Breadmaker, where did I go wrong?

[jenroy29]

Good Morning, I really hope some of you can help me.
DP returned from Tesco yesterday with a Breadmaker for me (don't know why because he never eats anything that I make).
To show my enthusiasm and gratitude, I unpacked it immediately and couldn't find the instructions. But DP had had them out to check which flour to buy. Panic over.
So I'm using the little cup and spoon to measure the ingredients, tipping them in in the correct order, got to the yeast and the little tin (that DP had bought with the flour) said on the front, not in the smallest writing "Not recommended for use in Bread Makers, bless his eyes, they did work once!
Thankfully we had a little sachet of Easy Bake Yeast, For Bread Makers and Hand Baking.
It being the first time, I was careful, double checking everything. So I select the program, Basic, 700g, light crust, start. I left it to do it's magic, 3hrs couldn't pass quicker, I'm a patient person, I left the machine alone, peeking through the window occasionally to see where it was upto.
Beep, beep, yeah it's done. I didn't want a soggy loaf so I donned oven glove and extracted a loaf that was smaller than I expected and very heavy. Left to cool, excitment waning, sliced, spread..."it tastes like crumpets" from dd, "I don't think I want to try that" said ds with a curled lip.
There are a few lumps of flour in the crust so I should have sieved (have I spelt that right) it. But what else did I do wrong? There are alot of nice airy holes but it's just so dense.
Thanking you in advance.

Hmm. I wonder if the yeast was out of date. It sound as if you really followed the instructions. I have been using mine for years and I do all the measurments by eye now and it is always fine, so you don't need to be that accurate generally. I have never sieved anything!

Did you use bread flour?

I would try again, following the instructions again with new yeast. I always use the sachets. If it is a disaster again then take the machine back.

I do 600g flour
35g sugar
10g salt
360 mls water
a good pour of oil
sachet of yeast

Your quantities are very different to the recipe I followed, it's in cups which is abit foreign to me 1 1/3 cups water, 1tbsp of oil, 1tsp salt, 3 1/3 cups flour ( I used Morrisons strong white flour, ideal for making bread rolls) 1tsp sugar (that's less than what you use and the same as the salt in my recipe) and 2tsp dried yeast (it was in date but it was a 7g sachet and after measuring the 2tsp there was still some left)
Dp is having a go today to rule out human error. (not that I'll accept that it was my fault!)

My recipe for a basic 500-600g loaf goes like this. (Weigh rather than use 'cups' which I've never found to be reliable.)

280-300ml water
1tsp salt
2tsp sugar
1 sachet Hovis Easy Blend Dried Yeast for bread machines
1 tablespoon dried skimmed milk powder
A good knob of butter (about 1oz)
14oz extra strong white bread flour

The important ratio is the one of flour to water. Not enough water and your loaf will be heavy and dry. Too much and it can over-rise and sink in the middle. Can take a little trial and error.

did you put in the kneaders?
btw, you can use dried active yeast in te bread maker, you just need to dissolve it in warm water first.
no need to sieve the flour (I never do).

DP is doing it now, he looks like he is a TV chef with everything measured out into different dishes, it's so funny except that the washing up will be left to me.

what makes a nice moist springy loaf for me is:

mix 1 cup of water with 1 cup of flour (I use brown bread flour), add half a tea spoon dried active yeast. put in the breadmaker and leave for 6 hours or so (you can also put in less yeast and let it stand for longer, over night).

then add another cup of water, 500g flour (brown bread flour, or 150g rye 350g wheat), 1 table spoon oil, half a teaspoon salt. switch on (normal setting, big loaf, light crust).

so far this has always produced yummy bread.

i agree you probably had old yeast

i use
3/4 cup water
270g strong white flour
15g butter
2 tbsp dried milk
1 heaped tbsp granulated sugar
1 tsp salt
1tsp yeast (easy bake sachets, not the granuals in a tin)

it has never failed to make a decent loaf

(oh and i dont sieve the flour and im not that careful with the ingrediants, i might use a bit less or more and dont really notice a huge difference at the end)

I always use Doves Quick Yeast which is the first ingredient to go in (1 tsp), then 475g flour, 1.5tsp sugar, 25g butter, 1.25 tsp salt, 320ml water.

A lot of it seems to come down to the machine. For some reason the Panasonic SD254 (which I use at work - expect some people will have guessed that from the recipe) just seems to always produce the right results - as even I can chuck things in and get an acceptable result.

I expect you will need to experiment a bit with your machine to find which of the recipes works best.

Look at the time it takes... the Panasonic will take 4 hours to do a basic white loaf (2 hours for quick loaf). The amount of time the loaf is left to prove could well be making a difference. So if your bread maker is doing things faster... try a different setting to see if there is a longer proving/rising time available.

I had the same problem today, first one was on a 4 hour bake and it came out flat and raw! second time round did the quick bake and came out a bit better but you really could not eat it.
Will be trying some tips here to see how it goes. All trial and error i guess.

Progress report;
DP's loaf was better but not much, despite using freshly bought yeast and ASDA's flour.
But today I have replicated savoycabbage's recipe and I have triumphed, DS wanted to try it before I'd got it out of the machine!
Thanks so much everyone.