help bread maker

earwig

hi i have just brought the morphy richards bread maker and i have followed the instruction with the bread maker to the letter but it comes out more like cake than bread what am i doing wrong these are the ingredents for a basic loaf i am doing this to letter

water 3/4 cups
skimmed milk powder 2 tbs
sunflower oil 2 tbs
sugar 1 1/4 tbs
salt 1 tbs
strong white bread flour 2 cups
fast action yeast

the cup and mesuring spoons come with the machine the bread also looks yellow rather than white any ideas on what im doing wrong

annie-c

Haven't used mine for ages but remember it took me a good few loaves to get it 'right' for me. As I recall I used 1 teaspoon not tablespoon of salt - might be worth checking that out. Salt halts the rising of the dough, so too much salt could cause cakiness.

As a personal preference I also just use 1 tsp sugar - the manual recipes are quite American and much sweeter than UK bread.

Hope someone with more experience than me comes along soon with more help

mandy_moo_1

hi i've got the MR B/Maker as well. i can't find the recipe in my booklet that you've been using, but the one i always use for a 2lb loaf is this:

water...... 1 & 1/3 cup of tepid water
sunflower oil....2tbsp
salt....1tsp
sugar...3 & 1/2 tbsp
strong white flour....4 cups (sometimes i use half plain flour & half strong)
fast action yeast....1tsp

i always leave out the dried milk powder, cos that's what makes it ''cakey''

if you're making something like teacakes or iced fingers, then use the dried milk, but otherwise DON'T!!

please don't be disheartened, it took me a few goes before i got it right!!

did you get the Morphy Richards Fast Bake, or just the normal one?

Mutantk

Hi there, I'll second the above post - don't use the milk powder and yes, it takes a few loaves to get it right for you. There is a fab thread on here called the Morphy Richards Fast Bake Bread Club or something very similar - there are loads of hints and tips on there for this machine.

HTH

Ps - the pizza base is fantastic!!

angelavdavis

Is your flour and yeast fresh?

Might be worth testing your yeast - teaspoon of yeast, teaspoon of sugar and cup of water - allow to sit and see if you get a froth build up. For some reason, batch of yeast can go stale even when newly bought - I have had this problem in the past.

Also, sometimes, I have had bad flour too even though it was newly purchased.

Other people swear by adding a Vit c tablet crushed to their mix, although I have never felt the need personally.

earwig

hi thanks for your replys yes it the fast bake one i will try it with out the milk powder and see how i get on

buyitall

Think this is the thread for the morphy richards fastbake club:
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=292534

It does deal with 'cakey' bread, but is a v long thread 39 pages! - so can't find the exact posts!