Hi Rick,

YES, you should always proof your yeast. However,if you have a good
first rise yeast is not your problem. It may well be the flour. I've
never used "bread flour" but all purpose might give you the courseness
you desire. Similar to cake flour vs all purpose: cake flour will give
a fine, smooth texture wonderful for pound cakes. Sounds like
everything else you're doing is fine.

Remember a couple things - too little flour will cause a lackluster
second rise (dough will have a tendency to fall over the sides of the
pan), and too much flour will make the bread hard and tough. What's
right? Mix the flour into the liquid with greased hands, add one cup
of flour at a time and when the dough no longer sticks to your fingers
you have the right consistency.

Keep trying.

Blondie






(Rick) wrote in message . com>...
> I've recently started venturing into yeast breads after having become
> fairly competent with cakes, cookins, and quickbreads. I'm having
> trouble getting a secondary rise (the initial rise has been
> gangbusters every time so far). I'm using bread flour and
> Fleichmann's dry yeast. I don't know if I'm kneading too long (about
> 10 min), not long enough, whether I should proof the yeast, use AP
> flour, or what. The end results taste just great, but have a texture
> more like quickbread, as opposed to that nice cellular, chewy
> structure I'm after. Any advice is appreciated.
>
> Rick