Yeast breads is the kryptonite of my baking world, that I nearly despised all recipes that calls for yeast. Every time i try out a yeast bread recipe it will be either too hard or it smells like fermenting yeast or worst one time even my baking teacher wont taste it. LOL. Just last month I was convinced that I SUCKED big time on yeast bread.
And then one day my baking teacher asked us to do an ensaymada, at first I was on my lazy mode I already have this feeling that it will be another disastrous yeast bread. But lo and behold it turned out one good actually very good ENSAYMADA.
I learned two things in yeast breads.1. KNEAD it WELL until its SMOOTH and ELASTIC. Test it by taking a small part of the dough then pull it apart if it wont break then its elastic and look into the texture if its smooth with no lumps then you are good to go! 2. PROOF it long enough to really RISE. For it to be a really soft bread.
HAPPY YEAST BREAD BAKING!