A few weeks ago, I made my first loaves of bread.
It turned out pretty good, but I thought maybe a bit dense. Â It didn’t seem to rise as well as I’d hoped.
Today, I tried again.  This time, I substituted white bread flour for the white all-purpose called for in the recipe.  Also, I only used 2 1/2 cups of the white flour.  Both times I used my KitchenAid stand mixer for the kneading.
Also, I had an unopened jar of yeast in my fridge that had a “sell by” date of March, 2011. Â It was still sealed, so I decided to try it anyway. Â It was fine. Â My bread rose MUCH better than last time. Â The first rise only took 45 minutes (whereas last time I let it go for an hour and it still didn’t rise like today’s bread did).
The result? Â Amazing. Â This bread is so much lighter and fluffier. Â The flavor seems brighter and sweeter. Â I’m smitten. Â And since I got the process down from ~3 hours to ~2 hours, I think I’ll be making much more of my own bread from now on.
