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cobweb
Nov 12th, 2008, 07:38 AM
are you putting the ingredients in as per the breadmaker's strict instructions?

i make most of my own bread in a Morphy Richards breadmaker, i follow their instructions pretty much to the letter and it comes out great 99% of the time. Usually the 1% is when the water i use is a little too hot (hotter than hand warm).

The only way i deviate is that i use their (Morphy Richards) white bread recipe but change the flour to 50/50 white and wholemeal as i find this gives a really nice taste and texture without being too heavy and dense. The recipe is pretty much vegan except for milk powder. I leave the out and just put a tiny bit of soya milk into the water.

I measure in cups (that came with my machine), in this order (and apparently the order is quite important):

1 and a half cups of hand warm water (with a little soya milk included)
4 tbsp sunflower oil
2 tbsp sugar (the recipe calls for 3 but that makes it too sweet imo)
1 tsp salt
4 cups of flour (in my case 2 white, 2 wm)
- 'seal' in the water with the flour to make a dry barrier for the yeast -
*only then* add the yeast, 1 and a quarter tsp

hope this helps?

harpy
Nov 12th, 2008, 09:18 AM
Is your yeast fresh? Old yeast will stop your loaf from rising as I know from experience, and it doesn't seem to keep that long, only a month or two, once open. Are you measuring the ingredients carefully?

ETA you might be better off trying to adapt a recipe that came with the machine than using the yeast one. I can type mine in later although it sounds as if I have a different model (with some vegan recipes in the book!).

mjnewbould
Nov 12th, 2008, 11:18 AM
I do bread without the maker - though I started with one and got fed up with it (hard to wash out). I basically use flour, salt, yeast and water and it always seems to work - but as Harpy says the yeast is critical and if it does not do its stuff then the bread will come out like a brick. I personally have never used the sugar - I can't see why its needed! I do sometimes put oil in or seeds in - whatever I fancy at the time. I use loads of water (400ml for 400g flour) and that seems to make it light and soft inside.

bradders
Nov 12th, 2008, 11:51 AM
i have the morphy richards machine too so I'll give that a try, I bought the yeast yesterday so it should be fine. I understand the principles of yeast from brewing and the sugar should aid the process as the yeast eats sugar, pees alcohol and burps co2 so more sugar I assume would mean a fluffier loaf. Just realised though, I used cold water, that probably didn't help matters.

I'll give your way a try CW

harpy
Nov 12th, 2008, 04:46 PM
Yes perhaps try with water at room or body temperature next time.

I do use sugar and it certainly shouldn't stop the bread from rising, but I have read that it isn't critical to activating the yeast. (In fact I tend to make an "overnight sponge" first with just flour, water and yeast and I can see that the yeast is active in that without sugar. I'll tell you about that later though as I don't want to confuse matters :) )

mjnewbould
Nov 12th, 2008, 04:58 PM
Yes - of course I know why the suger might be needed in theory - its just that in practice - I'm not convinced it makes a difference - at least not in my experiments!

cedarblue
Nov 12th, 2008, 05:00 PM
mine's a kenwood.

here's my recipe and it never fails to rise.

it's for a white loaf, if i make a mixed one i use 12oz white & 4oz wholemeal flour & a smidge more water.

1 lb white flour (i use dove's farm organic)
1 & 1/2 tsp salt
3 tsp sugar
1 7g sachet dried yeast
300ml warm tap water
1 oz pure marge

put water in bottom, put on flour then make a well in the middle for the yeast. add the other ingredients and off you go. i use setting 3, crusty large loaf.
start to finish time, 3hrs 10mins.

good luck

cobweb
Nov 12th, 2008, 07:18 PM
this reminds me, i must go and make a loaf otherwise i'll have to pay £1.40 for another tasteless bag of pap from Tescos tomorrow.

bradders
Nov 12th, 2008, 07:25 PM
did everything as you said CW, it fell in a bit and never fully rose, wonder if my yeast isn't that good

Pob
Nov 12th, 2008, 07:28 PM
What was non-vegan in the recipes?

