Failed Bread Making

[TheViper]

Let's talk about the times we've tried to bake and failed miserably. The first time I failed baking was the very first time I tried baking banana bread. I was so confident that I was doing everything right and it even looked like it had risen properly. That was until I cut into it and it was a gooey pathetic mess. What were some of your failed experiences?

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

I have sadly had one this week. I was making a rye sourdough bread and heated up the oven and had the rising for the bread spot on. I put the bread into the oven to cook and this oven has an issue, sometimes it goes out of its own accord (gas) and I didn't notice. When the timer when off 45 minutes later, the bread was only partly cooked from the residual heat in the oven and I didn't work this out until after it had cooled and I had cut into it. I just noticed that the bread hadn't browned as much as normal, but the base sounded hollow when I tapped it. Sadly the bread was risen and partly cooked but still raw inside which was a real shame because it was spot on and would have been lovely, but uncooked dough is horrible so the whole (huge) loaf which would have done the 2 of us for about 2 weeks has had to be thrown away! I hate this oven and can't wait until I can control what I have in my own kitchen (I'm a tenant).

 

[Corzhens]

We bought our oven just last year and my only experience in baking are some delicacies like cassava cake and pudding. But let me tell you about my sister who planned to put up a business of baking the morning bread called pandesal. It is like a small bagel with crumbs and the usual breakfast items in most homes here. Well, she had tried baking pandesal and what came out were litte round bricks, hahahaaa. She had tried baking 5 times and the result were the same. So I humored her that she should open up a hardware business instead.

 

[Pat]

Recently I attempted to create a batch of cookies with what I had in the house. I used pumpkin, oatmeal, sugar, eggs and pancake mix. I can usually mix up something good without a recipe but this time it was not what I had in mind. We ate the cookies but I will not be making that mix again.

 

[ReadmeByAmy]

For every first attempt in everything that we will like to do like in our cooking or baking endeavors don't expect that it will always be perfect and okay. It takes time and effort for us to see good results and we should always learn from our mistakes. I remembered the first time I tried baking bread it does not rise and it is very moist. What I did is many many practice until I came up with the right texture of the bread. As they said constant practice makes it perfect.

 

[winterybella]

Several years ago when I started baking I had straight disasters with something like a simple "pudding" what you might call a pound cake. Uncooked lines ran through them and I swore I was done with baking unless it was with Betty Crocker. Then I started joining forums and felt I had to graduate from box cakes and did. A few fails but nothing quite like back in the day.

 

[Diane Lane]

I haven't made any breads lately, but I had somewhat failed batches of hermits and cookies. The recipe for the hermits was incorrect. I was reading it to my Mom over the phone, because she had handwritten it. I think the cooking time should have been doubled, and I will also use a larger pan next time, even though I did use what it called for. I was disappointed, because I had planned to mail some of them to my Mom, but I'll make another batch and ship them. The cookies, I wrote about in another thread. I knew there could be an issue, since I melted the butter fully, rather than simply letting it sit out to soften. The cookies ended up spreading, which was fine, and the edges caramelized, which was lovely.

 

[Morning Glory]

I haven't made any breads lately, but I had somewhat failed batches of hermits and cookies. The recipe for the hermits was incorrect. I was reading it to my Mom over the phone, because she had handwritten it. I think the cooking time should have been doubled, and I will also use a larger pan next time, even though I did use what it called for. I was disappointed, because I had planned to mail some of them to my Mom, but I'll make another batch and ship them. The cookies, I wrote about in another thread. I knew there could be an issue, since I melted the butter fully, rather than simply letting it sit out to soften. The cookies ended up spreading, which was fine, and the edges caramelized, which was lovely.

Hermits? This is not a familiar term for baking in the UK. I googled it and got quite confused as there were various pictures which looked quite different. I'm wondering if it is similar to anything we have here. It seems to contain spices and currants. Can you explain what it is? And maybe post a recipe!

Just googled again and discovered they are a New England speciality and used to be taken to sea by sailors because they kept so well.

