I’d also recommend the 50/50 mixture of white and whole wheat, esp. if you are a beginning baker.

Part of what helps dough to rise is proper gluten development, so if you mix and knead it well, it will rise better. Gluten makes the dough stretchy, so that it can support the bubbles that the yeast makes.

I post about baking each Wednesday on my blog, so if you want more yeast bread help, come and visit me. I have a recipe for whole wheat bread on my blog too.

You are so right that practice makes perfect when it comes to yeast baking, so hang in there!
.-= Kristen@TheFrugalGirl´s last blog ..Grocery Spend and Menu Plan (for real this time!) =-.

I don’t think I’ll have any trouble getting extra flour in (the stand mixer makes it pretty easy), but I did stop short of putting in the amount of flour that the recipe called for because it looked like it had enough. I’ll pack it in more next time!

We did slice it before freezing this time, but in the future I’ll try sealing up one of the loaves and leaving it on the counter for convenience. The problem is, we live in a particularly humid climate, so our bread tends to go really quickly. If I figure out that it’s not lasting long enough for us to eat it, I’ll just start freezing it. I’d rather go through the defrost process than eat the preservatives or waste bread every week.

Thanks again for the tips! Very helpful.

First off – if your bread is too heavy, you’re right, more rising might be helpful. Also, make sure you start the yeast out at the right temp. Another thing that was helpful to me was knowing that for soft, light, sandwich appropriate bread, the dough should be very dry. A good sandwich bread is difficult to get all of the flour into by hand (although I’m sure it’s different with a stand mixer, the principals are the same) You should be adding your flour toward the end and feel like ‘there’s no way this dough will take any more flour, but I still have to get another cup in somehow!” Just that tip made my bread a billion times better for my purposes. Also, you said you used mostly whole wheat flour. In my experience, a 50 50 or so blend of unbleached bread flour and wheat flour will make for a much lighter bread than all wheat flour. Experiment with ratios, but I almost never use 100 percent whole wheat flour in anything – it’s just too heavy, especially for sandwich bread.

As far as storage, here are my tips:
How long the bread will last depends, of course, entirely on your recipe. However, I can usually get at least 4-6 days if the bread is sealed in a freezer ziplock bag (just nice because of the heavier seal) and kept on the counter. Don’t refrigerate unless you have to (i.e. cheese breads or something) – it makes the bread go stale faster.

You can freeze baked bread, and many of my friends do. Just bag it, freeze it, and then set it out on the counter to thaw, and within a couple of hours, it’s fine. I would recommend you slice before freezing, it makes it easier to get a piece or two quickly when you need to and defrost in the microwave. Another tip, is if it’s sliced, you can pull a couple of pieces out and throw them in the toaster. It defrosts and toasts in one long toaster cycle.

However, if you can afford the time, rather than bake, then freeze, what I like to do is freeze, then bake. If you’re making a traditional rise punch rise bread, make your dough, punch it down and separate it into loaves, then bag the loaf shaped dough and freeze it as quickly as possible. When you need bread, pull a loaf out and throw it into a loaf pan early in the morning. It will thaw, then rise. Once it’s risen as much as the recipe says it should, throw it into the oven. This way, you have warm fresh baked bread to serve with dinner whenever you want.

Anyway, I hope this helps. Good luck! Making bread is one of my favorite things to do in the kitchen, especially this time of year. If you want a good starting point for sandwich bread, I have a great recipe for Honey Wheat Bread. Let me know if you want it.

~M