Please help me understand what I am doing wrong with this bread recipe

[KoreanBeauty]

I have done it twice (followed recipe steps and watched video to do it step by step):

https://www.lifeasastrawberry.com/easy-crusty-french-bread/

Both times came out beautiful but when I cut it and eat it I realise it's rather dense. What have I done wrong? I have also used the kitchenaid as she does in the video and have noticed that even after 7-8 mins of kneading at speed 2, the dough is still very sticky. Recipe says it's ok if it's a bit sticky but from her video, hers looks a bit less sticky whereas mine is still attached to the bottom of the bowl.

I have followed ingredients to the letter and also raising times etc. What can I be doing wrong? I am very new to bread making!

Where in the world are you based OP?

Are you using easy blend dried yeast instead of active dried?

It's not a recipe for a great bread, it's a recipe for easy bread IMO.
Missing steps and time won't give perfect results. Plus it's an American recipe so the ingredients are subtly different.

In other words, you probably aren't doing anything wrong, just try a different recipe!

UK

Thanks! Any tips for a good reliable bread recipe I can do with Kitchenaid + dutch oven?

So I am using the fast action yeast, the standard one you can get here in the UK. In her notes she says you have to use a smaller quantity so I followed that

In my experience, bread making is mostly trial and error. The recipes are just a starting point. (an incredibly long-winded starting point in this case)

I'd usually use about 7 grams of active dry yeast to 400g flour, but you could try a bit more. Or put in a small amount of sugar (2 teaspoons?) and see what happens. Sugar helps the bread rise while salt does the opposite.

One tip: after you've mixed wet with dry, leave it for up to half an hour (longer for wholemeal flours) before you start to knead. That will help with the stickiness.

https://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/type-of-dish/bread-recipes/easy-white-loaf

I trust Delia as a starting point. Not Dutch oven though, a loaf tin.

I suspect it's dense because, as you say, it's too wet. The flour has absorbed water from the atmosphere so you don't need to add as much as she has. Perhaps the climate in her area is drier and less humid? Up to a point water helps with the expansion of the dough when it's baked. But too much and you end up with a pancake.

You're using all-purpose flour. The protein content is quite low and isn't good at forming a strong elastic network. Without that network there will be less stretch and less of a 'scaffolding' to trap the Co2 created by the yeast. The end result will be more cakey whatever you do.

1. I recommend you use bread flour.
2. Only use enough water to make a tacky dough that sticks to itself more than the table/bowl.

OP, that’s why I asked where you are as it’s American recipe(with lots of waffling in between 🙄)

I make bread myself but I use very old Panasonic machine for yeast bread and Dutch oven for sourdough bread.

Please find a UK recipe and use bread flour with higher protein content.

Even if you look for Panasonic bread maker manuals they come with recipes.
Mix the ingredients,use your mixer for kneading, let it rest and rise then knock back, shape,let it rise again and bake.
Good luck

Or get a Panasonic breadmaker!

OP this recipe is AI Bullshit. It is mixing up a yeasted bread recipe with a sourdough method.

Funnily I thought something wasn’t right about the recipe as I never came across yeast bread being baked in DO, I even thought I must try it one day 🤔

I think PP have covered the issues but I just came on to say that because don’t own a mixer I always use a no-knead recipe to cook in a Dutch oven. Maybe try that?

I do in fact bake my yeasted bread in a dutch oven, it is the method to mix and prove the bread that is the sourdough part. If you use yeast it needs to be cooked relatively quickly after fully proving or it will collapse. With sourdough that can take a very long time but with yeast it really can't. I only have a tabletop oven these days so the dutch oven kind of insulates the bread from burning and I remove the lid for the last 15 mins to brown.

But yes it was a clue, if you aren't using a dutch oven or something to support the sourdough bread, it needs cooking in a very hot oven very soon after shaping or tipping out of the former otherwise it will collapse. Yeasted breads because they are cooked at peak proving are less likely to collapse anyway.

I always come back to this recipe:

500g strong bread flour
320-350g water [start with 320 and up it a bit if it is too solid]
7g yeast
7g salt.

Mix in a mixer or by hand and knead

Leave to prove usually for 1 hour somewhere warm

Remix/knock back/put into former/dutch oven/shape

Leave for another hour

Put the oven on hot, and when it gets there, slash the top of the bread and cook.

That’s the recipe I use @Shedmistress. I keep a 5ml medicine spoon in my yeast tin and I use that to measure my yeast now as my machine has a yeast dispenser.

You have to make sure that recipes come from a proper source nowadays as there are so many blogs etc full of people who don’t know anything about anything.