Breadmaker help

[Likeaheadlesschicken]

We bought a Panasonic Breadmaker last week and although the bread tastes amazing (only tried the medium sized rapid white so far) the top of the bread is very pale but the sides have a nice crust.

We have used the medium crust setting and the sides are lovely but the top is very pale and tonight I tried the dark setting, this time the sides are quite dark and crusty but the top is very pale (but slightly darker than on medium).

My question is, is this normal or is thee anything I can do to make the top nice and crusty?

Thanks.

Have you checked the trouble shooting guide in the manual? We have a panasonic (well it is now banished to the cupboard when not in use) but ours was 2nd hand so no book to refer to.

Hi Flying there doesn't seem to be a bit in the book on what to do if you get a pale crust and google can't seem to help me either! Hopefully someone will have the answer on here!

Did you add a spoonful of sugar to the other ingredients? A little sugar in the mixture will result in a browner crust

Thanks Cogito I did put sugar in, it was golden granulated, is there a better type of sugar I should use?

golden granulated is fine.
I find that if it doesn't rise much I don't get such a dark top (because the hottest part of the machine is near the top?), how was the rise? Rapid settings sometimes don't rise as far as standard.

In general you get better bread with the longer settings - it has longer to rise and develop a good flavour, so this might be something you can just solve by using a different setting.

Putting skimmed milk powder in gives a nice brown loaf top. I have a Kenwood breadmaker and the recipe says to add 5 tsp of skimmed milk powder for a medium loaf.

I use skimmed milk powder same as MoreBeta and regular granulated sugar. Browning is as a result of caramelisation and sucrose (table sugar) and lactose (milk sugar) will all help give you a browner crispier crust. Did you add some fat to the bread?

Thanks for your help everyone, I think it was because I was using the rapid setting, I've now tried the 4hr one and my crust is....well.... crusty!

Have you tried putting mixed seeds in the bread? julien graves do them. Makes lush bread.

mmmmmm seedy bread