134: SIX Reasons why your bread dough DIDN'T PUFF UP Properly - Bake with Jack 

You’re awesome. My bread dough didn’t puff up & you provided the exact reasons why. Thank you so much. Also, you’re a joy to listen to & make me smile when I just wanted to cry. 👏👏👏👏👏

Great info. I had bread that appeared not to rise so I put it in the oven, turned the electric light on and went to bed. In the morning I had over-proofed the dough. Prior to going to bed I should have put it in the refrigerator and then simply taken it out and let it continue after getting up in the morning. So many ways to make mistakes with just 4 ingredients. lol

This is what I love about Jack, such a fountain of knowledge. No matter how much you think you know about bread making, he always brings more useful tips to the table.

#4 Great point. I'm a lot less anxious "waiting" for the dough to rise if I'm not waiting for the dough to rise. ;)

Oh, my goodness, did you talk to my exact issues. I've made bread for all my life, and I never would have thought that using warm water for the bread to proof the first time will impede the second time's rise. Your sense of humor was just what I needed for hope in baking success. I use recipe and it works perfectly for a few months, then it goes bonkers and won't rise right. I try another recipe with success for a few months, and then it goes wonky, even though I use the same wheat, same water, yeast, and other ingredients, weighed for accuracy. Maybe the water temperature is the deal breaker. Back to the drawing board. I so want to have consistent results.

You sir, are a total gem. Bless you and your forthright, desperately needed honesty. You are the man.

I was watching this video while having my homemade focaccia made two days ago with a cup of tea. 😋 Thanks for sharing your knowledge and experience so generously. “Common sense is not common!” Have a good week, till next Thursday!

*Happy Ending Below* I was having so many problems with my sourdough since moving to my new house that I stopped making bread for a long time. "No bread?" my family would complain on holidays. At my old house it took about 12 hours of levain time and 4 hours of dough rising time to make a good sourdough loaf. At my new house,

Best explanations I've ever heard so far ! Not even a friend of mine who's a baker could tell me ... 😄 😎 I now know what went wrong with my breads 😎 probably will tell my friend ...

Jack, thank you for taking the time to do this

Always a pleasure to see you! Looking forward to some whole-grain’s videos

Love the advice to not throw the dough away if it doesn't rise. Re-purposing it as flatbread or tortillas is brilliant! Love all of your advice, actually.

Based off of your other videos I started experimenting with swapping out a part of the flour and braced myself for the results... and it was exactly as I expected. All the things I expected to be different were different. Crossing fingers for a second trail tomorrow. Can't say it enough...thank you so much for the confidence in this learning process!!!

Thanks Jack, this is a gem because it nails a lot of problems that can be encountered by newbies. I've followed all sorts of recipes and scientific formulae in the past while trying to get my bread right. Unfortunately you are too young to have helped me then but I’ve picked up some ideas on the way - then discarded 90% of them. One idea I picked up: if you need to add water to an already mixed dough , first mix it with a little flour to a wet paste. This will mix in more easily. So if you forgot the yeast, mix it with a little water then add some flour to a paste - it won’t be quite as slippery. I've found there can be a significant difference between bread flours, especially organic, stone-milled and supermarket types which have all sorts of additives such as flour improvers. The organic seems to need more and takes longer to rise and prove. When I first made bread I kept on adding flour to stop the stickiness and ended up with a stiff dough. Like Jack says, just keep working it. The other biggy from wor Jack: do it all at room temperature. Forget airing cupboards and proving drawers unless you’re baking in a very cold room, which would still work but very slowly.

Hey Jack, how did you manage to see me struggling in my kitchen ?

Thanks for the video. Number 4 of your reasons really hit home for me.

i make bread with all purpose flour and come out great just need to wait more longer to puff up.thank jack

I love your videos Jack!!! Keep them coming!

Thanks for this. Your the only one who could answer the poor second rise.

