Why Homemade Sandwich Bread Turns Out Dense and Dry

Question

No matter what I do, I just can't seem to bake a good loaf of homemade bread anymore. I used to be able to, but I have tried dozens of times over the last couple of years and my loaves either come out flat, dry, and dense, or gummy, or excessively airy yet still dry. I have Googled everything you could possibly Google - rise times, temperatures, kneading, etc. I know that my bread is either vastly overproofed or significantly underproofed, and I just can't seem to knead it properly. It is either too much or too little. I have read about the window pane stage with dough, but never seem to get my dough that smooth and stretchy to achieve said stage. My house is colder, so I know that is part of the issue. I try to create warm places for the dough to rise, but perhaps I am making them too warm? I just want to be able to bake yummy loaves of bread with which I can make my children's sandwiches with! (Probably should have lead with that. It is a white sandwich loaf that I am trying to bake.) If there is an easier loaf recipe or more fool proof, please, let me in on the secret. My recipe is as follows:
2 cups warm water (no warmer than 110d)
2/3 cup white sugar
1/4 vegetable oil
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp active dry yeast
6 cups of flour (I use all purpose)
Help!

Lynn Clark · Accepted Answer

Hi Chelsea -
Without seeing the whole recipe it's hard to fully troubleshoot your recipe, but we do think there is too much sugar in this recipe. 2/3 cup of sugar is a LOT - most recipes call for about 2 tablespoons of sugar. Too much sugar can inhibit or even kill the yeast by making the yeast produce too much alcohol. Yeast can tolerate just a certain amount of alcohol. So, the sugar will not kill yeast directly.
Sugar and yeast both need water content in your dough. If you add too much sugar that competition can go wrong. The dough will rise too slowly or not at all because the sugar is absorbing all the available water. At first, it may seem like you simply need more water, but unfortunately, the dough is a little more complicated than that. The most straightforward solutions are using a recipe with less sugar or adding more yeast. We would probably recommend the former. Have you tried our recipe for Japanese Milk Bread? If you'd prefer to try a different recipe, we always recommend using a recipe from a well-tested, reliable source such as a cookbook, food magazine, or food section of a newspaper. Many recipes online are not tested and, therefore, a recipe for failure (pun intended).
Lastly, we would probably also recommend a recipe with some milk or egg in it and butter in place of oil. All of these changes will add richness and flavor to prevent the dough from being dry and dull-tasting.
Best,
The Milk Street Cooking Team

Why Homemade Sandwich Bread Turns Out Dense and Dry

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