Bread gone wrong :(

ethansmum

Can anyone suggest what I can do to make my bread less crispy on top?

Fritha_2

Gerbil, I reckon your thermostat may have gone on your BM. If it was working fine and then isn't (and you've not changed the recipe until it started going wrong). Ring the MR helpline (number on the back of your instruction book) and have a word with them, explain the problem and they'll prolly be able to help :-)

Ethansmum: prolly a very obvious thing to suggest but have you tried setting it on a lighter crust setting (ie light rather than dark or medium?) Other than that I can't think of anything! Sorry, I'm sure someone else will have a better idea :-)

Seakay

ethansmum wrote:

Can anyone suggest what I can do to make my bread less crispy on top?

When you put the loaf to cool on a rack, put a butter paper on top (or brush a tiny amount of oil/marg/butter over the top and then put a piece of greaseproof on top) and then a thick towel or a couple of tea towels over the whole loaf.
Leave until cold.
Even a really crispy crust will soften a litttle if you do this.

ethansmum

Thank you Fritha and Seakay.

I do use the light setting, but in all honestly I can't see a difference between light and medium settings on my Panasonic. I'm going to definately try the butter paper method- thank you!

ka7e

Ethansmum, do you use oil in your BM? It tends to give a very crisp crust so I now use a couple of tbsp marg instead.

ethansmum

ka7e wrote:

Ethansmum, do you use oil in your BM? It tends to give a very crisp crust so I now use a couple of tbsp marg instead.

Yes I do!! Now that you mention it, I've just changed from olive oil to sunflower oil! Thank you!! I'll try marg instead then.

LJM

hi i use marg and it comes out perfect,i know some one who puts fresh milk in does this make a difference? as i only use marvel

stefejb

I haven't made a decent loaf in weeks and can't fugure out what's going wrong. I make by hand (ish - use a dough hook) or use the dough function on the bread machine and use either easy blend or dried yeast - whatever's to hand. I usually leave to rise in the fridge overnight and bake in the morning with no problems. Just lately the dough is rising sort of unevenly making the bread all bobbly so I tried just leaving it to rise in the kitchen and am having the same problem. I don't ussually bother too much about measurements - just add more water/flour if necesssary. Is my dough too wet, too dry or did someone put a hex on my bread the only thing I can think of is that I am using asda instead of my usual tesco strong flour but surely flour's flour

squeaky

If you changed flour and you get a different (poor) result, and have changed nothing else - then that rather points at the flour.

Different flours will (may) be made from different grains and have a different gluten content.

I have great success these days with bog standard asda value plain flour at 29p per pack.

Two ways I use to help the bread rise since plain flour has a lower gluten content than proper strong flour...

EITHER:

1. Use a couple of crushed vitamin C tablets in the mix.

OR:

2. Save the water from boiling potatoes and use that. (in fact, if you have a bit of mash left over you can chuck those in too!).

happyathome_withmyboys

Or it might be that your yeast has gone off? I use Fermipan, which is great, but as it gets older it seems to suddenly stop working - as clear cut as yesterday the bread was fine but today it is not playing at all. I agree that squeaky's explanation is the most likely (and I am going to dash off to try the potato thing right now!), but the change in flour could just be one of those pesky red herrings....