water, 750g flour and a teaspoon yeast.

European_Citizen

I find that if you use the dried active yeast which is meant for breadmachines 3-4g is OK even with 500g of flour. I see you are not using any sugar: it is not an essential ingredient (yes, the bread will rise even if there is no sugar) but maybe you would perceive the bread as tastier because store-bought ones have sugar in them. Alternatively, you could use honey. I don't think the amount of salt it a problem: 5g is OK for this quantity of ingredients.
As for proving the bread, I do it in the oven at 40C (30C if I use the fan). The bowl with the dough (or the shaped bread for the second proving) should be covered with a wet towel (or clingfilm if you are lazy like me and don't feel like washing )

terra_ferma

often it's just a matter of what we are used to eating, rather than the food having a different taste

for example OH has problems with blood pressure and we started eating/cooking with no added salt,which was a bit shock to the system as we have always used plenty of salt

to start with I found it really hard and everything I cooked tasted very bland, I never thought I would get used to it, but actually now food tastes better because its natural taste really comes out

now we find things like crisps too salty for us, and the same is happening with sugary foods, I reduced the amount of sweet stuff I eat and now I don't like things like biscuits and chocolate as much as I did before

all this to say that perhaps there is nothing wrong we the bread you bake, but you are not used to eating more natural foods?
Not saying you eat junk food necessarily, as even low fat so called 'healthy' options are often highly processed and have all sorts of stuff in them.
(this is just a general comment as obviously I don't know what you normally eat )