Anyone with a bread machine...help me make a perfect loaf!

[hunkermunker]

Just rediscovered my bread maker.

Tis a mervellous invention.

Now...how do I make the perfect loaf? Have made lovely ones, but a bit...sponge-like in texture.

My recipe calls for milk powder, but I have none. I have been making up the liquid with some milk as well as water - is this why it's gone a bit spongey? I'm only using white flour atm, but will branch out to wholemeal soon so any tips for that too would be good

TIA.

[quokka]

my loaf always ends up a bit flat and dense so have given up . Hopefully someone will be better than me

[hunkermunker]

Thanks, Quokka

What machine do you have? Mine aren't flat, just a bit...sponge-textured.

[frogs]

Which machine do you have, HM? Mine is the Panasonic which is pretty much idiot-proof (apart from the occasions when I've managed to start it up without putting any water in ).

I have always used milk powder rather than real milk -- that might be the problem. The panasonic recipe book does have one recipe that uses liquid milk, but that's a special case, as it were.

How do you mean, spongy? Too light? If so you might reduce the amount of yeast, perhaps. I also make white bread with the addition of three tablespoons of bran, which scores extra healthy eating brownie points, but also makes the bread a bit firmer in texture.

[hoxtonchick]

hmmm, i have a panasonic too, & never bother with the milk powder. or the sugar. or the vit c (though that's just for brown i think). am a lazy mare however. there's a french bread recipe in the book with just flour/salt/yeast/water which i tend to use. is that any help hunker?

[hoxtonchick]

ps hello frogs

[quokka]

HM have a Morphy Richards one that got passed down from mil. As dh says I'm glad we didn't buy it - as it doesn't get used!

[petunia]

I bought a new Panasonic one last week after years of using one that used proper milk. It never really made a really good loaf that was as good as a shop/supermarket though. This new one though, I'm so with it!

It might be because of the milk powder. All the recipes with mine use it instead of using the "real" stuff.
I think from reading the instructions, it's important to have new yeast as well. It also depends on the flour and what conditions the wheat grew in. My instructions say that flour with North American/Canadian wheat gave the best results.

Can't comment on doing wholewheat bread, haven't got round to trying those yet. I think from using my old one, you get a better loaf from mixing brown and white flour. Doing all brown gives a heavy loaf.

[frogs]

Hi hc!

Will try to email you soon, but am in permanent tail-chasing mode atm.

[KathyMCMLXXII]

My favourite loaves are when you replace a little bit of the white flour (half a cup or less) with wholemeal or rye flour, which gives the loaf a bit more personality, as Nigel Slater would say.

It's important not to use too much liquid so if the milk you are adding is on top of the official amount of water, that would make it spongey. Milk is just meant to soften the crust so it's not a vital ingredient anyway.

[hunkermunker]

Ah, will try it without the milk (I was adding it in place of some of the water, not in addition).

May get some milk powder though to see what the difference is.

And adding a bit of wholemeal/bran sounds good too.

By spongey, I mean it's cakey, not like bread - can't really describe it any other way.

I did wonder about the sugar too - will try it without that (hiya, HC - fancy seeing you on a thread where I'm talking about sugar ).

It's a Panasonic - and I've made good loaves in the past - I've just forgotten how to!

[Holidaymum]

Hi I just got the panasonic too and its the bees knees! However Milk powder and suager are not necessary in the amounts the recipes say, it replicates the style of breadmaking in factories if you add them,fine if you like sliced bread! You get better more rustic/bakers bread with no milk powder and just a tsp sugar to feed the yeast. best results we've had is with half strong white flour and half dove farms malthouse flour gives you a light granary loaf very yummy!

[hoxtonchick]

[hunkermunker]

OK, I now have a half white/half wholemeal loaf...will report back.

I used no milk or milk powder and less sugar. It smells lovely!

[singersgirl]

I always use oil instead of butter, and my preferred loaf is two-thirds white, one-third wholemeal - sometimes I put a few oats in as well. I made a loaf with egg in once that was a bit cakey.

Our breadmaker is on the timer for tomorrow morning. Good luck with yours!

[Ellbell]

I have the Panasonic too (after getting fed up with the Morphy Richards, whose blade came loose after a while). I normally make the Fastbake recipe, which has a slightly denser texture (better for dd's sarnies and easier to cut). I also use oil instead of butter and I like a mixture of white and rye flour. Yum! I use milk powder, but am running out atm, so may try a loaf without to see what it's like. I never use more than a teaspoon of sugar - some recipes have way too much sugar and that just makes the bread taste sweet to me. Good luck.

[hunkermunker]

I'm going to try using oil next time, I think.

My half and half loaf is lovely though - think not using milk has really helped.

[Holidaymum]

We put about 4 oz mixed seeds in last night, sunflower, sesame and poppy seeds in the raisin dispenser and did half white half wholemeal it was yummy! Saves a fortune compared to what you'd pay in the shops.

Kids did bagels the other night with cinammon and raisin we experimented and they are fab, just used white dough recipe 4 ox raisins and 1 tbsp cinamon then shaped into bagels,left for an hour then poached for 1 minute in boliing water with 2 tblsp sugar and baked for 15 mins.

[upandaway]

I threw mine in the skip got so cross with the hardened mess at the bottom of the bread oven.
Watching the thread with interest. If I know how to make a good loaf I might get another one!

[hunkermunker]

Oh, dear, UAA!

What make was it? I know Panasonic are very good.

I need to experiment more. I seem to have awakened my baking gene [nobody more shocked than me] Made apple, strawberry and raspberry crumble this weekend and it was fecking lovely if I do say so myself

What do people store their homebaked bread in? Plastic bags make it go yicky. Do I need a cloth bag from somewhere?

[upandaway]

Always always have stored bread in the microwave.
Cant remember what make it was but it was Tesco's £45 I think years ago.#

Dont they always taste a bit sickly or ws that just mine (and that was on a flippin good day)!

All I ever wanted was to wake up to the smell of freshly baked bread wafting around the house. It never came!

The crumble sounds yummy! Nearly made one today with all our plums we collected .

[Holidaymum]

I always avoided them as everyones homemade bread was hard and yukky, I made better by hand and then i read on here about the panasonic, checked it out on Amazon and nobody had a abda word for it!

Can honestly say its hard to tell the difference between good bakers bread and homemade now!

We store in plastic and its fine if the bread is cool first other wise its goes icky, but then it only lasts a day before its gobbled up by three bottomless footed kids.