If it's milk powder - just skip it. Never saw the point of it when I wasn't vegan.

I usually sub olive oil for melted butter, otherwise I use rape seed oil.

Never seen vitamin c pills that aren't orange flavoured, so that gets skipped too.

Pob
Nov 12th, 2008, 07:29 PM
What sort of yeast is it? Needs to be fast acting yeast.

If it rises and falls it may be not enough salt. I use lo-salt to keep the sodium down.

cobweb
Nov 12th, 2008, 07:30 PM
what setting do you use, Bradders?

i stay away from the 'fastbake' one and use the regular setting for a large white loaf.

sorry to hear you are still having problems.

Pob
Nov 12th, 2008, 07:32 PM
Also the smaller loaves tend to rise proportionately better than the 2lb loaves, I think.

bradders
Nov 12th, 2008, 08:03 PM
i used the wholemeal bread setting, 2lb loaf (realised now i forgot salt this time woops) and it's fast acting yeast

(it was milk powder that wasn't vegan)

Pob
Nov 12th, 2008, 09:07 PM
I don't rate the wholemeal bread setting. Comes out a bit cake like.

Most wholemeal bread you buy in the shops seems to be half and half.

I generally do 1/3 white, 1/3 brown, 1/3 wholemeal and stick it on the white setting.

cobweb
Nov 12th, 2008, 09:07 PM
right, i never use the wholemeal setting either!
i don't like homemade bread that is 100% wholemeal, personally, i think it's too heavy, that's why i mix my white flour and also use the setting for white loaves.
also, the salt balances out the yeast so you need to concentrate! :D

bryzee86
Nov 12th, 2008, 09:44 PM
yeah I used to use half half, bradders.

twinkle
Nov 12th, 2008, 11:23 PM
Are you doing it on a loaf setting or a dough one? I generally just use my breadmaker to make dough and leave it to rise for as long as it needs. You might find punching it down and then letting it rise again in a warmish draught-free place produces a better result. I usually make bread rolls from my dough and they're nearly always great, unless I forget I've left them to rise and leave them overnight :rolleyes:

harpy
Nov 12th, 2008, 11:53 PM
Not adding salt makes it collapse - because it rises too much initially and can't keep it up, or something :confused: can't remember exactly but it's happened to me when I didn't add enough salt. So you may be making progress, bradders :)

eve
Nov 13th, 2008, 05:12 AM
I so admire all you bread-baking people (years ago I used to make all the bread at home but without a machine). Nowadays, on my own and not eating more than 2 slices of bread a day, I go to Aldis once a week and get a lovely thin-sliced rye sourdough, or housbrot rye. There's no way I'd fancy eating white bread these days even if it is home baked. :D

seamus
Nov 22nd, 2008, 12:26 PM
i was seriously thinking of buying the Panasonic SD 255its expensive but i go threw bread very fast. anyone here have one?

harpy
Nov 24th, 2008, 09:20 AM
Yes mine's an SD255 - I got it as a present last Christmas. I chose that one because it's said to be foolproof and despite not being a talented baker I get good results from it.

I did have another one on loan before that (Hinari, can't remember the model number) and got less reliable results from it but it might have been because I was learning.

I imagine if you shop around there might be some relative bargains at the moment, especially as I believe Panasonic are meant to be bringing out some new models sometime.

seamus
Nov 26th, 2008, 08:29 PM
i got it and am currently making my 5th. loaf. i would conside meself a good bread maker however the oven in my house just does not cut it at all so bread maker was a nessesity in creating a risen loaf.
tonight im making a sundried tommy, onion garlic and olive loaf with a variety of doves farm flours. looking forward to it.

Zero
Dec 3rd, 2008, 04:10 PM
See here for bread machine recipes: http://www.fatfree.com/recipes/breads-machine/ :)

harpy
Dec 3rd, 2008, 10:09 PM
I should try some of those other recipes - I just keep making the same one. (Obviously, I like it :D )