Sinking Bread

Fosterdog

I've been given an old bread maker and I've been trying out loads of different loaves and recipes. All of my white bread turns out great but I prefer wholemeal.

Every time I make a wholemeal loaf it sinks, what could I be doing wrong? It starts off fine, it rises and looks like it's baking properly, then about 45 mins before the end of the program I look in through the window to find the top completely caved in and not nice, round and well risen like it had been just half an hour earlier.

I've tried different recipes and adding different amounts of white flour to help but it still happens every time.

Does anyone else have sinking bread or any tips to stop it happening?

Sligo

I think I have read somewhere about adding Vitamin C to wholemeal bread to aid the rise - either Vitamin C powder or crushing a Vitamin C tablet up (non-flavoured!). I know I have not had any success with wholemeal in the breadmaker and meant to try this.

chrisfreelander54

I wanted to have a go at making my own bread, so I looked into getting a bread maker, which once I saw how much they were I decided against buying new, and decided to look for a 2nd hand one instead.

Whilst looking I thought, why not have a go by hand and see what happens, so I set off to get the ingredients, to give a whirl.

We eat both white and wholemeal bread, but prefer wholemeal, so I tried my hand at making a wholemeal loaf first, (Yet to try and make a white loaf but will give a go soon) and this is how it turned out. https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4863200

ash28

Are you using recipes designed for your machine....they all vary a bit.

You could be adding too much yeast....

Too little yeast......

Too much liquid....

Water too warm when added......Is your kitchen warm or cold? That could impact the water temperature needed.....

Not enough white flour......

The permutations are pretty endless really.

ash28

chrisfreelander54 wrote: »

I wanted to have a go at making my own bread, so I looked into getting a bread maker, which once I saw how much they were I decided against buying new, and decided to look for a 2nd hand one instead.

Whilst looking I thought, why not have a go by hand and see what happens, so I set off to get the ingredients, to give a whirl.

We eat both white and wholemeal bread, but prefer wholemeal, so I tried my hand at making a wholemeal loaf first, (Yet to try and make a white loaf but will give a go soon) and this is how it turned out. https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4863200

That bread looks great.

I have a Panasonic breadmaker but was given Paul Hollywood's Bread as a Christmas present....I have only made the bloomer up to now and it was delicious. Not used the breadmaker since.

Fosterdog

Thanks for the replies.

I am tempted to invest in a bread tin and try it in the oven instead.

I don't have any recipes for my machine, it is a really old one I've been given second (or third) hand, I did google for some recipes but could only find generic ones and not specific to my machine.

So far I have tried varying amounts of white to wholemeal flour from 80/20 to 50/50. I've tried more and less water, plus varying temperatures. I've tried more and less yeast.

I've also bought two packets of pre made bread mix in, one just wholemeal and one seeded wholemeal and even they went wrong.

Maybe the bread maker is just too old and can't cope, but it does still make a lovely white loaf.

joedenise

I could never get bread, wholemeal or white, to cook well in the breadmaker so just used to use it to make the dough. Don't even do that now, if I make bread now I use my Kenwood Chef.

Denise

Mrs_Badger_2

I was having this problem till recently, my loaves were like rocks too, it took me ages of tweaking the recipe until I came up with this...

For a 2.5lb Loaf
16 floz of water
1.5lb of wholemeal bread flour (I've found Aldi and Lidl's to be the best)
3 tbsps olive oil
2 tsps yeast
2 tsps salt
3 tsps brown sugar

I cook it on the quick setting, (most books say not to) but I honestly don't notice a difference. Apart from no more sunken bread!

I hope you enjoy. x

Fosterdog

I finally got a nice loaf today, I used 50/50 wholemeal to white flour, I added 1tbsp of milk powder and I mixed the water, sugar and yeast in a jug before adding to the rest and it's come out even better than the white loaves I made. I'll try the same tomorrow to see if I just got lucky or if I've finally solved my sinking bread problem.