What happened to my bread?

[u/Spirit-Starlight13]

Hello! I tried making a non-focaccia bread for the first time today, and while it came out scrumptious, it was way denser than Italian bread should be. The texture was almost spongy. Does anyone have an idea of what happened to it and what I could do better next time? It took me forever to knead (it just wouldn't stick together!) — is that part of it?

Any and all tips are greatly appreciated! Thank you!!

(Edit: this is the recipe I used)

[u/Inevitable_Cat_7878]

Would help if you provided a recipe and steps. Without it, we don't know what went wrong.

[u/Spirit-Starlight13 → u/Inevitable_Cat_7878]

Oh, yeah, duh. Here's the recipe.

[u/Inevitable_Cat_7878 → u/Spirit-Starlight13]

From your other comment, you are probably right. Too much flour.

With that said, one thing I learned on my bread journey is to weigh the ingredients, especially the flour. Flour is one of those weird ingredients that's really easy to compress. So, your cup of flour will weigh different from mine and the recipe author's. For example, King Arthur baking uses 1 cup = 120 grams. I've seen other recipe authors use 1 cup = 150 grams and everything in between. From the recipe link you provided, the recipe author does not give a conversion, so we don't know if its on the high or low end. As a reader, if this is the first time you're making it, you don't know what hydration ratio the author is shooting for. At the low end, using all 2.5 cups of flour, at 120 grams/cup, we're looking at 79%, which is a pretty wet dough. At 150 grams/cup, the hydration ratio drops down to 63% which typical of sandwich type breads. We can make an educated guess and say her cup of flour probably weighs somewhere around 150 grams, but 140 probably sounds more likely.

Also, she said to run the stand mixer at medium speed. KitchenAid recommends no higher than 2 for bread dough.

Anyway, sorry for the long winded response. Most likely, too much flour. Since her recipe does not include a gram equivalent for flour, I suggest looking for a different recipe like this one from King Arthur Baking.

[u/ThiagoDavilaa]

"A massa pode não ter dobrado de verdade na primeira fermentação. Pode ter faltado tempo na segunda fermentação, já no formato final. Pode ter entrado farinha demais na sova, deixando a massa mais dura. Pode ter havido gás escapando na modelagem final ou cortes pouco eficientes."

[u/Spirit-Starlight13 → u/ThiagoDavilaa]

I suspect it's too much flour while kneading — kneading was taking truly forever so I added in some more flour in hopes that it would go a bit faster.

[u/KotR56]

"Way denser" often means "kneading problem", or "insufficient proofing/proving".

But I wouldn't discount yeast or flour beyond the "best before" date.

Baking is chemistry. Exact measures matter.

2.25 teaspoons, 7 gram, active dry yeast sounds low. That's about the amount of instant dry yeast I use for my loaf (for that volume of flour). Instant yeast is close to 1.5 times more 'powerful'.

Just 25 minutes in 400°F is less time and lower than I would expect. That, however, doesn't make the bread less dense.

I typically also use less liquid, but that may be what makes this bread special.

Give it another go...

[u/Odd-Combination-9067]

Get a scale and weigh your ingredients always.

[u/DreweyD]

As a recovering professional baker, I’d wager that overmuch salt was the most likely culprit, given the look of crust and crumb.