Lately, my bread's been too crumbly

16 years ago

Could it be the orange juice? Could it be agave syrup that I substituted for sugar? I checked out King Arthur's Whole Grain Baking from the library, and have been trying out their recipes for bread. My problem is that I can't leave a recipe alone, so there's probably no telling. Here's the recipe as written, and I'll put in brackets the changes I made. The original recipes contains weights in parenthesis.

2 tablespoons (1 ounce) orange juice

1 cup (8 ounces) lukewarm water

4 tablespoons (1/2 stick, 2 ounces) unsalted butter, cut into 6 pieces

3 cups (12 ounces) traditional whole wheat flour

3 tablespoons (1 1/4 ounces) sugar [I used 2 tablespoons agave syrup]

Heaping 1/2 cup (1 1/4) ounces dried potato flakes or 3 tablespoons (1 1/4 ounces) potato flour

1/4 cup (1 ounce) nonfat dry milk

1 1/4 teaspoons salt

2 1/2 teaspoons instant yeast [I used regular dried yeast - not instant]

Combine all the ingredients, and mix and knead them - by hand, mixer or bread machine - until you have a soft, smooth dough. [ I used a mixer ] Cover and allow the dough to rise until it's puffy and nearly doubled in bulk, 1 to 2 hours.

Lightly grease an 8 1/2 x 4 1/2 inch loaf pan. Gently deflate the dough, and shape it into an 8 inch log. Place it in the prepared pan.

Cover the loaf gently with lightly greased plastic wrap or a proof cover and allow it to rise till it's crowned about 1 1/2 inches over the rim of the pan, 1 1/4 to 2 1/2 hours. Near the end of the bread's rising time, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Uncover and bake the bread for about 35 minutes, tenting it with foil after 15 minutes. The bread is done when it's golden brown and an instant-read thermometer inserted in the center registers 190 degrees F. Remove it from the oven, and after a minute or so turn it out onto a rack. Bruysh with melted butter, if desired; this will keep the crust soft. Cool the bread for 30 minutes before slicing.

Well, slicing this bread is a challenge. I've made it twice, and both times it's been so crumbly it's hard to slice. The first time I ran the mixer a long time, the last time I only ran the mixer a short time, and that didn't make a difference. This is the first time I've made bread with orange juice. I remember someone posted a popular recipe using orange juice, but I don't think anyone had problems with the bread being too crumbly, so that might not be the problem. Any ideas?

Sally

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Comments (3)

lindac
16 years ago
You are low in gluten....sub 2 T vital wheat gluten for 2 T of the potato flour....or omit the potato flour and use 2 T gluten and the rest bread flour.
Linda c
grainlady_ks
16 years ago
I don't see anything, or any ingredients, that would be a problem in your recipe, in fact, I'm going to give your recipe a try (thanks for sharing it). I always use agave nectar in yeast breads and don't think that's the problem.

Bread that crumbles can be from several things...so you'll have to see if one (or more) of these things could be the cause.

-How long did the dough rise? When using whole wheat flour, only allow the dough to rise to JUST under double, which was indicated in the recipe. In fact, that's a good rule-of-thumb now that bleached and unbleached flour is no longer bromated, not just whole wheat breads. Whole wheat flour doesn't have the extensibility that bleached and unbleached flour does, so avoid over-proofing your dough. If you have trouble gauging "double", use a dough rising bucket (available from King Arthur - I use food storage containers from a restaurant supply store, much cheaper than the same things from King Arthur - a 2-quart container is perfect for this recipe). By the way, dough doesn't rise to a clock, rather to the ambient temperature, moisture level, and the strength of the yeast used. The rise time may actually be much less than what the recipe indicates, so start checking after 30-minutes.

-If the ambient temperature was too warm where the dough was rising, that can also contribute to the bread being crumbly. This often happens when using the oven for a proofing box and preheat the oven for a few minutes, turning it off, and the actual temperature is too hot (all you need is the light on in the oven for a nearly perfect rising temperature). Or using the microwave method (boiling water in a container, etc.), it can also get too hot for the dough. Most people never check the ambient temperature in these cases. I like a long cool rise, but if you are using an oven or a microwave for proofing the dough, be sure to check the temperature and keep the temperature between 80-85Â°F/27-30Â°C. or colder.

-How much flour was used? Only add as much flour as it takes to make a nice soft dough. Amounts listed in the recipe are just a good/bad guess.

-The dough might not have been kneaded enough.

-Even the oven temperature can cause the loaf to crumble. Make sure your oven is pre-heated and to temperature.

-And as LindaC mentioned, your whole wheat flour may have a low amount of gluten in it. I mill my own flour and I know the grain is 13.1% protein, which is more than enough gluten to raise a loaf of bread. I never add vital wheat gluten to breads unless I have a large percentage of low-gluten flour in it.

Hope there's something that will help you out.

-Grainlady
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sally2_gw
Original Author
16 years ago
Thanks, Linda and Grainlady. Maybe it's the rising time, because the last time I made this bread it seemed to take forever to rise - I think my yeast may be getting old. It didn't occur to me that might make it too crumbly. I started some more bread today, (with a different batch of yeast) but ran out of time to bake it, so I stuck the loaves in the fridge to rise while I was at work. It was probably about 6 hours that they rose in the fridge, then they had about 20 - 30 minutes sitting on top of the stove while the oven pre-heated. When I took them out of the fridge they looked just the right height, and didn't rise much in the little bit of time they were warming up. They're in the oven now, so we'll see. I used a completely different recipe this time, which uses mostly whole wheat flour with a little bit of gluten flour. (Which I'm assuming is the same thing as bread flour?) Next time I'll go back to the King Arthur recipe and make the adjustments suggested, and pay more attention to rising heights.

Anyway, thanks again, Linda and Grainlady. I can always count on you both for helpful advice.

Sally

Lately, my bread's been too crumbly

Comments (3)

lindac

grainlady_ks

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Lately, my bread's been too crumbly

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lindac

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