Breadmaking advice please

sarahwhu

Morning all,

I love this board! I lurk every day but rarely post.....

I was lucky enough to lay my hands on a Panasonic breadmaker this week which I have started to use. My first loaf was the sundried tomato one from the recipe book which was lovely :j

However, yesterday I followed the recipe for the sandwich loaf but I wasn't very pleased with the results.... the paddle got stuck in the bottom of the loaf which took some digging out :rolleyes: but the main problem was the consistency of the bread which was quite stodgy and a bit cake like - almost as though it wasnt cooked for quite long enough. I am keen to get my OH into accepting home made bread for sandwiches etc so that I can stop buying shop bread - but I won't manage it unless I can improve on yesterdays effort

I would really appreciate any advice that you experts could offer me? Is the Sandwich loaf the best one to do or should I stick to the basic loaf..... I am going to try again this afternoon but would like to have an idea of what went wrong with my last attempt. As far as I know I did measure the ingrediants accurately although I dont have the measuring spoon and cup that should be with the machine and use alternative measuring cups etc.

Thank you in advance.

sarahwhu

Just a thought.... the only ingrediant that I couldnt measure very accurately was the 15g of butter (my scales smallest increment is 25g) - would the amount of butter make a difference if it was slightly out?

ariba10

That amount of butter should not make that much difference.

What flour did you use. Was it Strong flour.

sarahwhu

Yes, strong white flour (the same one that I used the day before and seemed fine - Hovis I think?)

valk_scot

The paddle will always be a problem, I'm afraind. One of the downsides of most bread machines.

It sounds like you might have used a tad too much water...you need to be pretty accurate about the water. It's best to use lukewarm water too as it gives the dough a bit of a kick start. Is your yeast well in date and are you using the correct amount? It's best to use a set of actual measuring spoons, btw, rather than any old teaspoon out the drawer. And make sure the ingredients go in the tin in the order stated by your BM instructions.

I found most fast bake programs less sucessful than the full length ones, btw. And the basic white loaf recipe is usually the one that the BM is designed to maker most sucessfully, so i would try that one first.

sarahwhu

Thank you for your advice....

The yeast was only purchased two days ago so definitely OK - though I did use the rest of a sachet that had been opened the previous day? I am fairly sure the water was accurate and I did use room temperature/slightly warm water.

I am going to try again today and shall just try the basic recipe and see how I get on....

On the plus side, I haven't given up and have just ordered myself the Panasonic SD255! Fell a bit guilty at spending so much but it gets such good reviews that I think it will be worth it