We love making our own bread here at the Moby and we make it often, usually every week. However, we took a little time off and got sidetracked when I found some great artisan bread on sale at the local store, and bought several loaves for the freezer. After we got done with those loaves, we went back to making bread and found that our recipe was off. I’m not sure why, we used it over and over.

I began to suspect our bread machine, which is how we make bread often, it’s just easy. I wondered if it was kneading too hard, as the bread was coming out thick and heavier than normal. We like a slightly sweet white bread, that most people call a country bread, mainly from the addition of an egg and milk in the mix.

So, I started to snoop around on the web to learn WHY bread comes out heavy and thick. Of course, there were a million suggestions as to what was up, but one thing really struck me and I decided to give it a try. Someone, and my apologies for not remembering which site I read it on, suggested that if you think your breadmaker is being too rough, was to do a test-batch by hand. Yep, the old fashioned bowl and hands method. So I did. And guess what! It turned out the same! So it was not the bread maker.

Turns out, it was the yeast. My yeast was just too old. I had bought in bulk and I was looking at the package and realized that it had expired like 3 months prior!!! HAHA… it had just given out. It was still working, just not as well. So I ditched the yeast and got a smaller more realistic package… a fresh jar for the frig. And our beloved recipe is back to normal! Yeah!

Another thing I did give a try was to start buying bread flour. I’ve always been a real simple bread maker and kind of poo-pooed the idea that one flour was any different then another flour.

Well, yeah, it is. I learned my lesson. I paid an extra buck or so and got the King Arthur bread flour and mixed up a test batch and it was considerably nicer bread. Rose nicely, was nice and big and soft and tasty. I think with all the money I save all over the place here at the homestead, I think we will always use a nice bread flour for our bread from now on. It’s a little thing, but it’s a nice thing.