Breadmaker wholemeal bread!

[Snadger]

Right .........my result is a very dark brown rustic loaf, where the middle has collapsed inward!
I've cut a square donut shaped piece of the end and it tastes and smells bladdy marvelous though.
Well impressed with the 'nose', taste, colour and texture, especially when eaten hot! Someone mentioned adding black treacle I believe, but even without it it has a treacly nose to it?

Marks out of 10 for presentation would have to be 2............but 10/10 for flavour, smell and texture.(not brick like at all)

Deffo going to have another go, but how do I stop it sinking in the middle?

[WrexTheDragon]

Loaf sinks due to wrong volume of liquid.

On you next load when it starts mixing check to see if the dough is too dry.

Add water or flour until you get a nice dough.

With wholemeal you need more water than with a white loaf.

[Capsid]

Yes for a 500g loaf I use 350ml of water, but then you added milk whereas I use milk powder. Perhaps you need a bit more water than 300ml.

[WrexTheDragon]

Frightened to add too much of anything in case it try's to make an escape through the breadmaker lid! I put in 300ml of water with 500g of flour. 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt and 2 teaspoons of sugar, a sachet of yeast and a splash of milk! Hope its ok!

Did you miss out the oil/fat/butter?

I would also reduce the salt to between 1/2 to 1 teaspoon.

[Rhona]

I've cut a square donut shaped piece of the end and it tastes and smells bladdy marvelous though.
Well impressed with the 'nose', taste, colour and texture, especially when eaten hot! Someone mentioned adding black treacle I believe, but even without it it has a treacly nose to it?

Marks out of 10 for presentation would have to be 2............but 10/10 for flavour, smell and texture.(not brick like at all)

I dunno... Sounds like a success to me!

I make bread most days and sometimes it sinks in the middle, but tastes fab. Ignoring any scientific explanation, I think that the flour just gets a bit moody sometimes as I make it more or less the same!

That said - I do notice that can happen if your water is a tad on the hot side, or your yeast has direct contact with the water straight away.

[JanetKent]

Hi everyone

l was drawn to this post because l've always found that making wholemeal bread in my own bread machine has also been rather 'dense' - to put it mildly. l found the half and half wholemeal/white flour was fine tho. But mostly l subsitute 2 ozs flour for 2ozs fine cornmeal - makes a lovely soft slice. l always add a tablespoon of wheatgerm too - to replace the goodness that's been removed from white flour. This mixture makes a really nice loaf of bread. l do occasionally have the problem of the middle collapsing just before it is finished tho - anyone have any ideas why please ?
When l feel brave l'm going to have a go at making a loaf using half chestnut flour and half white flour...l'll let you know how it goes..

l have 3 questions...

Firstly - l followed the recipe for bread that came with the machine but found the loaf was really quite sweet so l drastically reduced the sugar to 2 teaspoonsful. Has anyone else found the bread seems too sweet ?? l can't help wondering why so much sugar is needed ??

2nd question... Does anyone have an opinion on bread machine versus hand made bread - is there any difference ?? l've never made bread entirely by hand but l've heard it is much better... ???

3rd question... in a bread machine loaf has anyone noticed a difference using fresh yeast as opposed to the dried granule type yeast ?

Thanks
Janet

[Jeanied]

I gather that salt kills the yeast too so you need to add them in separate parts of the mix, if you see what I mean.
I always find that the bread machine bread is a lot chewier than the one I make by hand - so if I want nice, crumbly soft bread I mix it by hand - I much prefer my bread machine bread toasted!

[Snadger]

All I know is that bread made at home (however its made) ALWAYS seems to taste better.
It has the added bonus that I know exactly whats went into it!

[zazen999]

My standard machine recipe is:
pound of flour [half and half wholemeal to whatever white flour is on offer]
teaspoon dried yeast, sugar, salt
tablespoon [or a glug] of oil - olive if I'm going half and half bread with a pizza; veggie if just bread/rolls
half a pint of water.

I put it in the breadmaker using the 'dough' function and leave it for the full cycle. Then tip it out, shape, let it rise [bread/rolls] or add the topping [pizza] and then bake.

[Two_Sheds]

l drastically reduced the sugar to 2 teaspoonsful.

My booklet says 1.25 tsp sugar (same as salt and yeast).

Does anyone have an opinion on bread machine versus hand made bread - is there any difference ?

The time!
I made bread rolls with class last week: 4 sets of 7 children, each set having to do a bit of weighing, measuring and kneading. Took ruddy hours: 7 in total.
They were very, very pleased when the cooked rolls came out of the Baby Belling though. It was like feeding time at the pond

[Flummery]

I use olive oil instead of butter. A little fat content stops the loaf drying out so quickly (fat chance!)

I really do prefer hand making bread - although I mix and knead in a Kenwood Chef as my hands are a bit arthritic these days. You can tell by the consistency if it needs more water or flour. I find they can be stodgy in the middle if the cooking temp isn't high enough. In an over you just whack it up a bit next time. Don't know if you can control a breadmaker?

[Mac]

I "gave in" at the weekend and bought a bread maker (great recommendations on this site so went with the Panasonic!), as we love making our own bread but have found it quite time consuming. The actual kneading and stuff isn't the time consuming bit, it was the proving and all the other stuff that you had to do after an hour or so at a time. Have only made two loaves - both basic white, one rapid one not just to test it out. And I can safely say - YUM! Both of them were fantastic!! Will be trying out some more complex stuff later in the week, so will keep an eye on this thread for advice and inspiration.!

[Alison]

I use olive oil too - the recipes ask for 15g and so I add about a tblsp full. Works well. Don't use as much salt as stated but find you can't reduce the sugar too much. I have the Panasonic and find the bread is just the same as hand made and much easier but loaves out my friend's machine seem a bit doughy in the middle for me - not sure what make she has though or what recipe she uses. Never used fresh yeast in it and always use dried milk powder if needed.

One thing with the Panasonic, it doesn't seem to matter which order you add the ingredients, some books seem to get very uptight about this. We just lob in flour, yeast, sugar, salt, milk power, oil and water when we go to bed and leave it on timer to be ready about 6.30 for butties that day.

[Flummery]

I don't add sugar at all. With modern dried yeasts it's not necessary. I would add a little to a fresh yeast starter to get it frothing. It must be something to do with the machine process?

[Hilary B]

An friend of mine who was into experimentation found that reducing the amount of yeast prevented it sinking in the middle (usually the result of rising too fast). I still don't know why it worked for him, but it did. He always got 3 batches out of a sachet of the special yeast you are supposed to use in a bread machine. I don't (and nor did he) add white flour, but he DID use quite a lot of sugar (soft brown or demerara for wholemeal. I think it was 1/3 of a cup).
Make sure the salt is right amount. Too much slows the yeast down, too little and the flavour and keeping quality suffer, as well as risking the same 'rise and sink' effect.
I prefer to simply mix in the machine and then 'finish' by hand for wholemeal. You can't always be sure of it rising at the predicted speed.