White Bread in breadmaker not rising properly

Flee_2

I am using the recipe in my breadmaker book for white bread but it does not seem to be rising at the moment. It did previously but was a bit hit or miss.

What could the reason be and is there any way of changing it?

I use for 1.5lb loaf:

1.5 cups of lukewarm milk (prefer this to milk powder & water)
2.3 tablespoons oil
2 tablespoons sugar
1 heaped teaspoons salt
3 cups Morrisons white bread flour
1.5 teaspoon Morrisons fast action yeast

It has worked randomly in the past but not consistently and it is now just not rising high enough to make decent bread.

I am going to try and change the flour and see if that helps.

Please help.

Penelope_Penguin

How much salt is that?

AlwaysAllie

Is your yeast old? This can affect rise?

AA

santer_2

Too much sugar, try one level teaspoon, same amount of salt

Is it yeast for a breadmaker, I used some which wasn't and the loaf was a brick.

Do you put the yeast in first, then the flour and other dry ingredients, then add the liquid last?

Flee_2

I use one heaped teaspoon of salt, and two tablespoons of sugar. These are recommended by the breadmaker manufacturer. The yeast is the fast action and is suitable for breadmakers.
The guide states that the order in which the ingredients goes in is, milk/liquid, oil, sugar, salt, flour and yeast.

I use the measuring equipment provided with the maker.

lynneee

I can never get a white loaf to rise properly in my breadmaker either, however if I use 400g white bread flour, and 100g brown bread flour, instead of 500g white it works really well. And its quite tasty!

Flee_2

lynneee wrote: »

I can never get a white loaf to rise properly in my breadmaker either, however if I use 400g white bread flour, and 100g brown bread flour, instead of 500g white it works really well. And its quite tasty!

Think I might try that and see if it works for me too.

santer_2

In the panasonic book it says to add the yeast first so it does not mix with the liquid until later.

Here it says to use two teaspoons of sugar

http://forkd.com/recipe/the-perfect-white-bread-for-a-947

" Sugar is the essential food for yeast but too much of it will kill the yeast off. "

http://www.carrsbreadmaker.info/recipes/breadmaking_tips.html

Getting the ingredients in the right order

Always load ingredients in the right order. The rule of thumb is that it is either liquids first and yeast last, or yeast first, and liquid last. All other ingredients come in the middle.

Because moisture activates the yeast, it is important that the yeast is not in contact with any liquid ingredients, especially when using a delayed time bake setting.
Always follow the instructions that come with your machine.

xrjtg

I find that the amount of liquid is the main factor affecting the rise of bread machine bread. If you're not getting enough rise, then add more water. If your bread is over-rising and collapsing (so that top goes down in the middle), use a bit less.

santer wrote: »

" Sugar is the essential food for yeast but too much of it will kill the yeast off. "

Yeast does feed on sugar, but there's enough sugar present naturally in the flour to keep the yeast happy. Adding sugar is more about things like flavour and affecting the colouring of the crust.

Darren_G

What brand is your breadmaker? Some benefit from using a little more yeast. The Panasonics get away with very little yeast on some programs, but I also have an old Breville machine than can take up to a whole sachet of instant yeast (to compare, the dough cycle on my Panny takes 2 hours 20 mins, but the Breville takes 1 hour 10, so the extra yeast compensates for the reduced rise time)

Your recipe also looks a little fat heavy for a 1.5lb loaf. Try either replacing some of the milk with water or reduce the amount of oil (for a loaf this size I would use between 1.5 and 2 tablespoons oil, or 20g to 25g butter)

One tip I learned from Dan Lepard's website and recipes is to weigh everything that is not measured by the spoonful. It gives a more consistent result and compensates for things like humidity of the flour. For example, if I was making a 1.5lb loaf in my Panasonic, I would use 450g flour, 280g water, 20g butter, 1.5tsp sugar, 1tsp salt and 1tsp yeast (same recipe but 2tsp yeast for the Breville). The water can go 10g either way depending on the brand of flour you use, but once you know how 'thirsty' the brand of flour is, you can be sure of the exact amount required.

HTH

Darren

Flee_2

Thanks for the tips. I decided to add a little bit less milk and add some water. I have added a little bit more liquid than before. I have a Morphy Richards breadmaker, and it suggests that I use milk powder with 1 cup and a fifth of a cup of tepid water.
And it works. Before the breadmaker had stopped steaming up when the yeast was working, but now I can see it is steaming up and the bread is rising higher.

Thanks all who responded.