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Breadmaker Woe

Mrs Miggins

Mrs Miggins

There's been a slight cheese accident
After a year of faithfully producing top notch bread, something seems to have gone wrong with my breadmaker.

The dough doesn't seem to rise properly and I end up with something that resembles a housebrick rather than a nice fluffy loaf. It's edible but it's just not right.

Anyone else had this happen?

I've tried new yeast and I've tried varying the water content but to no avail :(
 
Mrs Miggins said:
After a year of faithfully producing top notch bread, something seems to have gone wrong with my breadmaker.

The dough doesn't seem to rise properly and I end up with something that resembles a housebrick rather than a nice fluffy loaf. It's edible but it's just not right.

Anyone else had this happen?

I've tried new yeast and I've tried varying the water content but to no avail :(
Click to expand...
Exactly the same thing is happening to me. Have you cut down the salt by any chance (too little and the dough rises too much too early, causing a later collapse)?
 
Hmmmm...I am using different flour but I've used all sorts of different flours while I've had it. I haven't changed the amount of salt.

I suspect that it is the machine - like you're saying Toggle. Which is a bugger cos I've only had it a year :(
 
Mrs Miggins said:
Hmmmm...I am using different flour but I've used all sorts of different flours while I've had it. I haven't changed the amount of salt.

I suspect that it is the machine - like you're saying Toggle. Which is a bugger cos I've only had it a year :(
Click to expand...


Watch it while it is making, does it rise at all? set it to make while you are about and go look at it every 15 mins to see what it is doing.
 
I can never see through the bloody window though cos it's always covered in condensation. Guess I could lift the lid real quick and sneak a peek. But that might make it worse - letting the heat out....??
 
To solve this problem I really went back to the basics - following the recipe instructions to the letter, adding ingredients in the right order, etc. I discovered that I'd picked up a few 'bad' habits along the way...the last loaf I tried was a complete success. Fingers crossed for the next one!
 
Why not just bake it by hand, it's just as easy.

This recipe's off the back of the flour packet.

1lb flour (I use 10oz plain and 6oz wholemeal)
1tsp dried yeast
1tsp salt
11fl oz hand-hot water
2tbsp oil

Mix dry ingredients together, add water and oil and mix into a dough.

Cover and leave to rise for 1 hour.

Knock down, knead for a couple of minutes and place in a lightly oiled loaf tin.

Leave to rise again for 25 minutes.

Place on middle shelf of pre-heated oven at gas mark 6 for 30-40 minutes

When cooked, it should be brown on top and firm to the touch.

Turn it out of the tin and leave it to cool upside-down for a bit.
 
shoddysolutions said:
Why not just bake it by hand, it's just as easy.
Click to expand...
Um, I disagree :p Yes, you can bake it by hand but the point about a breadmaker is you can just throw all the ingredients in and it does it all for you, no washing up, mess or waiting around.
 
lighterthief said:
Um, I disagree :p Yes, you can bake it by hand but the point about a breadmaker is you can just throw all the ingredients in and it does it all for you, no washing up, mess or waiting around.
Click to expand...


Quite simply, it takes a lot less time to chuck stuff in the breadmaker, I can leave that up on a high surface and not haveto worry about my kid getting at the oven, and it's one pan to wash up instead of several. I also get more consistent results, probably because it has a temperature controled rise, rather than me watching it and wondering whether it is warm enough, or too warm in whatever spot i've put it.
 
lighterthief said:
....I discovered that I'd picked up a few 'bad' habits along the way...
Click to expand...

You could well be right there. I used to be pretty anal about measuring everything perfectly and have perhaps got a bit slap-dash now.

I'll give it a try.

It's soooo depressing when you open up the lid and yet another loaf is all wrong. It always used to happen from time to time but it's been 4 on the trot now. :(
 
toggle said:
Quite simply, it takes a lot less time to chuck stuff in the breadmaker, I can leave that up on a high surface and not haveto worry about my kid getting at the oven, and it's one pan to wash up instead of several. I also get more consistent results, probably because it has a temperature controled rise, rather than me watching it and wondering whether it is warm enough, or too warm in whatever spot i've put it.
Click to expand...

1. Kneading is good exercise, and therapeutic (imagine your boss's face as you are puching down the dough :) ) - you can get your kid to help you, my daughter enjoys it

2. One loaf tin and one bowl to wash up is easier than pissing about with cleaning a bread maker IMO

3. Hand baking uses less power

4. The consistency of the breadmaker is its downfall IMO. There's no creativity, all you get are variatins on a theme. Breadmakers are a bit of a one-trick pony - with hand baking you can experiment with different shapes of loaf, make rolls instead etc. Can you make rosemary and olive foccacia in a breadmaker?

5. Time? The actual time spent actually mixing dough or kneading when baking by hand is about ten minutes, if that.
 
1. irrelavent. i get enough exercise to my hands from knitting. I've never found it theraputic either.