You are such a sweetie! This grandma has been worrying over my LUMP of dough...WAITING for it to puff up...waiting...waiting...sigh. So I came looking for help, Jack. On my way to this video, I stopped by your website to buy 2 dough scrapers. So, with that done (Amazon US had NOTHING like yours), here I am. Waiting, but reassured. Thank you, Jack. I appreciate your help. It is rather cold here, so I'll try patience. And more waiting. 😁😁

Thank you! My dough was a struggle today, and now I know why! I changed to a new flour and kept “dusting.” New day tomorrow!

You EARNED another subscriber ! DUSTING while kneading? GUILTY - and I DIDN'T even know this was a "thing" - thanks ! -Mark Vogt | VOGTLAND OUTDOORS

Thanks for the tips! Yes I find that I follow a recipe from a person baking in a warm climate island and in my area right now it’s winter so I do feel that there is a difference on the rising of the dough

Great pep talk. Thanks 🙏🙏🙏

I love your positive energy. Just subscribed.

Yet another great video, I've recently built a proofing cabinet that has improved my "puffing" tremendously, PS I signed up for your bulletin last week, haven't received one yet, was looking forward to it this morning☹️

Loving the energy!!

I am so glad I watched your video. I let my dough sit and hour longer for the second rise and it was perfect. 😃😃😃 I was defiantly frustrated cause it was rising as much as I wanted to.

Thank you for all your lessons!! I enjoy your video's

Another helpful video. Thank you. I'm guilty of beint impatient and popping in the oven too soon and have also tried to replace 200g strong white with whole wheat. I"m back to following your recipe to the tee.

There are so many variables. Sometimes your bread doesn’t turn out they way it should be. Depending on climate, temperature, the kind flour, your oven, etc. It’s all trial and error. Just have to figure out what works best for you. Florida and The UK is a completely different climate and humidity. What Jack does for his sourdough perfect for where he is in the UK, whereas in Florida can be so different. Trial and error is the best education.

M frm India.....I was making same mistakes u told in this video....many thanks....loved ur accent n passion.....

Hell fire Jack. I've just realised what I've been doing wrong. 🤔 Thanks mate.

I just love the way you say "puff up". It's so cute.

You are so good at teaching

I'd virtually given up on baking bread before I found #130 & then #101 - which was an utter revelation! Completely made sense of all that had been going wrong and I can honestly say that I now get consistent results when I stick to the Gospel According to Jack. My variable results only come when I vary elements of the 'gospel'. .....Good 'onya Jack!! Thank you SO MUCH for making the making these videos!!

Great puffing video Jack. Sticky can be fun!

this helped a lot . thanks

Just to add: Enriched doughs also take a longer time to puff compared to a non-enriched dough. Depending on the recipe, it could take you up to an additional hour of waiting before an enriched dough reaches the same volume you'd expect from a non-enriched dough.

Great advice for newbies jack... Hoped I had found your channel 2 years ago 😁 Ive got enough experience in the past two years so I got that working for me...I made a lot of error in those past years tho

Your videos are my daily meditation 😍

If you find it difficult to wait for the dough to puff up, you could start kneading another simple dough in the interval and if you still have time, work lots of butter in the second dough, so by the time you are done with the second dough, the first one has hopefully puffed up enough, and when you are busy with the first one, the second will puff up....

Your saying fajita and burrito at 8:15.... I'm a Texan, the state that invented burritos (migrant workers needed a hearty meal easily carried, tex mex style), and believe you me I couldn't get enough if the inflections and accent there. Must have watched at least 6 times. Love it. Love your channel also.

Jack's Eleventh Commandment: Thou shalt not dust while kneading. We might as well admit it to ourselves ... Jack seems to know everything.

Love from the Caribbean. Very informative video

Jack you’re simply AAAAAwesome!

Great video! I think my kitchen is really cold so it seems to take forever, I feel like I’m not quite getting the volume change I want. Bread still comes out tasting great but could be a little lighter and more air pockets etc, today i let it rise putting it in oven with light on around 20-30 degrees and sure enough it already seems to have helped. Let’s see tomorrow when i bake!

