i finally made an edible loaf and not a brick

angchris

woooohoooooooooooo:j yes i did it!!! i actually made a loaf of bread in my breadmaker that is edible im so excited i had to share i have had my morphy richards breadmaker probably about 6 years had a little play with it when i first bought it and the bread was awful so it got hid in my blackhole of kitchen gadgets that never see the light of day again :rolleyes: anyway due to this site i resurected (sp:o ) it again probably 6 months or so ago and the bread still came out like a very stodgy yeasty heavy brick i used it a couple of times then it sat on the work top for another 6 months. yesterday evening we had no bread in the house as i dont eat it much nowadays but oh wanted a sarnie and i couldnt be flaffed to go to the shops so out it came again! i put exactely the same ingredients in that the recipe book says for a basic white loaf and i`d normally hit the button for basic white loaf but yesterday evening i thought i`d be daring and put it on the wholemeal loaf setting to see how it went and boy did it! it rose beautifully to the point i thought it was gonna lift the lid to the breadmaker :eek: and i had a very tall moist fresh tasty loaf come out of it :j now i have learned the trick im never going back! i now have a few crumbs left as oh was most impressed and scoffed most of it. woohooo no more shop bought bread for me. it never occured to me to use the wholemeal setting before as i wasnt doing wholemeal bread :rolleyes: but i guess wholemeal flour is heavier than white and needs extra proving or something like that anyway im over the moon now i can use it properly :rotfl: :j

apple_mint

Well done! A bit of lateral thinking there

RacyRed

:T Fantastic! Well done :T

squeaky

Another tip for getting well risen lighter bread is to use vitamin C tablets.

Try just one on your normal setting at first (and if it doesn't quite do the trick you can either make a load of breadcrumbs or keep the local bird population happy) and then next time try two.

Crushed! He almost forgot to say!

I'm surprised that your MR didn't do very well to start with, mine, a newer model admittedly (got it for Christmas YAY ) has made a pefect loaf every time so far.

There's a Morphy Richards Club thread kicking about the place somewhere with loads of other tips and comments in it - so I'll add these posts onto the end of it in a little while.

halloweenqueen_2

I usually use american recipes - they seem easier to use a cup of this and that and its done, there is one for french bread and thats really light. I also use it to make rolls, I got a bit discourages with the heavy bread, but I put the mix in on a pizza dough setting, make it into rolls, leave to rise and they never hang around long after coming out of the oven, I use the same setting for the dough for chelsea buns and of course pizza dough!
Going to try the (crushed) vitamin c tablet. I thought at first if you got the tablet ot was like finding the lucky sixpence in a xmas pud!

angchris

i`ve never heard of a vit c tablet being put in bread before squeaky, i take it i can buy them at holland and barratt?? i will have to give it a go, thanks everyone

vivaladiva

I'm going to try the wholemeal trick!

carly

I have had mixed results with my bread maker. Its all been edible, but not always as light a texture as I would prefer. so I started to use the wholemeal setting as this allows extra time for rising, and every loaf since then has been perfect. I often cook bread overnight , on the timer and I think the kitchen might be too cold and this is why the white loaf doesnt rise enough and is heavy.

angchris

funny you should say the kitchen might be too cold.....i cant stand having the heating on and much prefer to stick a jumper on if im cold, hmmmmm maybe thats the problem:think:

newleaf

There is an excellent book called Bread Machine Basics, by Jennie Shapter, which I have used since I got my MR BM about 5 years ago. There are loads of lovely recipes and very clear advice about how to make perfect bread. Since I started using that book I've never had a bread failure.
It is available 2nd hand in the Amazon Marketplace.

soapnutter

I tend to use the dough setting and then make rolls - leave them to rise somewhere warm (I have a shelf over a radiator) That seems to get the softest rolls for me.

I'll def try the wholemeal trick now though.