What causes bread to be dense?

Cafe Society
1

I made some yeast dough the other day out of one pound of AP flour, one tablespoon of salt, one tablespoon of barley syrup, two and a half teaspoons of instant yeast and enough water to bring the dough together (about 10 ounces). I mixed and kneaded the dough and put in it a warm oven to rise. After about an hour, I took it out, but I had to leave it covered for several hours before I could put it in the fridge. My wife cooked some rolls today and they were good, but pretty dense. Is that because of leaving them around too long, or some other reason?

Thanks,
Rob

2

Did you punch it down? Knead it at all? Was this a “no knead bread” recipe? Those recipes yield a fairly which isn’t necessarily dense… after rising 8 hours or more.

Bread doesn’t become dense from too much rising. :slight_smile: If anything your bread was underleavened. To me, tablespoon of salt seems like a lot (salt slows down yeast action) but I’m not much of an expert. Baker?

3

Poor schooling.

4

I use that much salt for twice the flour and less yeast. 1/2 Tbs.
Did your wife let the rolls rise before baking?

My bread gets two rises, once in the bowl, once in the pans.