Dense' Bread Or Is It Me

Yes . . . . and hello to you all!

This post's about the hand-baking of white bread. I've made quite a few, now, and whereas I'm very happy with the *taste* of the finished product, it's in the *texture* department that I feel improvements could be made in.

I'm from the UK, and I tend to use the 'Super Strong' white bread flour made by the Hovis company (though I've also used the standard-grade stuff by the same firm), and their 'Fast Action' yeast, which only requires one "kneading and proving".

I always follow the instructions to the letter. Kneading takes 10 minutes, after which I let it "double in size" (that's *so* specific!). As it's still summer, that usually means I allow it to sit for about an hour-and-a-half, at room temperature, before I pop it into the oven for half an hour (230¡ C). In winter, I'll place the dough somewhere warm.

When finished, it looks good, and tastes good. The problem is that it tends to be a little . . . . well . . . . "denser" than the uncut loaves I can buy from a baker. Nothing wrong with that, as such, but I'd really like to try and aim for something a little lighter, while still keeping the great taste.

Question is - is this possible? I wonder if a *second* kneading, or something, would result in a lighter product? Or perhaps letting the dough sit longer? Perhaps adding some ingredient that's not mentioned in the instructions, like sugar?

Anyone else use the basic methodology, above, and get a non-dense result? Or is that just the way of things?!