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

Carrying on from my sourdough bread failure this week and rather unfortunately, my landlady's dog, an huge Irish wolf hound, who is known for bin raiding (his nose is the same height as the top of a wheelie bin lid!) decided last night that my uncooked sourdough loaf was edible.

I had put it into the compost recycling that our bin men collect. This bin was full so my husband emptied it when he came home last night. Now normally it would get moved directly into the bin the bin men empty, but it was bin day and it was still at the bottom of the track waiting to be collected. So assuming that Dusty was locked up and in her garden (he never used to be but because of his bin raiding he had been but in the last few days she has started letting him wander around again only my husband didn't know this because he's been away) he put the food recycling outside in a plastic bag for a couple of hours until the evening walk when we would have gone passed the binds and he would have collected them.

Anyhow, whilst we were eating out evening meal we get a knock on the door... A certain dog has taken a liking to my sourdough and has been coming back and fourth between our front door and her garden munching his way through several of the quarters I had broken the loaf into to fit it in to the bin.

Seems at least one 'person' liked my cooking.

My husband is now in the dog house!

 

[Morning Glory]

Re the dog. Uncooked bread is supposed to be quite dangerous for dogs as the uncooked dough reacts with stomach acids and expands!

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

Re the dog. Uncooked bread is supposed to be quite dangerous for dogs as the uncooked dough reacts with stomach acids and expands!

It was fully proofed, so had risen as far as it was going to, it was just semi uncooked.... about 1cm into it was cooked, and rather nice. Luckily it is also a sourdough not a yeast bread so that will probably have helped. He will have had a good dose of roughage if nothing else!

 

[Diane Lane]

Hermits? This is not a familiar term for baking in the UK. I googled it and got quite confused as there were various pictures which looked quite different. I'm wondering if it is similar to anything we have here. It seems to contain spices and currants. Can you explain what it is? And maybe post a recipe!

Just googled again and discovered they are a New England speciality and used to be taken to sea by sailors because they kept so well.

@morning glory Sheesh, I thought for sure I had created a thread here for Hermits, but I just searched, and can't find one. Let me see if I can find a good recipe and description. They're somewhat similar to the texture of (chewy) brownies, but not chocolate, and are usually wider and squatter. Let me start a thread on them, that way if anyone is interested, they can find it more readily. I'll tag you in the thread.

 

[Morning Glory]

Well I just managed to make pizza dough for three pizzas using self-raising flour! I suppose it might be OK, but I didn't want to risk it so started again with bread flour. Anyway, I'm nevertheless letting the S.R. flour dough rise and will make it into a loaf. I'll report back on what happens.

 

[Morning Glory]

I made the mistaken self raising 'bread' dough into rolls. Made a fat sausage of the risen dough and proved it for 20 mins. Then cut with a plastic dough cutter, into six pieces (leaving them partially joined). Brushed top with water to adhere some white sesame seeds. Baked for 25 mins @ 180C. Result was brilliant! Lovely soft white rolls which have rustic tear marks at the sides when you pull them apart (so they look professional!). The texture is very slightly 'cakey' but everyone loved them! I'm going to make them again using half self-raising and half strong white bread flour.

They look a bit like this (but with sesame seeds on top):

 

[Diane Lane]

I made the mistaken self raising 'bread' dough into rolls. Made a fat sausage of the risen dough and proved it for 20 mins. Then cut with a plastic dough cutter, into six pieces (leaving them partially joined). Brushed top with water to adhere some white sesame seeds. Baked for 25 mins @ 180C. Result was brilliant! Lovely soft white rolls which have rustic tear marks at the sides when you pull them apart (so they look professional!). The texture is very slightly 'cakey' but everyone loved them! I'm going to make them again using half self-raising and half strong white bread flour.

They look a bit like this (but with sesame seeds on top):

View attachment 1496

Mmm, those look delicious! I have been wanting to make a homemade pizza, and it didn't even occur to me that all I have is self-rising flour. I'll have to look around for a recipe that calls for it...I think it's what I've used in the past, but now you've @morning glory got me second guessing.