UltraHamster64
CXORAHonestly this fear is overblown. Unless you’re making pastries, baking is relatively straightforward and forgiving. Breads, cakes and pies ove you and want you to have fun. Experimenting with vegan substitutions, gluten free baking and scaling batch sizes helped me feel much less intimidated by recipes, you learn what role the ingredients are playing and how to adjust if you add too much, too little, or too not the right thing.
IDK, I’ve been having a hell of time trying to make my pizza doughs rise.
iusearchbtweither your yeast is dead or you’re killing it with water that’s too hot, hard to see why else it wouldn’t rise
Water could be overly chlorinated as well. They could try bottled water or let their municipal water sit out in a mixing bowl for 24 hours.
I always use water straight from the tap (unheated) and I’ve tried several brands of soft and dry yeast.
pedantichedgehogUse a thermometer to measure the water temp.
And which is the right water temp?
110-120 F. I also have hard water in my area and I’ve successfully made yeast doughs. I recommend “blooming” your yeast first even if you’re using instant yeast, which just means mixing your yeast, a bit of sugar (like a tsp per 1 packet of yeast) and the water together and letting it sit for about 10 minutes.