I have recently started making bread (up to my sixth batch). All I am trying to do is make super soft, plain, white bread/buns.
I have tried a different recipe each time, but none of them have even come close to the softness that I want.
Am I missing something, or have I just not found the right recipe?
I hand kneed every batch (as I do not have a mixer).
This recipe is my current attempt:
http://dinner-inspiration.blogspot.co.nz/2008/11/super-soft-white-bread.html
Soft bread is soft because CO2 produced by yeast and water that gets turned to steam by the baking process gets trapped into pockets by a mesh of gluten, causing the dough to expand. The dough then solidifies, keeping its shape. If your bread is not soft then it hasn't expanded enough for one or more reasons:
For a nice soft sandwich bread I start with a really sticky dough. I then use it's stickiness to stretch the dough, smearing it all over the countertop and using a pastry scraper to bring it back together. This is a really quick way to build some gluten. Then I knead in flour bit by bit, kneading for at least 1 minute between adding flour until I have a soft dough that still sticks a bit to the counter. That stickiness means that there's enough moisture in the dough. I'll add a bit more flour to that and then stop adding flour to avoid drying the dough. If I want to knead it more I'll knead with a bit of vegetable oil instead to keep it from sticking.
It's consistency you're looking for, not time. Time is relative depending on your strength and kneading technique, 5 minutes for a skilled and strong baker may translate to 15 minutes for normal humans, so knead until you have the consistency you want. When you start kneading the dough it will pull into pieces easily, and have a rough texture. As you knead that roughness disappears and it will stretch longer without breaking. For a sandwich loaf I'll knead until I can stretch the dough from the middle of my torso to my knee without it breaking.
Next, rising your dough may take much longer than recipes say as it all depends on the ambient temperature of the room, humidity, the activity of the yeast, and other factors. Again, make this results driven, not time driven. A good sandwich bread dough should rise a lot, not the "doubled" many recipes say. For me tripled is more like it. Make sure you put it in a big enough bowl! This advice goes for the initial as well as the secondary rise in the pans. Let it rise enough in the pans until it looks like the recipe picture, that's about right. Ideally your oven will have been pre-heating for 30 minutes by now.
Now, slash your loaves the long way with a razor blade like a carpet knife, about 1/2 an inch down. Do it quick and avoid punching down the dough. Slashing will split the top skin and allow the dough to rise efficiently after you put it into the oven. Once you put it in the oven it's going to rise a lot as the yeast goes crazy before the heat kills it, and the moisture in the dough is going to vaporize into steam. If you don't slash you won't get as good a rise.
One method not mentioned above is tangzhong, frequently used in Asian breads. To make tangzhong, you would take one part flour and five parts water, whisk them together and bring the mix to a boil. Once it thickens to the point where you can see the whisk leaving "tracks" in the surface, it's done. Let it cool and use it to replace 5% of the flour in your recipe (by weight). Adding starches that have already gelatinized like this will help you to achieve a bread with an extremely soft, almost cottony, interior. This is similar to some western methods for making softer breads, such as potato bread, which also uses pre-gelatinized starch to achieve a softer crumb.
Combine this with a method to soften the crust like an egg or milk wash, and you can reach new levels of bread softness.
Some items that affect the softness of the bread:
Hydration level, the ratio of water to flour. Your recipe has 59% hydration, assuming a "cup" of flour is 4.5 ounces. This is in the middle range, and should be fine. Very high hydration loaves tend to be much chewier.
Extreme gluten development. This recipe calls for a fairly rapid rise, and does not call for excessive kneading, so there should not be an extreme level of gluten development which would lead to a chewier crumb.
Additives. Additional ingredients like sugar, eggs, oil interfere with the development of the gluten network, and thus produce a more tender crumb. This recipe is rich with both sugar and oil.
Steam in the oven. Steam in the oven during the first 5 minutes or so of baking contributes to robust crust development. This recipe does not provide extra steam in the oven.
Brushing the crust. After baking, brushing the crust with butter or milk will reduce the amount of "crisping up" the crust does as it cools. This is on the only opportunity for improvement I see. Once you remove the loaf from the oven, brush it with melted butter all over the crust. This will lead to a softer crust.
The recipe you have linked, in almost every way, seems designed to produce a tender or soft crumb already. Perhaps if you describe in more detail the results you are getting, and how they differ from your expectations, someone can give you better advise.
I would suspect you might be over kneading, but if all your kneading is by hand, that seems unlikely.
Another thing to ask is are you using far too much flour? You might try weighing your flour, if you are not already doing so.
There may be the possibility that if you are using a recipe from a different country to yours, then what is called 'flour' in your country may create a vastly different effect to the 'flour' in their country.
I have noticed that flour is not the same internationally - in fact it's so different I really wonder why they don't create an international standard of different flours so we can distinguish which to use for what baking...
For example, to make baguettes you need French type 65 flour (high ash content). This is commonly available in France, but without it I have found I cannot even come anywhere near the same realm as the firm, crunchy baguette texture.
Another example is trying to make the very soft, cloud-like texture of Asian breads. Hong Kong 'bread flour' is one kind of Asian flour which is bleached, (which apparently reduces the protein content) and creates more whiteness and softness. So to make fluffy Asian bread like 'Hokkaido Milk Bread' or Chinese Pork Buns, you need this type of Asian flour. (Using standard 'bread flour' from where I live resulted in a much rougher texture, not like it should be. I switched flours, and the result was like night and day).
My solutions have been to find the appropriate flours online, at specialty stores, or research and try to replicate the mix of the flour from that particular country. If your bread-making process is sound this may be the point of difference.
Your use of "bread/buns" in your question makes me wonder if you are aiming for a large international burger chain style of bun.
If so I think you might need a flour closer to cake flour, rather than bread flour. It's also possible they are using some rising agents other than yeast. ie baking powder to get those tiny bubbles.
If you just want soft bread, I'd add some butter, an egg, and some milk in place of some of your water and once cooked, paint the buns in melted butter.
It seems part of the problem is the ratio of oil to flour. When I make savory monkey bread or just plain, soft dinner rolls they come out really soft. To harden the crust, I toss ice cubes onto the bottom of the oven under the racks (not the broiler part). The recipe calls for 4 oz of butter to 4.5 cups of flour with three eggs.
I know the recipe you used called for oil but it is the ratio of fat that is the key. I remember learning to cook and my aunt told me my cornbread would not produce a crispy crust because it had too much oil/butter in it. From there I have found that the ratio plays an important part in producing texture.
None of the above responses are correct.
The correct response is to add oil.
