It’s the yeast!

This is another overdue posting, but since I had written this already earlier, but forgot to post it, I might as well put it up. So, here goes...

When I was crazy making bread about 2 months ago, but was having so much problems getting it right, I just wouldn't give up. I had to keep on trying until I get it right.

I tried making it again on 15 May 2011, but this time, I decided to make Cinnamon Rolls instead of just the normal bread, and it almost became another disaster, if not for some light bulb that lighted in my head! LOL!!

I measured everything according to the recipe, including the yeast from a cylindrical container I had bought some weeks back at the hypermarket. The expiry date shows 2013.

I started the bread machine like I always do, but in DOUGH mode instead of BASIC (Normal) as I would have to take out and roll the dough myself to make them into cinnamon rolls.

About 30 minutes before the dough was to be ready, I checked the bread machine and noticed that it was the same size as when I checked it an hour earlier. I suspect that something must be wrong with the yeast, but I had used the bread flour called for, and measured the milk, sugar and everything else correctly. So, I decided to do a test.

I read from the internet how to test to see if the yeast is OK or not. True enough, it was dead! A goner! LOL! Nothing happened when I added water and sugar to the yeast. Luckily I had a new packet of yeast I had bought just that week and decided to test that one too.

Within a few minutes of adding water and some sugar, the water became frothy. The yeast is alive!

Now what could I do with the dough that was in the machine? Not wanting to have it go to waste, I decided to experiment. I have nothing to lose, except for the dough, which, if my test did not work, the dough would be wasted anyway since it had only risen slightly due to the earlier dead yeast.

I took out the dough, and started kneading the new yeast which I had tested earlier into the dough. Because the water used to test the yeast wasn’t exactly at room temperature, my warm dough which I had taken out from the machine suddenly turned cold, and was beginning to collapse. Oh no! Now what?

A bulb suddenly lighted in my head when I remember reading somewhere that bread dough needs a warm place to rise. I turned on the oven and heated it up to about 10 degrees. I then put the dough which I had shaped into rolls into the oven but with the door slightly ajar so as not to get the baking started.

I was so relieved when I saw that the rolls begin to rise! I waited for about an hour, and when it looks like it was no longer rising, I shut the door of the oven and increased the temperature to 175 degrees.

If the first badge of yeast had worked, I think my rolls would have turned out better, but I was still glad that at least the dough did not go to waste, and it had increased to about 2/3 its original size.

The taste was great though! We had them for breakfast 3 days in a row! LOL! I am definitely making them again, and hopefully very soon, as I just love Cinnamon Rolls!

The following weekend, I tried making bread again, but this time, just the normal white bread. I was careful to check the yeast first before starting, and this time, it came out prefect!

Just look at the bread just taken out from the pan, and look at how lovely it looks out of the pan!

I can almsot smell the freshness of newly baked bread! I just can't wait till after the fasting month to start baking breads again!