Brioche Buns

OK, after 3 attempts i am ready to give up. No rise in dough after 3 attempts. Wondering, after reading other recipes, if its because the liquids are too cold. Others i looked at required liquids to be between 105 and 115F to get the yeast to activate. Did so on my last attempt with the milk and egg mixture and BAM yeast activated. Left in fridge overnight. Next day dough was foamy and unable to work with. Could it be my altitude as i live in Denver, Is it something i am doing wrong? The question is how does the yeast active in original recipe? Sugar feeds yeast, salt kills yeast. Salt is added before yeast is activated so in theory, salt kills yeast before activation. Yeast can only activate at certain temperatures. Anybody have any ideas? About ready to pull my hair out.

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Brendan_Lee_56950

AFAIK the high altitude should make the yeast rise more rapidly due to less air pressure. What kind of yeast are you using? You may also have to add more flour to the recipe to get the structure you need due to the altitude. I think you may be better off making a sponge with a small portion of the flour and letting that go overnight and then proceed with the recipe so that you know for sure that the yeast is working and then make corrections from there.

Baking at high altitude is maddening

Larry_Hamilton_148246

What about the recipe temp. Is the milk and egg mixture supposed to be cold? And if so how will the yeast activate at that cold temp? Has no one else had this problem? Or is it not supposed to activate until after it is proofing?

Brendan_Lee_56950

I just took another look at the recipe, i'm not sure where you see that the initial mixing of eggs/milk/yeast should be ice cold? How I read the recipe it says to mix those ingredients to activate the yeast, mix the flour and butter and then chill to get it to a temperature that you can work with (~2h according to the recipe) and then the rest is done at proofing temperatures.

My guess is that you aren't working the recipe properly.

coryhansen78

I can't speak intelligently about the elevation issue as I'm only at around 900 ft...

But, I've made the recipe exactly as written and have had success.

I used bread machine yeast which I specifically bought for trying this recipe as I don't have a bread machine-- mine was labeled as "rapid rise" (aka instant, in this case-- I don't think this labeling is consistent among manufacturers unfortunately). I had the milk and eggs at room temp when I did it. I think this is good practice for baking in general.

I thought that I read someplace quite a while back that the "activating" (or "proofing"/"proving") step is unnecessary if you are sure your yeast is relatively new (i.e. not dead). I think it's just to make sure that the yeast will revive. I know this is true for instant yeast, but am not 100% sure about regular "active dry" yeast (I think it is true though). If you are not sure about your yeast, the proving step lets you know if it is going to work or not before having to throw out the whole thing though!

For a recipe like this, I don't think you need to "activate" the yeast. I believe the liquid present plus any heat generated from mixing is plenty to get the yeast dissolved and going.

Cheryl_71360

Maybe this will help. http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipe/high-altitude-baking.html

Larry_Hamilton_148246

Thank you all for your insight. Will try again someday. Oh ya, Brendan asked where I read that the liquids were written as ice cold. I didn't say that. I said that the recipe doesn't say one way or another. Almost all other recipes I read stated that your water or milk should be between 105-115F. My question is then, why doesn't this recipe state anything about temp. as there must be a darn good reason for this first step in all other recipes.