Breadmaker not... making bread!

linzibean

I recently got a breadmaker from the local furniture exhange. It's a Morphy Richards 48265 Long Loaf. I have tried two loaves so far, and been very very careful with the measurements, and it still fails to rise and be a proper loaf - OH says it's like crumpets! Does anyone own or has owned this model, and can give some tips? I'm cooking wholemeal loaves. The only thing I ahve done different is to substitute milk powder for normal milk - would it be better to omit it altogether?

Sharra

I don't have this BM but a few thoughts....
Are you definitely using strong flour? and is your yeast in date?
We had a few really disastrous loaves a while ago and I realised I'd bought a tub of dried yeast on it that was for handbaking (when you activate it with warm water first) so also check its the right sort of yeast.
Some of my wholemeal loaves recently haven't been rising that well - (I have a panasonic) and suggestions of causes on the panasonic website were that a) the flour might not have a high enough gluten content because the wheat it cames from had been adversly affected by weather when growing, so to try a diff brand of flour. or b) that some flours need more water than others, so to try upping the water by 10 or 20ml.
Which leads me to think - if you are using milk powder instead of milk - are you upping the amount of water you are adding?

Penelope_Penguin

linzibean wrote: »

I recently got a breadmaker from the local furniture exhange. It's a Morphy Richards 48265 Long Loaf. I have tried two loaves so far, and been very very careful with the measurements, and it still fails to rise and be a proper loaf - OH says it's like crumpets! Does anyone own or has owned this model, and can give some tips? I'm cooking wholemeal loaves. The only thing I ahve done different is to substitute milk powder for normal milk - would it be better to omit it altogether?

As said above, flour and yeast are the obvious places to start.

Can you post your recipe, then we may be able to give more comments.

Penny. x

linzibean

Here's th recipe, from the handbook that came with the machine:

1.5 cups water
2 tbsp skimmed milk powder (I used normal milk instead as I prefer to use organic)
2 tbsp soft brown sugar
1.5 tsp salt
2 tbsp sunflower oil (I use olive oil instead as I don't keep sunflower oil in th house)
3 and 1/8 cups strong wholemeal flour
1 x 100g vitamin C tablet (I don't put this in)
1tsp traditional dried active yeast

Now, maybe the yeast is wrong? I got traditional dried active yeast like it asked for, but the label says not for use in breadmakers

ETA: here is a picture of the finished loaf - not good!

Atalanta

1.5 cups water
2 tbsp skimmed milk powder (I used normal milk instead as I prefer to use organic)

Wouldn't you need to reduce the water if you are using fresh milk instead of dried? Otherwise you have more liquid than in the recipe.
I have a Morphy Richards breadmaker and I have to say the bread is not very nice. But I have recently started using the "dough" recipe for bread rolls but instead of making it into rolls ( which go stale quickly) I have been putting the lump of dough into a tin and cooking it in the oven as a loaf - it is delicious and keeps better.
Good luck!

linzibean

Thank you, I will try reducing the water. I feel really bad at the moment as we're on a pretty tight budget and if I can't get the breadmaker to pull it's weight it will have been a waste, even though I bought it cheap.

Atalanta

Another thought - I remember reading in my MR handbook that they don't recommend using the timer option for wholemeal bread - can't remember why. Also the milk is optional - I never use it as I couldn't tell the difference when I did. I don't tend to make pure wholemeal loaves as I have found them quite hard to get right - everyone complains they are indigestible! Now I use a mix of white and wholemeal flour.

Ephemera

linzibean wrote: »

Here's th recipe, from the handbook that came with the machine:

1.5 cups water
2 tbsp skimmed milk powder (I used normal milk instead as I prefer to use organic)
2 tbsp soft brown sugar
1.5 tsp salt
2 tbsp sunflower oil (I use olive oil instead as I don't keep sunflower oil in th house)
3 and 1/8 cups strong wholemeal flour
1 x 100g vitamin C tablet (I don't put this in)
1tsp traditional dried active yeast

Now, maybe the yeast is wrong? I got traditional dried active yeast like it asked for, but the label says not for use in breadmakers

ETA: here is a picture of the finished loaf - not good!

aah... now there's your problem, you need fast acting yeast for breadmakers...
What you have got is designed for long, slow rising.

Does your BM have a cycle for traditional bread? slow rising?

Hope you find one wot works for you!

Atalanta

linzibean wrote: »

Thank you, I will try reducing the water. I feel really bad at the moment as we're on a pretty tight budget and if I can't get the breadmaker to pull it's weight it will have been a waste, even though I bought it cheap.

Even though my BM doesn't make nice bread I still think it's great - it makes lovely dough for rolls/ loaves cooked in the oven, it makes dough for home made pizza, I've made batches of jam this year using blackberries and windfall apples, and it makes quite nice cakes. Hope you sort out the problem though...have you tried a white loaf? If so, what happened with that?

linzibean

Thanks for the tips - now tomorrow when I get me some proper yeast :rolleyes: I will make a few changes:

1 - reduce the amount of water by the amount of milk I put ut
2 -use proper yeast!!
3 - possibly try a mix of wholemeal / white, or even try a granary flower, as I LOOOOVE granary bread! (though after my escapades wih wholemeal I'm a bit nervous...)

linzibean

Atalanta wrote: »

Even though my BM doesn't make nice bread I still think it's great - it makes lovely dough for rolls/ loaves cooked in the oven, it makes dough for home made pizza, I've made batches of jam this year using blackberries and windfall apples, and it makes quite nice cakes. Hope you sort out the problem though...have you tried a white loaf? If so, what happened with that?

No white yet - we try and stay away from white bread in the house apart from a french loaf with our soup at the weekend I might give it a go this weekend though!