Breadmaker disaster

[DannyK]

Just got a new machine and I am sure I measured everything properly. Duff yeast? Am using an in date tin of Allinsons for breadmakers.

[Snoop Puss]

Not sure that duff yeast would explain the uncooked bit.

Try again?

[greenishfing]

I'd try once more and take photos again. If no massive improvement take the breadmaker back and get a refund....not fit for purpose.

I have no idea what make you've got but if my trusty panasonic produced bread like that it would be on the transfer list.

[DannyK]

Thanks.
It's a Morphy Richards.
I'll get a fresh tin of yeast before trying again.
My previous one was a Kenwood which started turning out duff loaves after it had vibrated itself off the worktop onto the floor. The lid was damaged so got a new lid but still produced duff so I assumed something broken which is why got a new machine.

[mothhawk]

Just a thought - did you use the same ingredients and method of placing them in the machine that you did with the Kenwood? Different makes of machine can use different proportions and different ways of loading. My Panasonic I put the yeast and flour in first, my bro's machine he puts the liquid first. Check the MR recipe booklet.

I agree with Snoop that duff yeast wouldn't explain the uncooked bit. Either the program was wrong for the ingredients used, or you have a duff machine that isn't heating correctly.

[Mr Bones]

We had a Morphy Richards Fastbake machine. The recipe below always worked for us

500gm strong white bread flour
300gm water
1.5tsp salt
1.5tsp fast action yeast

Set to 2lb loaf size, medium crust

[DannyK]

We had a Morphy Richards Fastbake machine. The recipe below always worked for us

Surely must be sugar too to feed yeast?

[Snoop Puss]

Surely must be sugar too to feed yeast?

No, not necessarily. There are natural sugars in flour and the fermentation process itself generates sugar. I very, very rarely add sugar to bread doughs and even then a lot less than stipulated. I make soft dinner rolls that supposedly call for 35 g of sugar, but I only add 5 g. They still come out very soft. Check the book that came with the machine and see if they give you a recommended recipe and try that.
I came across this quotation about bread and sugar:
"For products that contain ‘no added sugars’ the sugars in the finished bread come from the sugars that are naturally present in flour and through the action of yeast during the fermentation process. Flour typically contains total sugar in the range 0.5 – 1.4g per 100g"
from https://www.fob.uk.com/wp-content/up...-and-Bread.pdf

[greenishfing]

I definitely agree that every breadmaker has it's own recipes and order of putting things in. I've had three altogether over the years. The first one, a secondhand Panasonic, was given to me by somebody to whom my sister had been passing on my some of my excess veg and fruit, and the second one, another secondhand Panasonic bought from a charity shop for £10 had different amounts and recipes to my present modern stainless steel Panasonic machine. This machine, which I bought brand new, has a seperate compartment for the yeast which it adds itself and the recipes all use less salt and sugar. They have all made great bread though using their own recipes.

[DannyK]

That was a very interesting article. I didn't realise that flour had a sugar content.
I have always stuck to the book recipes. The only departure was I added oil last so I didn't have to clean the measure before adding sugar. I don't think the order that the ingredients are added matters as long as the salt is kept away from the yeast, after all, after a couple of seconds it's all mixed up.

On reading the yeast tin properly for the first time in over three years I found that it should have been kept in the fridge once opened. I have never done this! All my problems seem to stem from when my wife moved the tin from a relatively cool cupboard to one near the hob. I think that they should put "Refrigerate after opening" on the front instead of hiding it among a load of guff.

I will report back when I've got some new yeast.

[Mr Bones]

Surely must be sugar too to feed yeast?

No sugar - one of the things that drew me to that recipe, seem to remember also it was set to French bread on the settings.

[DannyK]

I wish I'd been offered domestic science when I was at school.
The white bread recipe with the Kenwood included eggs which the MR doesn't.
BUT all the MR recipes have milk powder, which I had to make a special trip to buy.
My late mother made fantastic bread by hand but I never got her recipe.

[greenishfing]

The recipes for most breads in the Panasonic I have use neither milk, milk powder or eggs. Just flour, salt, sugar, water and either oil or butter. One of my earlier machines did use powdered milk but I'm sure somewhere in the instructions it gave an amount of fresh milk that you could substitute. I always assumed, probably wrongly, the milk just made the crust softer.

Looking again at the pictures the bread does look dense as well as having a raw bit. One of my machines did that when the thermostat/temperature sensor went faulty and it wasn't getting up to heat

[DannyK]

Got some sachets of yeast from Tesco. The result, a normal loaf! The moral is to keep opened yeast in the fridge. Here's a link explaining how the various ingredients work.

[Snoop Puss]

Success! Good stuff.