My bread went from hockey puck to bakery level after 8 tries in 3 weeks

I kept getting these dense bricks no matter what I did. Finally figured out my kitchen was too cold for the yeast to do its thing. Bought a cheap proofing box on Amazon for $35 and overnight my loaves got that nice open crumb. Anyone else struggle with cold kitchens killing their rise?

2 comments

2 Comments

iris5741mo ago

Yeah warm water instead of cold tap water fixed it for me.

wendy_jackson1mo ago

Give me the specifics on the water temperature though. @iris574 mentioned warm water, and I'm curious about that. Did you just wing it with warm tap water or did you actually measure it with a thermometer? I ask because I've seen so many people say "warm water" and then it ends up being too hot and killing the yeast anyway. It took me a while to realize my tap water comes out at 130F which is way too hot for yeast.