bread hasn't risen at all - twice?

blahn

Hi. I have a Panasonic SD254 breadmaker. I make the 100% wholemeal sandwich loaf about 3/4 times a week. We use sainsbury's 100% stoneground wholemeal flour for 99p. We bought some more two days ago and since then two loaves have failed to rise at all. They have come out like bricks. Yesterday was the first, managed to eat it all in one day to get it out of the way for the next. But that failed too! The recipe calls for 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp sugar, 1/2 tsp yeast. I always use 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp sugar (I want to reduce the salt so reduce the sugar proportionately?). I don't think it would suddenly start causing problems now? The tops of my loaves are sometimes uneven but we don't really care.

I was just wondering if it could be a bad bag of flour. I've opened a new sachet of yeast for the second loaf so I don't think it is that?! I don't really want to make another one till I have some firm guess as to what could cause it as another 5 hr wait and disappointment will be quite annoying. And I was thinking, if it is a bad bag of flour, then it would be a bad batch of flour, so all the other bags will be bad too, maybe?!

Pretani

Could be the temperature of the water. I made pizza dough in a hurry once and poured in hot water instead of measureing the temp to 105-120 degree and it killed the yeast. bread didn't rise at all.

blahn

Hi. Thank you but I don't think it could be that as I always add in tap water to 310 ml. The breadmaker has a resting period where (I think) it warms it up to the right temperature before baking.

lesw

I have the same breadmaker and use the same flour. You need more salt and sugar, that's definitely the reason (sorry!). Sugar is food source for the yeast and salt helps bread rise:
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Does_adding_salt_to_a_bread_receipe_cause_the_bread_to_rise

blahn

I had a feeling it was that but I don't understand how. Since I bought the breadmaker I've used about half salt, half sugar. Sometimes I've used about 1/3 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp sugar. Sometimes it was uneven - like really high on one side, sloping down to the other - but sometimes I got perfectly rounded tops. Why would it suddenly cause problems now?

Thanks.

chmmy

You could try making a loaf with different flour, or a bread mix?

mouseymousey99

I make bread by hand and find the weather affects the bread too, since its been warmer I am getting a much stickier bread. Also agree re the need for salt and sugar in bread - I also add olive oil but I don't know how that works with a breadmaker. It could be you have some 'duff' flour or yeast so as chmmy says give it a whirl with another so that you know its not your machine?

minimooch

I had this happen last year , maybe at this time, and its suddenly happening again. i always reduce the sugar and salt and normally works fine, but now wholewheat wont rise, but white will.

I posted for advice last year and someone suggested using vitamin C, I have to confess I didnt because i changed flour brand a few times, found one that worked and went with it. I definitely think there is an issue with some flours and warmer weather.

having said all that yesterday I made my first decent WW loaf for ages, and guess what - I'ld added twice as much sugar as usual as an experiment. so i'ld suggest try more sugar - if that fails try different brands and or vit C.

blahn

Thanks a lot everyone! I think (but I'll check) that my yeast has vitamin c already added so I'll try a different bag of flour and more sugar. I guess I should do it one at a time to pinpoint the problem but I can't take another brick! But does the sugar have to be proportionate to the salt? Can I do 1 tsp sugar and 1/2 tsp salt or will that screw it up even more?

Funnily enough it is only whole wheat with me too as I made a white loaf the other day and it was as ridiculously big, about twice the height of a supermarket loaf.

Ishtar

My first thought would be the weather - the heat can cause the yeast to work a bit more 'efficiently'! Try adding a little less and seeing how you go.

My second thought was the quality of the flour. I've had nothing but problems since I changed flour (used to use Dove's Farm, but it's now £1.87 a bag in my local Tesco:eek:) and have had to tweak the recipe a fair bit to get the Hovis flour to work (and I have to be more organised and use the 4 hour programme...no fast loaves for me any more!). Might be worth trying a different flour and seeing how you go.

Incidentally, I've never had a good 100% wholemeal loaf from either of my bread machines - I have to do a 50/50 loaf in order to get it to rise, using the white bread programme.

HTH
D.

wendy52

I was surprised to read this as I have had exactly the same problem with the same flour that I bought on Tuesday from Sainsbury's.
I make the 50/50 recipe and have had to increase the white proportion to get it to rise better.

I think that it must be the quality of the 99p bags.

I am glad that I didn't stock up!