Bread disaster!!!

Curry_Queen

Some of you may know about the problems I had when making a loaf of granary bread last week which turned out very heavy and stodgy, and it was suggested that I try it again but replacing half the flour with plain bread flour for better results (sorry forget who suggested it now) so I tried that this morning ...

The results are no better

It was thought that maybe the recipe on the Hovis bag was wrong as it didn't include sugar (to activate the yeast) so today I followed the recipe as recommended in my bread maker manual, which includes sugar and uses half-and-half plain/granary (or wholewheat) flour similar to what was suggested.

I kept an eye on it (peering through the window bit) and it went through the rising stage ok and all looked fine, until it started cooking and then it started sinking

I've no idea what's gone wrong or whether it's the flour or my breadmaker at fault. I did email Breville last week about it but have had no reply. I also just tried to send feedback to Hovis on their website but when you submit the form it says "An error occurred on the server when processing the URL. Please contact the system administrator." - ARGHHHHHHHHHH :mad:


I'm just feeling so annoyed and frustrated by it all as this is the second loaf that's been wasted now. Has anyone else had similar problems with Hovis Granary flour?

bethscott1970

silly question I know but are you using the same yeast each time? As it might be if it's a pot of yeast that it has gone off?

Curry_Queen

I did wonder that too at first, which is why I was keeping an eye on it during the rising process and it all behaved normally then, so I'd assume if it were the yeast then it wouldn't have risen at all

But for the record, I'm using Dove Farm's Quick Yeast for bread makers and it's stored in the fridge as per packet instructions. Think I opened this pack about 3 weeks ago and it says it can be stored up to 3 months!

Magentasue

Sounds more like the breadmaker - have you got a quick programme that you can try? Here's a link to a 'What went wrong' page that might help.

squeaky

Magentasue wrote:

Sounds more like the breadmaker - have you got a quick programme that you can try? Here's a link to a 'What went wrong' page that might help.

I've had a faulty pack of (8) yeast before now. So if you're still usuing the same batch...?

Best I could do was to keep an eye on the breadmaker, let it do both knock-ups, rest a while, and then restart the whole process. Start the machine again from scratch. It still sank a biy, but not as badly.

HTH

apprentice_tycoon

It might be the flour, the yeast or the maker, I would try to isolate the cause by replacing the cheapest parts of the problem first. If it was me I would go back to basics and put the maker out of the equation and do it by hand and oven bake a loaf to see if you get a better result by hand, then if you do then you can look to see if the maker is faulty.
I would change the yeast too and maybe even the flour (you don't have to bin them, if it turns out to be the maker that is faulty then you can go back to the old flour and yeast but to do the detective work correctly I think you need to start all fresh).

juno

It might just be you! Me and my daddy both use the same recipe, same breadmaker, same everything and somehow his turns out OK but mine doesn't

If you've made other bread in your breadmaker then it might be that your breadmaker doesn't like that flour.

Curry_Queen

I'm going to try a normal white loaf which I know usually comes out fine and see what happens with that. I've used the same pack of yeast in another recipe since the first disaster and that was fine, so I don't think it's that, although I only took it to the dough stage and then cooked conventionally (pizza base and foccaccia bread).

I hope it's not the breadmaker at fault as i don't want the expense of replacing that right now

BTW, my message must have got through to Hovis as I've just had a reply offering a reimbursement for the flour

Sarahsaver

is it still salvageable for bread pudding, crumble topping or breadcrumbs?

Murtle

it could be the positioning of the breadmaker. I used to have problems with mine, sometimes it was wonderful other times it was hopeless. Found out that the temperature changed drastically, from cold air belting in from the poorly fixed window to hot air from the cooker. I moved it and found it a more constant temperature area and it worked much better! I was advised not to feed the bread that I cooked to the ducks, cause they'd sink if they ate it.....

Whitefiver

After a couple of years of being able to make lovely wholemeal bread in my cheapo breadmaker, I suddenly could only produce bricks. This was with a variety of yeast, and the "strongest" flour I could find.

Funnily enough, my white bread has always been OK too.

One saving grace was, however dense the bread, it always made the most wonderful toast.

I was saving up for a new breadmaker, but this went by the wayside with coming of the Atkins diet!

Hope you get it sorted, but here's a couple of things to try - add a tiny bit of vitamin C as a "flour improver", try to source some pure gluten to add to the mix (difficult to come by, and expensive), save your change up for a Panasonic.

Best wishes,

White.