bread advice

[Cumberland]

After reading the Kitchen Aid posts and hearing about all the breadmakers out there, I tried my hand at crusty french bread yesterday. It was not so good at all- the crust was about 1/2 think and could have been used to hammer nails, and the bread itself was very dense, not light and airy. What can i do to make it less dense, and also, a softer crust? I am willing to try other recipes too!

Do you have or use a baking stone? That might help.
According to Bread Made Easy by Beth Hensperger, some possible reasons for thick and tough crust:
1. Too much flour
2. Oven temperature too low during baking

Was the bread texture coarse chewy and dry?

The book above is a great resource. I think that the new Cook's Illustrated cookbook -- from the show America's Test Kitchen -- has recipes for different kinds of breads. Considering the exhaustive testing they do on each recipe, that would be a good resource too. The book title is Here in America's Test Kitchen.

Even though I have a Kitchen-Aid Mixer I never make bread in it. I just use my Bread Machine....sorry

[PrincessFiona]

Let the dough rise until it is double it's size...then take out the amount you will use for the loaf of bread and give it a good kneading.....knead the dough longer......It is less dense when it has more air bubbles in it. Consider it stress leaf Then....let it rise again for another couple of hours until it is the right size....and bake it.....

...and invite me over! I love fresh-baked bread!

kris