Breadmaking troubleshooting...

[Ceolas]

I have the Panasonic SD53 (? the one with the nut/seed tray)

I usually do a large loaf (500g flour) with about 400g white and 100g wholemeal flour. Often the bread has a somewhat rubbery and slightly damp texture.

What am I doing wrong?

Are you measuring all your ingredients very carefully

I am not an expert but I find if I measure carefully I get a fairly good loaf most of the time.

Do you take it out the machine as soon as it's ready? I have the same machine and If I don't take it out as soon as it starts beeping, it sits in its own steam. You have to take it out immediately and put it on a cooling rack so the steam can escape as it cools down.

Yes I do measure carefully, also take the loaf out as soon as it beeps.

Don't get me wrong, it's perfectly edible, just quite...well, dense I suppose.

what yeast are you using? I had a similar thing with Doves Farm yeast, but have now switched to Hovis sachets (much more expensive but a properly risen loaf).
Try adding slightly more yeast than the recipe says, adn see if that makes a difference? Also I found that supermarket own label flour wasn't as good as Hovis/Allinsons.

How long has it been happening? Could it be related to the cold weather (eg your ingredients going in very cold)?
(Of course this is the kind of thing the Panasonic is meant to cope with as it has temperature sensors, but worth thinking about anyway.)

Also - are you using the same flour as usual? I got crap bread for a while when I was using economy flour.

Have you read the "troubleshooting" bit at the back of the instructions? That gives some possible causes of an assortment of problems.

My current problem is that my bread only rises on one side sometimes. I think it might be failing to rise on the side where the window is and it's weather related. That side doesn't have the temp sensor in it.

Using Asda organic bread flour and Allinson yeast. Yes, have changed both recently. Had quite good results over the summer with Tesco's bread flour and own brand yeast. But tbh am such a sporadic breadmaker I couldn't say if the weather is much to do with it!

I'd like to get into the habit of having home baked bread all the time but just never seem to be that organised. Oh and DD2 says she only likes bread from the shops!

i have a new panasonic 255 and have had lovely fluffy bread so far. xl loafs and i do half white, half wholemeal.

use all doves products.

keep yeast in the fridge, clipped shut.

as soon as bread comes out i cut the very end off to let all the steam out

try with slightly less water.

OK well I would do several things to ensure perfect bread:

-use a branded flour like Hovis or Allinsons or Doves Farm
-if you don't do it very often use yeast in sachets rather than a tub or packet because it keeps better
-check the breadmaker or ingredients are placed somewhere they're not going to suffer from the cold.

If you do it regularly it becomes very easy because you remember the quantities and don't even need to look at the book.

IME, I don't think using branded flour ensures perfect bread. My dad makes bread regularly using a branded flour but went through a patch where it simply didn't come out right.

Hello Ceolas, I am not an expert, only learning myself really, but I warm the pan before I put the flour in, I live in a very cold house. I made bread last night, and put the machine in the living room because we have no heating in our kitchen - (I put an egg in my liquid measuring cup, then added the water but put 20 ml less water in than the recipe asked for), had 3 different types of flour (wholemeal, granary and white) - bread turned out great, but I am using the sachets atm.

interesting, soupy. sometimes our bread rises much more on one side than the other. i'd foolishly assumed it was becasue the kitchen counter is on a bit of a slant and it depends on where i put the machine.

i've noticed with wholemeal flour (esp the extra strong allinson stuff) that if it's sitting for a long time it can absorb most of the water, which results in a pretty rubbery loaf. problem is solved if you put the wholemeal in first and then the white on top, to form a barrier. could it be something like that?

I made this assumption because I was getting perfect bread every time, then the really cold weather started and I got lopsided loaves. Not every time, even though nothing else had changed.

I've had lopsided loaves when the yeast has been less than fresh. It may well exaggerate problems with temperature differences too.

Another thing which has just occurred to me. DD2 has had a dairy allergy (think she's growing out of it now) and I have used olive oil instead of butter in the bread. Would that do it? I have a test loaf with butter in at the moment. Last of the Asda flour, Tesco yeast and very strictly measured water.

Will report back later!

jesus, ceolas, how long is this loaf gonna take? i think i may have discovered the problem with your bread... the machine is broken...

Where do you put the bread to cool? How much water to you add to 500g of flour?

You dont have to substitue the butter - you can just leave it out, the bread crust will not be quite so crusty.

Lol Aitch!!!

OK it's done. Have just made sandwiches for the packed lunches.

Texture better I'd say. It also rose more which I think helped.

350ml water to 500g flour.

Do you use warm water? The quantities of water can efect the rise in the loaf - a little more water will help it to rise in the cold, just a tad though - other wise it can rise and flop. Warm water can help the yeast to activate.

No I use water straight out of the tap. I did think it'd be pretty cold today!

I cool the bread on a wire rack with a tea towel over it.

I would stop the tea towel - that is stopping the bread from cooling in an even fashion.

Try using tepid water - rather than cold.

the machine should allow everythign to come to temp prior to starting the cycle, i'd have thought.

Well perhaps it is just too cold atm and the machine is not allowing for the smow and ice!!

how cold ARE your houses?!