I have had the same breadmaker for 5 years.  It was my mom's before that so I don't know how old it is.  I discovered that if I go against the advice of the breadmaker handbook (add ingredients in order suggested which is wet, then dry, then form a well and put yeast in it) Instead I add warm fluid, yeast, sugar and wait 10 min then add the ingredients on top of that, I get a much lighter loaf.

That aside, I use my breadmaker ALL the time.  I make breads but my main use of it is as a dough mixer, since it is a handy place for rising the dough.  I make rolls, pepperoni rolls, cinammon rolls, pizza dough etc.

The last time I used it and it was functioning properly was Christmas.

This past weekend I made my pepperoni rolls.  I always use the same brand of yeast, which is labeled that it can be used in bread makers.  I noticed when I took the dough out of the breadmaker It didn't seem as fluffy as it should.  I thought maybe I messed it up by using bread flour instead of all purpose which is what the recipe called for.  So I set the dough aside and started again.  This time I used all purpose flour but only 2/3 since I ran out, the final 1/3 was bread flour.  Again it came out heavy and not as fluffy as normal.  At this point I took the first batch and tested a few balls in the oven to see if it would come out ok.  It seemed to bake alright, a bit heavy but it tasted all right.  So I made the pepperoni rolls despite the dough not being right.  The dough was not stretchy like normal, it was almost like sugar cookie dough but I could manipulate it anough to form a roll so I baked them.  Everyone raved about them but my husband and I knew they were off. 

So tonight I made a recipe for a loaf bread and it turned out very heavy.  It was a disappointment as well.  The top was sagging instead of being puffy like a normal loaf.

Two things were amiss that I can think of, when I looked in at the water years mixture before adding the flour I noticed that although the yeast was puffy looking I could still see the separate little pieces of yeast floating on top of the water.  The other thing to note was after the timer went off, I removed the loaf pan.  We ate dinner and when we were cleaning my husband noticed the machine was still hot.  He said the coil was red, when I looked it was a little red and black but still felt warm.  I unplugged it.  I have never looked before to know if this is normal or not. 

The yeast that I use is redstar active dry yeast.  The rolls were made from two different 3 packs.  Both labeled with a Sept 2013 expiration date.

The flour I use is always on the fresh side since I go through it quickly.

Any thoughts????????

I have just rented space in a rental kitchen so I can sell at farmers markets, and I ran through some things to see how long it really takes to get stuff done.&nbsp; I made a batch of Challah, Italian &amp; Gibassier.&nbsp; The challah and gibassier I mixed up on Thursday and&nbsp;I let raise overnight before shaping on Friday; but the Italian I mixed up Friday (biga was done Thurs). The mixer does not have a dough hook (30 qt) so I tried with the paddle.&nbsp; The dough seemed to look ok, but I wasn't really sure about the timing with the paddle vs a dough hook.&nbsp; The gibassier I made a very small batch and used a household&nbsp;kitchen aid mixer (dough hook), did the window test for mixing and then bulk rise overnight with the challah.</p><p>The room is commercial so it is kept cool, good for overnite raising, the dough didn't seem to have fallen (over rise) so I shaped the challah for next rise, gibassier same thing. Part of the kitchen area is for storage of packaging material, and not airconditioned like the work area. It was warm, I didn't think overly warm, so I set the bread out there for a fairly quick&nbsp;rise.&nbsp; Well, it was slower than molasses. I finally cooked the gibassier because they looked like they were ok, but I found them a little yeasty. The challah rose a little, now this is after several hours, but not to the point at which I would bake it.&nbsp; My Italian bulk dough, never seemed to rise, or very little over a 3 hour timespan.</p><p>Question: what could be the problem? Old yeast?&nbsp; Not enough yeast?&nbsp; Too hot for rising? (fig it was about 85, maybe more) and then the faint yeasty flavor?&nbsp; How do you guage mixing with a paddle vs dough hook?&nbsp; (I had to put it on 3rd speed&nbsp;to get the cleanup stage).&nbsp; I want to do large batches, hand mixing not an option. I have used the formulas before. </p>

Please help me.  I'm riduculously new to baking and trying to make sourdough starter because I'm desperate for some sourdough bread.  I started my starter (pardon the redundancy) about 4 weeks ago, but I don't think it's capable of baking bread.  I live in Italy and am using tipo "00" flour (I've been considering using "0" to see if that works better) and bottled spring water in what I think is a 2:1:1 ratio.  My house is pretty cool around 18 to 19 degrees C.  I have what I think is a 100% starter since I use a scale and put in equal weights of water and flour.  But my started doesn't double.  It does rise a bit and smells a bit sour (I'm new to baking so I don't know exactly what "yeasty" smells like, but there is an undertone of another odor, perhaps that's yeast?).  It also makes large-ish bubbles.  So it seems like it's active to a certain point, but I don't think it's active enough to raise bread.  