'surprise fajita night'. Top advice & earned a subscription. Cheers, fella.

I wait so patiently every Thursday morning. I love that they're waiting when I wake up. I got it early this morning though! Love it! Thanks for everything!

Thank you, thank you, thank you.... I love getting this info it helps me so much.

Amazing points .

Thanks Jack!

Great baking advice, given to you in the voice of a Guy Ritchie movie gangster. Love it! Subscribed

I use my oven with the oven light on as my proving station. It has helped give me a consistent “room temperature” for my sourdough levains and doughs, even overnight.

I learned to warm my kitchen in the winter months before I bake, as to make sure my yeast does what it's supposed to do & like it should when I make bread. Plus it makes the kitchen nice & toasty.

Bro Jack, you gotta do more videos. You're killing me!

LOL to your sponsor alert WINK ; ) Thanks, my Thursdays have been nicer since watching you :D

That’s exactly what I was doing wrong...constantly adding flower ...🙈thank you so much for this video. 👍👍👍

Love your viedos mate, been doing a lot of sourdough and getting better each time! Would love to see more recipes especially sweet ones and other methods apart from yeast or sourdough.

I just started to have some sourdough bread succes! Largely thanks to your videos. I mainly learned to take it easy and give it time (I have a cold kitchen). Also trying out the scrapings method has really helped. No more tears over discarced sourdough starter! I feel way more motivated to bake bread now. I do cheat a bit. I use water that is slightly warmer (28-30 degrees) for my starter and loafs. It seems to help get the fermentation started earlier. By the way, any thoughts on experimenting with different water types? My tap water breads are OK, but I have an idea that softer water types might change the texture of the bread.

I have been each person you described, all I could do was laugh. Thank you for alllll of the correction lol

My kitchen is quite cold so it takes quite some time for the dough to puff up properly, but last week, I had a pot of soup simmering away so it was very much warmer in the kitchen and the dough rose in a fraction of the usual time.

point 3 and 6 are my problems ... you are genius. i need to do it again ...

Thank you, thank you! Love the emphasis on patience, i shall try this =)!

You should write your own book talking about this stuff. I would buy it in an instant! Your own personal experience, knowledge and personal recipes and differences with flour types/yeast types. That would be an amazing purchase to me. Thanks for your hard work Jack!

A tip from someone far less experienced. If you buy your yeast in bulk and keep it in the fridge or even freezer, it lasts a while, but it *does* degrade. Every now & again, activate the yeast with warm water & a bit of sugar before adding to the flour - if you're using instant yeast it's not really necessary, but it lets you know if the yeast is still vigorous or it's on its last legs and you need a new batch. Oh, and keeping instant yeast in the freezer works far better than the fridge for me.

Haha love your video and I understand your pain. When I first started baking, I thought cake flour was plain flour cos I figured plain flour was flour to make cake. 😁

Yes,thats it I'm so excited and impatient waiting for the dough... Hahaha its funny I like your green eyes !!!

Hmmm. I’ve managed to do all of those at some point...‘splains ALOT. Great video!

Great bread wisdom as usual. I think you could give skincare tips too - your face is lovely!

I am one of those people Jack, I followed your recipe to a tee and guess what ? My bread came out better than ever.

I noticed your "teasers" of forthcoming tuition concerning whole grain doughs... I've recently been experimenting with 100% whole grain dough. I'm applying the identical processes I use in my standard 20%/80 (whole grain:white bread) flour mix and obtaining fantastic results: oven spring, crust and taste are terrific with identical baking times. BUT. The only thing that is different is the "crumb" cell openings are not as random or large. The finished bread still has a wonderfully light texture and crusty crust. While only taste and texture really govern for me personally, others seem to prefer and demand the big "nooks and crannies". Many who like to spread "stuff" on bread slices enjoy being able to cram that stuff (mayo, preserves, mustard etc.) right into the crumb. Suffice to say I'm keen to see your examination of 100% whole grain doughs, especially if you address this issue of the crumb "openness". My gut is telling me to add one or two additional hours of "stretch and folds". Next, I'm going to try to increase the hydration rate in 5% increments to compensate for the extra "thirstiness" of whole grains. Overnight cold retard did not improve the outcome. Thanks for your enthusiasm! @wesfree

