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:

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. :)

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