December 30, 2022 - 1:40pm
Never use your bread machine to bake bread
I tried to bake bread in the Bread Man machine that my husband gave me for Christmas in 2005.
Both times, the rising dough apparently touched the top before it was baked. The top end of the loaves were sunken in.
I now use my bread machine only to make dough. It's easier than using my Kitchenaid mixer and having to do the windowpane test to make sure I've kneaded the dough for long enough.
Just toss the ingredients in the machine, press the button, and voila! Bread dough, already risen once, ready for shaping!
Bread machines weren't designed to bake sourdough breads, and sourdough breads aren't meant to be baked in a bread machine.
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Hi,
I felt the same way for a period of time but then once the right amount of dough in the right pan with the right final proof and the right programmed time for preheat and bake, the loaves started turning out acceptably well.
If it would be a convenience for you then I hope you find how these factors fit together for your machine. At 375-400F it does not seem like a sourdough bake could be sufficiently baked but the other factors contribute to make a difference.
This was last night's bake in an older model zojirushi (22% whole rye and 78% whole wheat, lean recipe with a solod scald). I like it thinly sliced.
I had the same experience with my bread machine when it arrived - failure after failure with each recipe, with each bread but it wasn't its fault, it was mine. I eventually learned how to use it properly.
My bread machine, Zojirushi Virtuoso, is designed to both make an excellent sourdough starter from scratch and to bake sourdough breads with it. It has preset programs designed for those purposes.
It is also programmable, so it can only knead, only keep things warm as they ferment or only bake just as any other oven. It does not care what to bake, a cake, a soda bread, a sourdough loaf, it bakes everything to perfection. It can do everything. I love it just as you love yours.
It works a treat. Takes a bit of trial and error but it cane be done.