Oh Lady! EVERYTHING affects bread making! LOL!

Some posters can tell you all about the science of it (Grainlady!!), but there is a thin line between art and science.

Jacques Pepin has (I think in his Complete Techniques book?) a bread-proofing box he makes to help with all the variables. But I just go by feel, myself. Mostly, it works.

I agree, the weather definitely affects breadmaking. Everything affects bread, the temperature, the humidity, the flour, the age of the flour, the wheat used, the "wild" yeast present in your kitchen, a zillion things.

So, if it's humid, maybe you'll get a stickier dough. In the middle of winter and your flour has been in the pantry for a month, opened? Probably need a bit more liquid.

I've never tried the no knead bread, so I can't help on that. As for yeast, I buy the two pound packages at Sam's Club and use it pretty much interchangably in everything that calls for yeast. It's always worked....

Annie

The no knead bread recipe works fine and is especially convenient when you need to cook small loaves and keep the remainder of the dough in the refrigerator.

I make a lot of different kinds of bread but I especially like those that have very few ingredients like no-knead. Actually I have been using the no-knead method for years before I ever heard of this 'new' method, but their recipe is even simplier than mine.

As Annie said, the weather will affect the moisture or dryness of the flour. It depends partially upon storage conditions, but flour does differ to one degree or another.

Barometric pressure does have an effect. Gravity affects bread like anything else, so there will be times when despite a steady temperature or recipe, the rise is slower.

Carol

Bread is the most humbling food in the world.... Everything effects it. I'm not so sure which side you part your hair on isn't an issue some days!!! (LOL)

Flour (or in my case wheat) varies from brand-to-brand and bag-to-bag - protein content, moisture level, age... Old flour makes horrible bread. Old flour is an often over-looked reason for failed bread.

I see a big difference just in the type of wheat I use. Hard spring wheat has a larger kernel and produces more flour and less bran, while hard winter wheat is a smaller, shriveled-looking grain so you mill more bran into the flour. BUT, hard winter wheat generally has more gluten, and a stronger gluten protein, than hard spring wheat due to the longer growing season. WHO KNEW???

Ambient air temperature as well as humidity are the two that readily change from season to season. That's why I use a dough-rising bucket to raise dough in. Snap on that lid and you have a perfect little micro-environment where you can keep drafts off, moisture in, and can see exactly when the dough has doubled (no more guessing and over- or under-proofed dough).

The temperature of the dough is something most of us home-bakers don't really look at critically, but in their books the "experts" go on-and-on about the temperature of the dough during kneading and proofing. So I'm sure the temperature of the dough in my kitchen varies a LOT from the 76-degree F summer kitchen to the 62-66 degrees I keep it in the winter.

You'll get different results if you use a sponge method. Even a 30-minute sponge will improve dough (it allows the gluten to develop by absorbing hydration), but a 2-1/2-hour sponge is optimum. I use an overnight sponge with whole wheat flour, so one more "rule" broken. But an overnight sponge works great for whole wheat bread made with green flour (freshly-milled and NOT aged), which most "experts" poo-poo and have very little experience using.

Most of us don't take the time for a triple rise. A triple rise was fairly common when our flour was bromated and it had the extensibility that worked well with 3 rises. But the flour is no longer bromated so our dough doesn't have the extensibility it used to.

Even the old standard "double in bulk" has changed due to the removal of bromates from the flour. "Experts" now suggest to let the dough raise to just UNDER double -- that double is actually over-proofing. So that's something else to consider when we use "older" recipes. Yeast will only work so long, so a triple rise is actually pushing how long your yeast will work and may affect the oven-spring. But a triple rise certainly improves the flavor and the texture.

I just printed off a recipe at King Arthur yesterday that has yet another "rogue" method. (see link below) SAF-Instant Yeast is used in this recipe, which is a favorite of mine. SAF-Instant Yeast is the hybrid of yeast and works differently than even the other brands of fast-acting yeast (Bread Machine Yeast, Red-Star Quick-Rise, Fleischmann's Rapid-Rise).

Over the years I've studied the science, methods and common rules for making bread, and for every rule there seems to be an exception. The rules seem to be most helpful when the cry "what happened to my bread" comes up.

The written recipe did bread a complete disservice, in my opinion. It gives exact amounts and precise times, and neither apply to bread-making. The flour amount is only a good guess because no matter how carefully you measure it on a scale or in a cup (and cups are NEVER an accurate measure), the amount can't take into consideration the amount of moisture and protein in the flour - which is always changing. We go by the "feel" of the dough - which can't be measured.

Dough doesn't rise to a clock, but rather to the strength of the yeast, moisture in the dough and humidity in the air, as well as the ambient temperature.

One thing for certain, whether you use an overnight sponge, no-knead method, quick-rise/double-rise/triple-rise, or the 1-hour Quick Cycle on your bread machine, everyone enjoys the fruits of our labor (most days). On the days we get "bricks" we bow in humility to the "bread god" and vow to RISE-UP (LOL) another day... And explain to hubby as he walks into the house for lunch and he catches a whiff of fresh-baked bread, that all he gets is the smell, not the heel off a fresh loaf of bread.

-Grainlady

Here is a link that might be useful: John's Easy Yeast Bread

Oh thank you all SO much ... I had no idea what a science breadmaking was & wonder how I ever got my attempts to turn out! Hubby bought me a bread machine years ago but it rarely got used as I enjoy the whole breadmaking process including the triple kneading ... it always gave me a kind of 'pioneer' spirit like my grandmother had!!! ha I only use her 'receipt' ( she was English & used some quaint phrases like that!) a few times a year so I wasn't in a hurry. Some day I want to try to see if a local bakery would sell me some cake yeast to see if the flavor would be different as that is what my grandmother used. My country cousins loved to come to town to visit & could eat the soft store-bought bread but I loved the summers spent on the farm & grandma's home baked bread ... go figure kids!!

Oh 'crossstitch' that video of the dancing Swedes & the flatbrod was hilarious... & I thought the Swedes were reserved?!! Too bad my Dad ( a Magnuson x Forshaga, Vaarmland, Sweden)usn't still alive to see this!

Now ... the name of that round flatbread/cracker?! Hmm?