Re: bread feels like a damp sponge when cooked!

Gayle, I'm not in Australia, so I'm unfamiliar with the brand names. However, your statement "I thought it was our oven, but just moved house and the same thing is happening." caught my attention. Did you mean you moved? If so, it may be a matter of changes in house temps/humidity. I don't see where it would be the yeast, I assume it's still doing the job of raising the bread properly? It could be the flour. Is this the same brand you were using? Are you getting it at the same store? If so, I'd call your store and ask if they've had any changes in suppliers/storage. One thing I've learned to do, and I suggest it to anyone who's having problems with the interior not getting completly cooked, get an instant read thermometer and check the inside middle of the loaf before you take it out. It should register between 190 and 205 deg F when the bread is fully baked. HTH, Wendy

Wow, lots of yeast. My basic recipe is

2t yeast 835ml water ~10c flour, more or less depending on the weather and how accurate I am with the water 1t salt 2T honey 1T oil

If you're really using only 4c of flour you need maybe 1/2-3/4t yeast, and you'll need salt to moderate the yeast activity. If reducing yeast and adding salt don't do the trick, pick up a new (small) packet of yeast and if THAT doesn't fix it buy a new bag of flour and see what that does.

Thanks to all the replies.

Problem was in both houses. So too much water, will try less. and will try the thermometer as well.

Bread is rising well, 1st and 2nd rises. we do think it is the flour so I will try another brand as well - all to eliminate each item to find the problem - fingers crossed as we hate supermarket bread!

Do you have a scale in your kitchen? If you can weigh the flour and water, you might find that your hydration is very high, as a previous poster noted. I make a bread at 100% hydration, but it's more like a batter. Where is the salt? a loaf this size should take 1-2 teaspoons salt, depending on your likes.

What do you bake the bread in? If it's a very high hydration bread and you attempt a boule, you could well have a wet interior. Try making the bread into a flat bread shape, like a foccacia. I literally pour my 100% dough onto a greased sheet and bake it. My experience is that high hydration breads are tricky to make in large, high loaves, because it's difficult to get complete baking before the crust burns. In some cases I use an aluminum (aluminium, to the people who speak British ) foil tent over the top to slow down the browning.

What color is the bread when it's finished? It may be that you're just not baking long enough.

I use Fahrenheit, but your Celsius is equivalent to 390F, so it's not too different from what I use for some breads. You might try 450 F (230C) for

10 minutes, then 350F (175C) for 15 to 20 minutes (Maybe a touch more as you do now out of the pan, possibly with the oven off.). The initial higher heat will start the browning and the longer lower heat will give a thorough baking.

All in all, it sounds like you have a very high hydration bread that's not baked long enough and that lacks salt.

Barry

HEllo Gayle,Your problem is interesting .Let me have a look at it. I had an experience with Defiance bread flour when I was there, down under.But it was the 25 kilogram bag Bakers Flour. I have not tried the 10 kilogram bag sizes that they sell in the supermarket and shops. For me the Defiance bread flour is just an average bread flour with a protein content of around 12%.Its hydration performance fluctuates just like other bread flour but I have not met problems with fermentation and proofing. That yeast ( possibly active dry) is I am not familiar as I was using mostly compressed yeast there. Indeed occasionally I use the instant type yeast as well. By looking at your recipe it is typical of Australian type dough (usually containing bread improver)but you may have forgotten to type or put in the salt. A typcal Aussie bread has this recipe either made by home or their baking industry using instant yeast: Bread flour 1000 grams(about 8 measuring cups) Dry yeast 10-15 grams instant dry yeast(1-1/2 tablespoon or 3-5 teaspoon) Bread improver10-20 grams(1-2 tablespoon or 3 to 6 teaspoon) salt 15- 20 grams or 4 teaspoon water 580-650 grams or Milliliters(ml)

The instant yeast is added to the flour then mixed with the rest of the ingredients.If you are using canned active dry yeast(15-20 grams) you should have to hydrate it with a small amount of lukewarm water about 5 times the yeast quantity then let it bubble up for 15 minutes and add to the rest of the ingredients to form a dough. It is then mixed or kneaded until smooth about 20 minutes by hand. Then its is just fermented for maximum of 20 minutes if using the maximum amount of bread improver, or 45 minutes if using the least amount then scaled, rounded and given some 10-15 minute rests and then molded and placed on pans. Allowed to rise until it reaches the pan rim then baked usually at

215-230 degC for 20-30 minutes or even more for larger size loaves. Are you familiar with this recipe? How about trying this and compare with your own. If your dough has no salt it can appear more wet and cannot absorb that much amount of water you are adding. You also stated later that there was two rise;is it the fermentation of the whole dough batch and the proofing of the bread in the baking pan? The bread improver there is made by either Bakel's , Shclumberger, Pinnacle, and WestonFoods and are in similar composition and performance;usually containing ascorbic acid and potassium bromate, as well as emulsifiers and fungal and malt enzymes.At that amount which is the maximum required for such an improver you should not need long rising time plus the fact that you used large amount of dry yeast. And if the dough was really soft it will overflow in the loaf pan due to the exceptional oven spring with maximum amount of bread improver. And if your dough is really soft, then the inside of the bread should not have uniform grain like a sponge but will have large holes.If its underbaked it will collapse instead of showing these damp sponge appearance. Therefore I think the recipe you gave is not accurate in content and ratio. Just like what other posters suggested its best to weigh your ingredients and check if you are really presenting the recipe you actually used. From my experience, most Aussie bread (including those made by hobbyist)are not high hydration type but just normal so I was wondering what sort of cup are you using as I am expecting it is not the normal measuring cup;or was the water really that high and the dough really wet? You may have difficulty kneading that if its too wet.Most Aussies do not like to really a wet dough specially for normal panned toast bread type. If you say you bake in the pan then its probably a loaf or toast type bread.I do not understand why you have to remove the bread from the pan and continue baking.It will shrink and affect its apperarance as well as the texture of the inside of the bread.An underbaked bread once removed from its pan will likely collapse. It should remain completely baked in the pan before removal. Baking at 200 deg C is the minimum temperature for loaf type bread at home but the baking time is usually 30 minutes to attain an even bake.If your oven encourage faster browning your should reduce the heat after 20 minutes and continue baking for at least 10 minutes more for a proper bake specially for an average size Australian loaves. Roy

600g of flour to 450ml water

used the baking stone to shield on the lower rack, cooked on middle rack and no burning on its' bottom! Well still 'wet' so will decrease the water and see how I go plus contact the manufacturer.

Thanks to all