I finally fixed my dense sandwich bread after 3 months of failed loaves

Back in January I started baking sandwich bread every Sunday. For 12 straight weeks my loaves came out dense and short. I tried new yeast, a thermometer, and even a different flour from King Arthur. Nothing worked. Then a baker at the farmers market in Madison asked what temp my milk was when I added it. I said cold from the fridge. She said the yeast was shocked and never woke up. I started warming the milk to 110F and the very next loaf rose over the pan. That one small change took me 3 months to figure out. Anyone else been stuck on a simple fix like this?

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the_pat26d ago

Cold milk doesn't shock the yeast, it just slows it way down. The warm milk probably helped, but the real fix was likely the extra time the dough got to rise while it warmed up.

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