OK, I’ve been absent a bit from the blog, what with all of the holidays & with essays to write & all manner of things. Don’t let that fool you into thinking that I haven’t been baking, though! As a matter of fact, I finally figured out what’s been going wrong with baking bread in the UK: YEAST! Yes, ladies and gentlemen, it’s not about the flour or the water, but about the yeast. I finally finished off my Scotland-purchased yeast and broke into my stash of yeast shipped from California … and my bread turned out right!
I could tell, from smelling the yeast proofing, that it was going to be a good set of loaves. They were just plain old bread (well, OK, they had oat bran & flax seeds in them, but that’s “plain” for us), but they turned out marvelously! They went through multiple rises just fine, with the yeast having enough guts to actually go through a second rise, and they turned out bread that we oooh’d and aaaah’d over, immediately recognizing as “bread” rather than … well, something so not bread as to be something we’ll never do again. They kneaded well, they formed gluten fairly quickly, and they were … well, right.
Hear this, friends from the States: admission to this flat will henceforth be 1 industrial-sized ‘brick’ of Red Star Yeast. We don’t care if the customs people look at you like you’re crazy: tell them you’ve crazy friends on the other side.
Because it’s not about the flour or the water, but about having good yeast!
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_Yep – I have never had satisfactory results from the dried yeast that is available here. The bread that I’ve made with fresh yeast has been phenominal.
India
How terribly annoying! But at least you found out what the problem was. And that it is something easy to fix. Imagine it being the water?? 🙂
If ever I am in the UK and baking bread I will have to remember to walk with my own yeast! Glad that you got some “homemade” yeast.
I’ll remember to get some for you when I get my passport stuff sorted out… and find when is a good time to visit!! 🙂
Darla, dear, it’s always a fine time to visit – provided you like the rain, or the fog, or the mist … or any of the hundreds of words this land must have for that gunk in the air that is wet.
yay! nothing like a wonderful loaf of bread to lift the spirits! congrats! and have fun! happy new year.