Warm water in bread recipe

[assumetheposition]

How warm should the water be when making bread.

The last time I tried it just would knead or go stretchy at all - I think the water may have been too cold?

I do it at body temp ie put my finger into it and finger feels neither warm or cold hth

tepid water when making it straight away. Or cold water when using a timer in the bread machine.

Oh OK, any idea why it went wrong last time then?

Sorry, I'm no use as I use a bread machine that does the EVERYTHING for you

I had a recipe which specified half the amount of boiling (kettle) and half cold tap. That's supposed to make the right temperature.

Yeast likes 30 degrees C the best

Did you have the right amount of water? I find that some bread flours are more absorbent than others and the amount of water in the recipe may not be quite right. Eg the flour I get from Waitrose really needs quite a bit more liquid than most of my recipes specify.

The recommendation I've seen, if you can't tell with a finger, is 1/3 boiling to 2/3 cold tap.

Something else just occurred to me - you did have proper bread flour not ordinary plain?

Yes definitely bread flour. Is there different flour for bread machines and by hand?

Sadly, DS was sick all afternoon so I never got round to it. But I shall try again

(feels destined never to make bread)

Same flour for machine and hand. Good - it was just that the lack of stretchiness made me wonder if there wasn't enough gluten.

Hope your DS is better soon, and your breadmaking luck too!

Even if it is cold it should knead ok - it will just take longer (poss a lot longer) to get going and to rise. How old is your yeast?