Why is my homemade bread so dense and heavy?

Dense or heavy bread can be the result of not kneading the dough long enough. Mixing the salt and yeast together or Losing patience in the middle of molding your bread and there is not enough tension in your finished loaf before baking.

How do you make air pockets in bread?

Use any techniques that will increase oven spring. Anything that gets you a bigger loaf means more room for the bubbles to get bigger. That includes: steaming the oven, baking on a preheated stone, slashing the loaves properly right before the bake, baking on high heat (at least for the first 10 minutes or so), etc.

How do you make bread with air pockets?

How to make light fluffy bread or bread that is less dense?

Making light fluffy bread or bread that is less dense is mostly a matter of using the right ingredients and to some extent the right process. The main ingredients to accomplish this are 1) bread flour 2) instant yeast 3) dough enhancers.

What causes those little air pockets in bread dough?

Those little air pockets are caused by gas that is released from the yeast when it activates in the dough. How light the bread is directly relates to how much the dough rises or how much gas the yeast releases. The yeast, when given warm water and food (sugar, gluten etc.) causes gas to be released in the dough.

How can I Make my sourdough bread less dense?

Here are my top tips to a lighter, less dense sourdough bread. The amount of water you add to the dough affects how open the crumb is in the final result (open crumb means bigger holes and a softer texture). The higher the water level, the more open the crumb will be. The caveat to that is that a wetter dough is far more difficult to handle.

How to make sourdough bread lighter and airy?

Mixing baking soda into the dough at the shaping stage (just after the bulk ferment) will give sourdough bread an extra boost and help it become lighter and more airy. Baking soda is a heavy alkaline and reacts with the strong acidity of sourdough. The reaction gives off gases that help decrease the density of the dough.