I decided to try to make bread with it just the same and used the 1-2-3 method from this fourm.  I ambitiously put 200g of my weak starter with 400g of water and 600g of flour (is that right?) and I got a very soupy dough.  I was only able to knead it by adding tons of flour and in the end I was left with a soft dough that I formed into a flatish ball and left it to rise inside the oven with a pan of warm water underneath (I believe that was a mistake!).  My flatish ball turned into an even more flatish large frisbee with bubbles on the surface within a couple of hours.  It's now been "rising" for 6 hours but not much has changed.  I then used some more starter (about 100g) with 300g flour and about 120g of water to form a "tougher" dough and put it in the oven too.  It has maintained it's original shape, but alas, all too well.  After about 4 hours it doesn't seem to have done anything with no evidence of bubbles on the surface.  

Do I need to feed it more, feed it less, use a different flour, use a different water, change the dilution?  How can I get this stuff to rise???  I've devoted 4 weeks to this starter and I don't even know how many Kg of flour and I still can't bake bread!!!  My husband is on the verge of trashing my precious jar of bubbling goop if I can't bake something with it that will show him what is worth.  

Thanks for any help you can give me.

I've had a starter going for about 2 weeks now I think, and it had been fine so far. I didn't know that much about sourdough starters when I first made it, so I used the recipe from a baking book I have (which is equal parts water and flour with one packet of active dry yeast). I've been feeding it twice a day and pouring off at least half every 2 to 3 days.

A few days ago my starter stopped rising/bubbling as much after feeding it and I was a bit concerned, so I decided to stir in more flour so that it was a 2:1 ratio of flour to water. After doing so the starter slightly more than doubled in volume (to 8 cups) within about 2 hours and then gradually went back down to 4 cups over the next day. I tasted a bit of it to see if it was alright and it tasted like yeast, beer (just a little bit), and biscuit dough. The recipe I was going to use it for, was in the book I found the starter recipe in, so of ocurse it required a starter with equal parts flour and water (though I guess I could have used my starter the way it was and just slightly increased the amount of water and decreased the amount of flour in the bread recipe).

So today I mixed in enough water to bring it back to a 1:1 ratio of flour to water, added another cup of fresh flour/water mixture, stirred it up really well, and then pour out about half (since it was up to the top of the container and I didn't want to risk it overflowing). I did that about 4 hours ago now, and the smell, color, and consistency still seem alright, but I'm concerned because the starter hasn't risen or bubbled since then (except for small bubbles on the surface). Has it gone bad, or do I need to do something to revive it?

I've been using tap water and bleached white flour, and I'm keeping it in a 2 quart glass container with a towel on top.

Hi everyone

I've embarked into the world of sourdough baking and am running into the same problem with every loaf: my bread isn't rising properly during its final proofing. Everything looks healthy and rises well during the first two proofings but once I shape it/put it in the tin, it barely rises. I'd love some advice from some seasoned (haha) bakers on what I could be doing wrong.

Teegstar

Hi Everyone,

We live in Israel, and in the summer it's really hot and bread rises beautifully with less yeast. But in the winter, it's too cold and I can't get things to rise.

I have a gas oven, so the trick of turning your oven on a bit to warm up and putting the dough in doesn't work.

Sometimes I keep it under the blow heater, but that doesn't work well and dries it out.

The best thing is (but only if it's a sunny day) to let the dough rise inside the car!

The funny thing is that if I have bread (specifically challah) dough rising in the kitchen while it's warm from the cooking/baking, it won't rise as well as my sourdough bread!

If anyone has any good tips to offer, I'd be really grateful!

All the best,

Fran

Hello,

I've been making yeast bread successfully for many years, but I just started experimenting with sourdough. I made a starter from KA bread flour and water and it's really active. Rises like mad. I've tried several sourdough bread recipies, but I can't get the dough to rise. The sponge rises great, and I'm kneading enough (I think - windowpane test is good). The dough, once kneaded, feels great. Then it just doesn't rise. Even more than 12 hours later. It's summer here and the kitchen is warm but not hot. Help?

Many thanks!

So, I got incredibly sick of really boring tasting bread, and decided that I would do something I've wanted to for a while, and make a wild yeast starter.  I'm... 4 days in, I think, and my baby is now having troubles.  I started with equal amounts of rye, whole wheat and unbleached white flour, and a few whole rye berries, and warm filtered water. I had bubbles in the first 24 hours, (and it was starting to smell a bit sour.) I've been feeding 1/3 cup of starter every 24 hours with 1/3 cup of white, unbleached, organic flour, 5 tsp of dark organic whole rye flour, and 1/3 cup of skin temp tap water. I rinse the jar, just so I don't get a bunch of dried junk on the walls and can see in, then I put it back in the jar, cover it with a dishtowel, and let it sit.  Its definately yeast in there, it smells like it. (ok, it smells kind of vile, like a yeast infection or something, but very very YEASTY) I've been feeding every 24 hours.  In terms of temp, its been fluctuating a lot. we've had days where its probably 85 or so, and then days when the house temp is probably closer to 65.  I'm not really sure how to keep the temp constant and warm. can't set it on top of the fridge because there is a cabinet there.

 so the problem is, its starting to die one me! or at least, its bubbling less. and it never really increases in size hardly at all.

does anyone have any suggustions? do I need to keep my baby warmer? how? do I need to feed it more often? something else? should I cap the jar instead of draping a towel over it?  Thanks :D