Why does my bread look like this?

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Made some bread in my bread maker, which I have used many times without any problems, and the last two loaves have turned out like this.
It's like it's started to rise and then given up and is so crusty in the bottom and really, really dense inside.

I've done exactly the same as I normally do, following the instruction and recipe books, I'm using the same brand of ingredients I've always used, everything is in date etc etc.
I can't work out what I'm doing wrong. Any suggestions?

looks like it's not rising properly.
yeast is a bit temperamental and how it works has to do with many factors like air moisture, temperature, salt 'potency'...

that's why I gave up on breadmaker and got a kitchen mashine instead

Mine has been doing this too so I'm interested. I wondered if it was old flour, old yeast, or liquid touching yeast too early.. if it keeps happening I'll chuck the machine out (it's elderly) but it did make such nice bread.

You can check how good your yeast still is by just putting some in warm water with a bit of sugar and see how well it foams up. Even in-date yeast can lose its potency, you might find you'd do better with fresh.

Thanks Micro. I'll check my yeast later. Hopefully that's all it is. Bread maker is fairly new and not very used

You didn't put your salt in too close to the yeast did you? or too much salt? That would weaken the yeast greatly.

No, yeast on the bottom as per instructions, perfectly measured salt on top of all other dry ingredients :(

I keep my yeast in the fridge. I was having issues in the past but this seems to have helped.

I don't have a bread maker. Making bread by hand I found that a few batches were not rising properly. I threw away the yeast and bought some more and kept it in the fridge. Problem solved.