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Kitchen Tip Tuesdays: Loaf pan sizes

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Amy wrote with this question:

I've made your herb bread, and your wheat bread. I just can't get my bread to rise above the pan. Well, the herb bread does rise a bit higher, but nothing like the picture. What am I doing wrong?

Hi, Amy!

First, I'm sure you already know the basics -- things like making sure you have good yeast, not using cold ingredients, and placing the dough in a warm location to rise. There are more bread tips and ideas posted here and here.

My guess, though, it that the height of the loaf has more to do with the size of loaf pan you're using. I have two sizes:

Two sizes of loaf pans...

The pans on the left are 8 x 4 inches, and seem to be commonly sold these days. The pans on the right are 7 x 3 inches, and are the size my mom always used for bread loaves. (I got mine at a garage sale.)

I really prefer the slightly-smaller loaf pans, as they make a taller loaf, but still aren't too narrow. If you have the 8 x 4 pans, you'd have to use a lot of dough to make a tall loaf...

However, you could try increasing your loaf size by increasing the recipe amounts. We've found that the "secret" to big fluffy bagels or cinnamon rolls wasn't a new recipe, but rather decreasing the number of rolls or bagels we made from our recipe. :)

I hope this helps! :) By the way, if you have emailed me recently, please be patient... I just haven't taken time to answer much email lately. :)

Kitchen Tip Tuesdays Participants

1. Keren @ Mill Musings (Crockware as a Knife Sharpener)
2. Womanly Pursuits (chocolate facts, healthy eating tips, cooking chocolate source)
3. The Nourishing Gourmet (making your own chocolate chips)
4. Womanly Pursuits (preparing for Valentine\'s Day!!!)
5. Our Red House (My Perfect Iced Coffee)
6. Donna (healthy add-ons to pre-packaged food)
7. Niki (quick method for cooking beef)
8. Debbie J. (Heart Cake without pan and Baking Center
9. Erika (Mixes)		 10. Feminine Pursuits (Taco Seasoning Recipe)
11. Mrs. Brigham (Storing Potatoes)
12. Tanya (a bread baking tip)
13. Babychaser (Vitamin E for your little ones)
14. Rachael (saving H20 while dishwashing)
15. Kirstin: emotional eating
16. Ashlyn @ Handprints (fresh garbage disposal)
17. Erica (check your oven temperature)
18. Jamie (Using up Potatoes - Kids Crafts)		 19. Jasmine31(save money on better quality meat)
20. Mom2fur (lil egg cakes)
21. Sonshine (Amish Friendship Bread)
22. Happy Housewife (soft and chewy cookies)
23. Julie (static spray)
24. Laura @ Heavenly Homemakers (washing dishes)
25. Jessie\'s Attic (healthy soda)
26. Chelsea (freezer cooking)

 

»

Comments

Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 2008-02-12 06:50.

Kitchen Tips

Hi Tammy!

You are so sweet to host Kitchen Tip Tuesdays even with a tiny baby and two boys to take care of! Thank you so much! Debbie J.

Submitted by Jasmine31 on Tue, 2008-02-12 12:46.

hey

Yeah I have many different size loaf pans as well. Thanx for hosting!

Submitted by Catherine on Tue, 2008-02-12 07:33.

The wheat bread recipe...

Tammy, your bread recipe works great in the bigger pans if you make an extra half of the recipe, and I also use 2 Tbs of yeast instead of 2 tsp, and I do two cups of wheat flour and two cups of white.

My hardest challenge is finding a warm place for the bread to rise, since we keep our house at 64 in the winter. :)

Submitted by Tammy on Tue, 2008-02-12 07:53.
Tammy's picture

Larger wheat bread loaf

Catherine, excellent! Thank you for sharing! I was thinking of suggesting "Increase the wheat bread recipe by 50% and use the bigger pan" but then thought since I hadn't tried it myself, I shouldn't suggest that since it might be too much dough. ;)

Our house is cool, as well -- I use the bread machine for the first rise, usually, but then put the oven on "warm" for 1-2 minutes, turn it off, and let the loaves rise in there. They'd never rise in thekitchen! Even our (room-temperature) butter is hard! :D 

Submitted by Lilyofthevalley on Tue, 2008-02-12 09:11.
Lilyofthevalley's picture

oven here too

We keep our house cool too, so I let my bread rise in a warm oven, plus the oven keeps the bread from and cold drafts. :) Yes, our butter is hard here too! :)
~Tanya

Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 2008-02-12 10:26.

Bread and kitchen tips

I too let my bread rise in the oven and it works great. I have thoroughly enjoyed KTT. It's fun to meet new people and learn great tips.

Ruth is an absolute doll. I can't believe all her hair.

Submitted by Amy Roller on Tue, 2008-02-12 10:42.

I have the old fashioned smaller loaf pans...

So, you said don't use cold ingredients. Should I warm up the yeast that's stored in the fridge? I warm the oven and turn it off and rise the bread in the oven. The first rising seems big, but then the second one kind of peters out. Thanks for all of your help ladies!

Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 2008-02-12 10:43.

Thank you

I just wanted to thank you for your wonderful KTT I love it, it gets me thinking and teaches me new things to make my kithcen life easier!

Submitted by ShannonLynn on Tue, 2008-02-12 11:31.
ShannonLynn's picture

warm place

My house is cool also. I just turn the light on in my oven and it works like a charm. It makes it the perfect temp for rising and it stays the same temp which works well.

Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 2008-02-12 11:48.

Thanks!

Coming out of lurkerdom to say thank you for your blog! I have tried many of your recipes and they have all been a hit so far! I made lasagna last night for the first time since we have been married, my husband was thrilled!!

Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 2008-02-12 13:53.

Vital Wheat Gluten

I had trouble with my 100% whole wheat bread until I started adding vital wheat gluten to the whole wheat flour. I usually use 3-4 TBS of the gluten mixed in with the flour for a sturdy yet well risen loaf.

Because the whole wheat flour is heavier than white flour, it needs a little extra "oomph" to rise. That's what the gluten does.

Here's hoping your bread is just BEAUTIFUL every time you bake!

Sally

Submitted by Martha Artyomenko on Tue, 2008-02-12 18:29.

Wheat bread

If you are using wheat bread, it needs a longer time to rise I have found and also extra kneading to get the gluten to form. If you do not have gluten, this can help.

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