2. as opposed to one tin that can be cleaned by wiping with a damp cloth.

3. does that include having to turn on the heating to warm the place u enough for dough to rise?

4. i like an edible product

5. I have better things to do with what time i have 'spare' than stare out of the window kneeding dough, and it would take a hell of a lot moe than 10 mins if i involved either of my kids in the process, much too much time to be viable to produce all the bread we use.
 
1. I have nails and hate anything underneath them, I also have a shoulder injury from an accident.

2. As toggle said you only have the tin the bread bakes in to clean

3. Not for me it wouldn't. I also have a brain injury so I'd probably forget I was baking and therefore need to use more power to do it all again.

4. My breadmaker can do variety. I would have to check the recipe book to see if it could do foccacia, and tbh I'm not that bothered. it does yummy walnut loaf though :)

5. I don't understand how it only takes you 10 minutes to sort the ingredients, mix them, knead them, clean up etc. Takes me about that just to set the breadmaker up, and it would take me at least 10 minutes to clean my nails too.
 
I'm also wondering why it is necessary for those that do want to make bread by hand to leap into any thread about breadmakers to whinge about their inferiority. Why in the hell is it so important to them how other people make their damn bread?

it is almost as likely to drag out the 'my way is best' competitors as a thread on breastfeeding
 
toggle said:
I'm also wondering why it is necessary for those that do want to make bread by hand to leap into any thread about breadmakers to whinge about their inferiority.
Click to expand...

Well excuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuse me. I thought this was a discussion board, you know, for discussion. I would have thought hand baking to be a suitable topic for discussion in a thread entitled "Breadmaker Woe". I just happen to believe that on balance, having tried both methods, hand baking is best.

Blah blah blah Nazi Germany

*shakes fist*

Fascist!

*unsubscribes from thread*
 
shoddysolutions said:
I just happen to believe that on balance, having tried both methods, hand baking is best.
Click to expand...

But the reason lots of people have breadmakers is that they've tried both and found the breadmaker works best for them :p :D
 
shoddysolutions said:
*unsubscribes from thread*
Click to expand...

They always say that - but he'll turn up again like a bad penny :p

Baking bread by hand might well be a fun novelty once a month. But I want a fresh loaf every morning - and spending 2 minutes chucking ingredients in a machine and pressing the button is the way of righteousness :cool:
 
It's just taken me ten minutes to remember the breadmaker was finished :oops:
I really would burn/ruin handmade bread.
 
shoddysolutions said:
Well excuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuse me. I thought this was a discussion board, you know, for discussion. I would have thought hand baking to be a suitable topic for discussion in a thread entitled "Breadmaker Woe". I just happen to believe that on balance, having tried both methods, hand baking is best.

Blah blah blah Nazi Germany

*shakes fist*

Fascist!

*unsubscribes from thread*
Click to expand...
Who'da thunk it? Godwin's Law being invoked on a thread about breadmakers! :D

Yes, I bake bread by hand on occasion and yes, I also use a breadmaker. Both are fine in their own ways. Using a breadmaker actually gets me making bread, though, rather than just thinking about it.
 
Is it sitting in a draught or cold room? IME, that can affect rising seriously & some flours can also be poorer risers cold weather, eg Spelt.

Giving the pan a good clean with water & a little vinegar occasionally is reccomended.

Shoddysolutions - You wouldn't want to eat my handbaked bread, you could tar roads with the stuff & IME, most dedicated homebakers output is similar. Only a very few can produce an edible loaf.
 
My father in law always goes on about his hand made bread. And when you get one of the loaves fresh they are passable. But he makes loads of it and freezes most. Frozen and defrosted bread always tastes crap and the texture goes like a dry bath sponge.
 
pogofish said:
Shoddysolutions - You wouldn't want to eat my handbaked bread, you could tar roads with the stuff & IME, most dedicated homebakers output is similar. Only a very few can produce an edible loaf.
Click to expand...

*fingers in ears*

LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA not listening ;)
 
pogofish said:
Giving the pan a good clean with water & a little vinegar occasionally is reccomended.
Click to expand...

Reckon I'll do that.

It's not sitting in a draught though. And I'm just using ordinary old wheat flour. :(
 
lighterthief said:
To solve this problem I really went back to the basics - following the recipe instructions to the letter, adding ingredients in the right order, etc. I discovered that I'd picked up a few 'bad' habits along the way...the last loaf I tried was a complete success. Fingers crossed for the next one!
Click to expand...

This is almost certainly the answer. it happened to me aswell, and it's the gradual slippage of exactness of the ingredients, which gets worse over time as you get more slapdash. Then you seem to cross a line, where it's so off you just get bricks.

I went back to the instructions too and it worked perfectly, after that.
 
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