Quick questions on bread making

SunnierDays

Thank you so much Pink Winged! I will read through them

Ah reading through one of those links you kindly gave, I wonder if my oven was to hot. Its a fan oven and I had it at 220 I think...hmmmm. Oh well an excuse to try out baking some later..I WILL Perfect this grrr

pjblink

Moisture will keep the crust soft, some people spray the loaf with water just as they put it into the oven and repeat every 10 minutes. Others keep a bowl of water in the oven to keep the moisture levels high. You can also brush with milk as you remove from the oven which will soften the crust also.

toddles*

just bought my first BM and well its..... blooming FANTASTIC.

But Ive only used a couple of packet mixes I had the cupboard.
Now Im about measure it all out myself but realised I only have Lo-salt, which is low in sodium. will this make a difference to the taste of the bread? thanks

xrjtg

I'd imagine it would (as salt and Lo-salt don't taste the same), but it's worth trying at least once.

toddles*

another question again please. (Didnt try the lo-salt)

I tried the delay start on my breadmaker for this morning and woke up to lovely smelling bread but it didnt rise at all. Just a small doughy lump at the bottom of the machine. Is this because of the delay? surely it shouldnt be as the reason I bought it was so I could have fresh bread in the morning.
any ideas?

Penelope_Penguin

toddles* wrote: »

another question again please. (Didnt try the lo-salt)

I tried the delay start on my breadmaker for this morning and woke up to lovely smelling bread but it didnt rise at all. Just a small doughy lump at the bottom of the machine. Is this because of the delay? surely it shouldnt be as the reason I bought it was so I could have fresh bread in the morning.
any ideas?

Did you forget the yeast? Silly question, but get the obvious out of the way first

toddles*

hi
lol no, I was really careful, measured everything out perfect. Do you think its because the yeast was sat overnight with all the other ingredients.

xrjtg

Or the paddle? That's very easy to do.

If you did have the yeast and paddle in, did you make sure that the yeast was separated from the water? The yeast is activated as soon as it gets wet, so if it subsequently sits around for a few hours without being mixed in then it can die and won't do its stuff when it gets mixed with the flour. This problem wouldn't happen without a delay as there wouldn't be time for the yeast to die, so could explain why you get different results even if you did everything exactly the same. As a lesser issue the dry yeast should also be separate from the salt, as that too can kill yeast.

cooking-mama

Did you put everything into the pan in the order specified by your breadmaker recipe?(they are all different)..Also yeast/salt/sugar should all be seperate from each other...sugar feeds the yeast and salt will kill it.

toddles*

thank you
I think the yeast definatley died. I put the yeast in last, in the correct order but through the night it must of soaked through. Not sure what to try tonight. Maybe less water so it doesnt soak through to the yeast.