Anyone want a wholemeal brick ??

Interesting. Usually wholemeal doesn't rise as well as it has less gluten in it. They always tend to be somewhat denser than white loaves, but shouldn't collapse back.

Collapsing back can mean several things. Usually either that the heating regime isn't right (for example witha hand-baked loaf, you open the oven door for a long time early in the baking process) or that the kneading hasn't been good enough. It may also be that there is too much yeast and/or the proving temperature was too high.

For a hand-made loaf I would recommend using a little more yeast, a little more water, kneading a load more and possibly substituting about a 1/4 of the wholemeal flour for strong white flour to increase the gluten content. I have never had any trouble in the past with packet bread mixes, but one thing is that the yeast could be quite old (is there a BB date on the packet?).

Trouble is that it is very hard to tell with breadmakers exactly what has happened (guess why I don't use them...), so other than trying again with a different packet mix or a home-made mix, I don't really know what you can do.

I tried a wholemeal loaf mix with exactly the same result.:rotfl:

Got the mix wrong with a white loaf the other day and even the local sea gulls wouldnt touch it.:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

I GOT A BREAD MIXER somewhere lol

I wanted to save money but found the yeast and bread flour very very expensive..where do you buy cheap but good quality ingrediants ?

Also is there instructions on here somewhere how to make the perfect loaf ?

charlies_mum wrote:

Just got a breadmaker and made a couple of lovely white loaves. Went into Lidl and found a wholemeal mix so tried that yesterday. Did exactly what the packet said, and the loaf was rising so high I thought it was going to hit the window.
Next time I looked it had flopped and when it was finished it was more like malt loaf. Anyone know what I did wrong ?

I had exactly the same experience with Lidl's wholemeal breadmix, spectacular over-rising & then sunken collapse

I eventually worked out that the amount of water specified in the instructions made a mix that was far too wet for my Morphy Richards BM. I added less water to the other half of the pack & made it drier to start with, then kept adding a Tablespoon at a time as it kneaded till the texture seemed right, & it produced a much better loaf

the trouble with breadmakers is that they're very fussy about exact proportions & measuring of ingredients. unlike hand-made bread you can't ajust the wet/dry content of the dough as you go along (you get a feel for when it's right) & if the texture of the dough's not spot on, you don't know until the loaf's already cooked & failed


PS ... is it just me, or does anyone else find Lidl's breadmixes terribly salty?

MIRRY wrote:

I GOT A BREAD MIXER somewhere lol

I wanted to save money but found the yeast and bread flour very very expensive..where do you buy cheap but good quality ingrediants ?

Also is there instructions on here somewhere how to make the perfect loaf ?

Hi I buy my bread flour from Tesco 51p for 1.5 kg. That makes approx 3 large loaves and a huge pizza, I get my dried yeast from either Tesco or Sainsbury's usually their own brand. but can't remember how much i pay as ive got lots left from a bulk buy. You could probably get the Bread flour and yeast cheaper from somewhere else but i'm happy with what i get, and i do look around for savings.
demented:D