Bread Disaster!

taplady

Hi all! I've just got my first breadmaker and have made several white loaves which have turned out delicious! :drool: but when I tried a granary loaf it came out like a brick!
it seemed to rise but then shrank .I couldn't find a granary recipe in my book so followed a wholewheat programme , was that right? I also want to make stoneground wholemeal and am using top quality unbleached organic flour as OH can get it at cost price from work .I dont want to waste any more of this flour as its too good to waste1 :mad:
Any tips for a good brown loaf would be much appreciated! :beer:

squeaky

Hm. Lots of people have trouble with granary and whole wheat breads though some machines cope much better than others. Most machines have a program that is much longer than for a standard white loaf because these flours have a lower gluten content and so are much slower to rise. So if your machine has no recipe (and no program?) for these breads you are going to have to wing it...

..next time set your machine just to "Make Dough" and when it's done, set your kitchen timer to, say, an hour and a half. Then check to see how far the loaf has risen and set your timer for another 1/4 or 1/2 hour or more. Keep checking until it's at the right height and then set the machine to "Bake".

Again, you might consider half and half white flour and wholemeal to help the process along and just use trial and error to get the bread you want.

As for it sinking - that's possibly because there isn't quite enough water to flour in the recipe. As a very rough quide most recipes for heavier grains have about 2/3 water by weight to the weight of flour - though pretty much every machine is different. Again it's trial and error.

Best of luck and don't forget to come back and let us know how you get on

Curry_Queen

I had exactly the same problem with my granary loaves in my old BM and no matter what I tried they just wouldn't work, but I certainly had enough bricks to build a wall by the time I'd done :rotfl:

I think, as Squeaky has mentioned, that the programmes are just not long enough on some BM to allow them to proove properly. My old BM was doing them in something like 3 hours, whereas the Panasonic takes 5 hours to make a granary loaf and they come out perfect now.

That was what swung it for me to get one in the end as we eat more granary loaves than white and I didn't want to be standing over the BM messing around with the timings just to get a decent loaf out of it when it's supposed to all be automatic

Sorry, I don't suppose that's much help to you especially if you've only just got your BM, but maybe try some of the suggestions Squeaky mentioned and see how you get on. Good luck!

taplady

Thanks Curry Queen, I did use a 4 and a half hour programme,I've now got a wholemeal one in and will see how it goes.If I cant get a good granary loaf i think father Christmas might have to bring me a panasonic! The bread maker we've got now was one i got off Ebay just to see how we liked it.I must say the kids just love the white bread .cant make it fast enough for them! I'll try Squeekys tips if i have no luck.
thanks :T

sal

Hi,

I've just made a loaf that you might find works for you.
Measurements are for a 'small' loaf although it's not really that small!

1 1/4 cups water
2 1/4 cups wholemeal bread flour
Generous 1 cup white bread flour
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp sugar
1/ 1/2 tbsp butter
1 tsp easy-blend (rapid-rise) dried yeast

Pop everything is an usual and set the machine to basic/normal, medium crust. Go.

Then comes the bit I like best, when the machine beeps to add ingredients I pour in some mixed seeds (cheapest from Julian Graves if you have one nearby). I use pumpkin, sunflower, sesame and linseeds at about two tablespoons of each. To taste really. The loaf rose beatifully and the seeds give a lovely bite to it...and very healthy too! Not too much sugar either so it is not a sweet loaf.

Another tip to keep your bread quite fresh, use the zip-lock freezer bags from the supermarket, they keep bread going for days...if it doesn't get eaten that day!

sal

Curry_Queen

taplady wrote:

The bread maker we've got now was one i got off Ebay just to see how we liked it.I must say the kids just love the white bread .cant make it fast enough for them! I'll try Squeekys tips if i have no luck.
thanks :T

Ahhh that's not too bad then, and my first one also came from Ebay which I think I paid around £20 for so I didn't feel too bad at replacing it for no other reason than I wanted to make decent granary bread LOL! I'll probably get near enough what I paid for it back if I re-listed it on Ebay again, which I must try and sort out sooner than later!

Hope the wholemeal one comes out better!

Ticklemouse

taplady - try adding vitamin C. I make a 1/2 and 1/2 loaf with white flour to wholemeal, but still cook it on a white loaf program but I also add a 60mg tablet of vit C (Tesco value, 33p for 30)

I never knew that's why white loaves took longer, squeaky. That's my "something new learned every day" item then

squeaky

I hope you meant to say "why wholemeal loaves took longer"

Tomorrows lesson will be from Richard's Big Book of How to Type the Right Words.

Ticklemouse

squeaky wrote:

Most machines have a program that is much longer than for a standard white loaf because these flours have a lower gluten content and so are much slower to rise.

No, please Sir, can I please have a lesson in reading what is actually wroted on the page not you fink is wroted Guess speed reading isn't my thing

TBH, I haven't used my wholemeal prog so have no idea how long it takes - well, I would if I read me manual, but not been that bored yet

taplady

Ticklemouse wrote:

taplady - try adding vitamin C. I make a 1/2 and 1/2 loaf with white flour to wholemeal, but still cook it on a white loaf program but I also add a 60mg tablet of vit C (Tesco value, 33p for 30)

I never knew that's why white loaves took longer, squeaky. That's my "something new learned every day" item then

thanks for that TM ! am off to tesco tonight so will get some :T

taplady

Curry_Queen wrote:

Ahhh that's not too bad then, and my first one also came from Ebay which I think I paid around £20 for so I didn't feel too bad at replacing it for no other reason than I wanted to make decent granary bread LOL! I'll probably get near enough what I paid for it back if I re-listed it on Ebay again, which I must try and sort out sooner than later!

Hope the wholemeal one comes out better!

Thanks but its not looking too good at the moment! :eek: was ok when i looked earlier but seems to have gone the same way as the other one and sunk :mad: I'm going to try a tip off Ticklemouse and use some vitamin c tablets and perhaps do half and half white and wholemeal flour to see how i get on! I'll persevere, don't like to be beaten lol !