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Breadmaking - recipes, hints, tips, questions

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  • Allexie
    Allexie Posts: 3,460 Forumite
    Buy yourself the VITAL Breadmix .. from LIDL ... makes 2 breads ...
    ALL is in ...
    Works every time ...
    costs 89 pence per Kg (hence 2 breads!)

    &…is even VERY healthy .. (looking @ the ingredients )


    People will believe 'YOU are in the KNOW' ... / tastes and looks so GOOD
    (or the mother/father of 'Jamie'..or some other fine dining geek ...)

    Good luck ...

    (P.S:this is our 15 year home breadmaker experience .. )

    Open recipes work ... sometimes ...

    The LIDL one ... is for the 'journal of reproducible results'

    Oh rats!! Got a Netto and an Aldi and every other supermarket known to man/woman on me doorstep....but not a Lidl!!!icon8.gif
    ♥♥♥ Genius - 1% inspiration and 99% doing what your mother told you. ♥♥♥

  • squeaky
    squeaky Posts: 14,129
    First Post Combo Breaker
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    Thanks, but it is rising well, then it sinks as it bakes - I'm beginning to get very disilliusioned with it!
    Oh. Right.

    The troubleshooting bit in my hand book says this is because the dough was not strong enough.

    The main one here is too much water and not enough flour. (Maybe try reducing water by 20mil per loaf per time until the dough stays up?)

    They also say in my book that you should use proper bread flour. I know some of us do very well with ordinary plain flour but until you get this sorted it's best to stay with the book recipe.

    Have you checked your scales? It's possible you have the wrong flour weight. Find an unopened pack of rice or pasta or flour and check its weight on your scales. The packaging for those shouldn't weight more than a few (ten?) grams so if your result is off by more than this the scales are wrong.
    Hi, I'm a Board Guide on the Old Style and the Consumer Rights boards which means I'm a volunteer to help the boards run smoothly and can move and merge posts there. Board guides are not moderators and don't read every post. If you spot an inappropriate or illegal post then please report it to forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com. It is not part of my role to deal with reportable posts. Any views are mine and are not the official line of MoneySavingExpert.
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  • Thanks again - I'm going to have one more go this evening with the door closed and all the suggested points carried out.
    If I screw my eyes up tight I can just about see where you're coming from
  • larmy16
    larmy16 Posts: 4,324
    Combo Breaker First Post
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    Thanks again - I'm going to have one more go this evening with the door closed and all the suggested points carried out.

    Tom and Barbara,

    I had the MR breadmaker you have, and I had the same problem with the bread rising, then collapsing in the centre. Despite all the tricks, I never did resolve the problem. I do think I had a dodgy machine too though, as all my loaves came out dark crusted, even if I chose the light setting. The loaves were on the heavy side.

    Any deviation from the exact measurements resulted in a disaster, as did trying recipes off the back of bread flour packets.

    In the end I bought the Panasonic and gave the MR to a neighbour.
    Grocery Challenge £139/240 until 31/01
    Taking part in Sealed Pot No.819/2011
    Only essentials on Ebay/Amazon

  • I have had varying success with my BM. The recipes in the book seem to require far too much sugar - 3 tablespoons for the 2lb loaf. And the bread does come out v. sweet. says to use oil which does give a silky loaf if you like that sort of texture - more like a madiera cake.
    I rang up Morphy Richards who assured me recipe required the exact measurements. Most recipes I've seen have 1-3 teaspoons of sugar. They insisted not an error on their part.

    Also as it is a fastbake, was looking forward to quick loaves as I've greedy gannets in my house but if using fastbake (1 hour) I get bricks.

    Any suggestions. :confused:
  • The machine can stay, it was touch and go for a while! we have had success by totally ignoring the recipes in the manual and using the recipe I would have followed if I'd been using my trusty old Kenwood Chef (this is the recipe from the back of the strong flour packets this means that the sugar is optional and no oil, just a little soft butter or if you are really old fashioned and for the traditional taste, lard)

    I made a white loaf last night and a brown one today, both stayed risen and didn't collapse whilst baking AND I took the paddle thingy out as soon as the kneading was over so that I didn't have to wrench the bread from the tin and leave a big chunk of it behind, now there is just a little hole where the spindle was.
    If I screw my eyes up tight I can just about see where you're coming from
  • squeaky
    squeaky Posts: 14,129
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    How much different in terms of water and flour were the recipes?

    I saw yesterday while looking up troubleshooting for you that they reckoned a collapse was due to too much water v flour. Since my loaves all drop by about an inch (2cm) I put 20mil less water in the mix and the loaf dropped MORE! :eek: So much for that idea and back to my old recipe :)

    Glad to know you have good loaves now :)
    Hi, I'm a Board Guide on the Old Style and the Consumer Rights boards which means I'm a volunteer to help the boards run smoothly and can move and merge posts there. Board guides are not moderators and don't read every post. If you spot an inappropriate or illegal post then please report it to forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com. It is not part of my role to deal with reportable posts. Any views are mine and are not the official line of MoneySavingExpert.
    Never ascribe to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence.
    DTFAC: Y.T.D = £5.20 Apr £0.50
  • The Hovis strong flour pack has the traditional bread recipe that I have used for years and years, the only difference being that these day the yeast has changed from the 'real' yeast to the fast action. Back to basics saved the day

    1 lb 2 ounces flour
    1 oz butter (lard is nicer)
    1 1/2 teasp salt
    1 1/4 teasp fast action yeast
    12 fl oz water
    optional 2 teasp sugar

    The brown version was the same mixture, I just tinkered around with the proportions of wholemeal, white and granary flour, it was a mixture.
    If I screw my eyes up tight I can just about see where you're coming from
  • squeaky
    squeaky Posts: 14,129
    First Post Combo Breaker
    Forumite
    That's a higher water to flour ratio than any of the mixes shown in my book.

    Flour 1 lb 2 oz = 450g
    Water 12 oz = 336g

    in your recipe, versus

    Flour 460g
    Water 260g

    ..in mine

    Almost the same amount of flour but very different amounts of water. Hmm...
    Hi, I'm a Board Guide on the Old Style and the Consumer Rights boards which means I'm a volunteer to help the boards run smoothly and can move and merge posts there. Board guides are not moderators and don't read every post. If you spot an inappropriate or illegal post then please report it to forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com. It is not part of my role to deal with reportable posts. Any views are mine and are not the official line of MoneySavingExpert.
    Never ascribe to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence.
    DTFAC: Y.T.D = £5.20 Apr £0.50
  • That is interesting seeing as you said that your experimental 'lesser water' loaf sunk. The flour bag that i got the recipe from gives a handbake version of the same loaf with 10 fl oz water so they assume that the machine method will need more water....hmmmm..

    edit....on the bag it gives 1 lb 2 oz as 500 grammes not as your conversion
    If I screw my eyes up tight I can just about see where you're coming from
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