June 29, 2012 - 6:53am
What is going on with my Zojirushi?
I have the supposedly highly rated Zojirushi BBCC-X20. I used it for quite a while with ok success and then put it in storage for a few months. Since then I have attempted to make 4 different breads, following the recipes in the manual exactly, and each time I have got the results seen below. It looks like it is not mixing properly. I don’t understand what is going on here. I even used an instant read thermometer throughout the last cycle to see if it was getting too hot and killing the yeast. I had someone else attmpt to make the third loaf following the recipe to remove user error. I went and bought new yeast after the first failure. Anyone have an idea?
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Hi,
I was wandering if this ever got solved.
I recently bought a Zojirushi BB-CEC20. First bread was OK. A week later I tried to make another one and it resulted in something very similar to the picture above.
As the original poster did I changed yeast but had the same result. In all cases I used the device's manual for the simplest recipe.
Did this happen to others, or I am doing something wrong?
Should I get my unit replaced?
Alex
PS: From my observations, in my case, the dough never gets into a nice ball, but is just a collection of separate pieces. Looks like the "Stir down" step of the machine is malfunctioning.
Alex, did you watch the mixing and/or kneading process? Are the paddles moving properly, or at all? If not, the belt that runs the paddles may have slipped.
Hi,
I watched today the mixing/kneading process.
I chose the basic cycle from the manual of my machine:
http://imgur.com/5SVvq (photo from manual)
I can say the following things:
I also made a short video of the stir down process:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYBRfOlP0HQ
From what I saw, my impression is that the "stir down" part is not spinning enough. But I might be wrong.
So does this stir-down (and ticking) look normal as in the vide? Or something is wrong?
Alex
Alex, that stir down cycle looks okay, or at least it looks exactly the same as the stir down on my original two Zoji machines. The stir down cycles don't last long; all they do is deflate the dough a bit between the rise cycles. I don't think that's the problem.
I'm no expert, believe me, but just from experience I would guess that your dough was far too dry to form a nice, soft, cohesive ball. It also looks like it didn't rise but I think that could be attributed to the dough being too stiff, too.
I now have a West Bend machine and have finally made two perfect loaves, really perfect loaves with a huge rise and great texture. One thing I've learned through trial and error is that the dough should be soft, smooth and very slightly sticky when the kneading is done. I've learned to never trust the machine to make perfect bread on its own, so I monitor what the dough looks and feels like at every stage. If I see that the dough is too dry I start to add water in increments of one teaspoon at a time, starting at about ten minutes into the kneading cycle. That has helped enormously.
I got a zojirushi for Xmas, and my first loaf turned out basically like the pic in this thread. I knew right from the first knead cycle, from watching through the window, there was not enough water in the recipe. My second loaf turned out better but still lumpy on top and did not rise enough. I'm going to make a third loaf tonight and increase the water and yeast a bit more. my sense is that the recipes in the zojirushi manual are not accurate and need a lot of tinkering to get a good result.
Just a follow up maybe this will help some folks in the future. On my third attempt I adjusted the light rye recipe in the manual to 3.5 cups bread flour, 1 cup rye flour, 1.75 cups of water, 2.25 tsps yeast, left everything else the same as in the manual and this loaf looks good. In the manual it calls for way more flour, less water, and a bit less yeast. I thwith as with everything, you need to fine tune these recipes and make sure you write the measurements down each time you adjust So you don't forget.
I had trouble with the recipes that came with the Zoji, too. They all seemed to have far too much flour (or perhaps not enough water).
On my third attempt I have before me the most perfect loaf I've ever seen! As I suspected and others mentioned, the recipes that come with this bread maker call for too much flour.
Hi,
I want to thank everyone who contributed to this thread. It will surely be helpful to others in the future.
In my case, the problem was the same: too much flour, and/or not enough water. But now, I am making great bread, and I am happy that the problem was not in the machine itself.
Alex