Jack you never mentioned a room temperature. I have made bread for years and then stopped when i started working. Came back to it in my retirement and moved to a new house with vaulted ceilings and lots of windows. i can not get it to rise even giving extra time. so watching your videos it could be me on a few of your points. I will be more diligent. i use the proofing option on my oven or the light in the oven. Hoping what i learned today will help. Trying not to give up on it. I did subscribe to your weekly newsletters for encouragement.

Thank you Jack, I have realised after watching this helpful video, its all in the science 😊 Erm.....and in my case, a little more patience thrown in....🍞🥖🍔😊

Thanks so much! My yeast rolls for Thanksgiving were a failure because they didn’t rise. However, the dough is elastic and very tasty. I’m going to use some of your tips to try and salvage it, and perhaps we can have lovely leftover sliders with our yeast rolls! Looking forward to more wonderful tips! ❤️amateur home “chef”

good advice when talking about being patient and not waiting for dough to puff but instead do other things. because otherwise you have a feeling bread making is really time consuming.

I love your show. Please keep going.

Thank you ☺️

Thank you

I feel personally attacked in Jack's videos (but insanely grateful he shares his wisdom!)

Oh Jack, you nailed it!! I remember some years ago when I was making bread in a bread making machine I threw all the ingredients in and left out the yeast!!! Oh gosh, when I opened the lid, there was this nicely baked brick in the bottom 😞 Was I disappointed!! I immediately thought it was the yeast that had expired, then I did that simple test and the yeasted water rose to the occasion 😂

Great video! 👍👍👍👍👍👍

Hi. Ur videos are awesome and we get to learn a lot. My request is to make an video using kitchen aid mixer. Due to some health reasons I am unable to knead using hands.

Thanks I did all six things wrong.... sooo I guess Ill just keep trying and see if I can figure it out.

I followed your advice and started baking my bread from a cold oven - I just shove it in, switch the oven on and forget it for about an hour, then I tip it out of its baking tin, put it back in the oven, switch off the oven and leave it again. Jack, my bread goes _skywards_ - I have better rising then _ever before_ !

Great tips and I love your accent too 😄 Keep it up!

Thanks, Jack. Do you have a 100% whole wheat bread recipe for sandwiches? Most seem to include AP flour. I'm a longtime fan and love your videos!

You're so funny! Thanks for the video. It helped me a lot. :)

Thanks, you got me at dusting

No adverts?! That's it - I'm subscribing.

Hi jack! I really enjoy watching your videos, and I have learned a lot by doing so. I have a question though. Recently we bought several bags of flour and stored part of it in the freezer. My question is will the frozen flour have any negative affects to my starter when I feed it? I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone address this topic before, so thanks in advance for your reply. Keep the good stuff coming! 😁

you're telling me people have been staring at the dough for an hour to rise?? woah that's dedication.

Can't dust in a bowl. Our house is cold. Float the container of starter in warm water. 85°f about. Add warm water to that. Then make dough an leaf rest in bowl covered over that warm water. Then the final rise will be in same warm inviroment. That's probably why before all this the heaviest were cold. House at 70°f ish. And winter. But is rising Nicky right now. Thanks Jack for your warm comments!

It happened to me,the yeast was very slow the-yeast had passed date butI did fried bread delish thanks for all the tips keep on

Your a hoot... I'm going to subscribe. good job well done...

We love White Lily flour for cakes and light biscuits, but King Arthur is better for yeast bread. Soft wheat vs hard flour does make a difference!

I was going to make some notes re this helpful video but I felt behind my ear and didn’t find my pencil. Guess I didn’t need one after all ‘cause Jack didn’t have his either 🤣 ✏️

Good word "puff" puff puff puff puff.

Waiting is more difficult when baking with sourdough.

I changed the brand of flour it changed my life.