Appreciation post: my bread went from hockey puck to actual loaf in 6 weeks
I started baking bread back in March and my first four loaves were straight up bricks. I mean I could have used one to hold a door open. The worst part was I kept changing everything at once, new flour, different oven temp, more kneading, so I never knew what actually helped. Then a guy at a bakery in Eugene told me to stop messing with the recipe and just check my dough temp with a $12 instant read thermometer. Turns out my kitchen was cold and my water was way too hot, so the yeast was dying before it even got going. I started aiming for 75 degree dough and the very next loaf came out tall with a real crust instead of a rock. Six weeks in and I am getting the same loaf every time now, which I honestly did not think was possible. Has anyone else found that one dumb little thing that fixed their bake?