Hi,
I make bread from what has became my standard recipe as follows:
| Flour | 3 | cups | 13.00 | oz |
| salt | 0.39 | oz | 1.5 | tsp |
| dry milk | 0.32 | oz | 1.5 | tbsp |
| gluten | 0.40 | oz | 1.33 | tbsp |
| flax seed | 1/8 | cups | 0.75 | oz |
| sliced almonds | 1/4 | cups | 1.50 | oz |
| honey | 0.25 | cups | 2.75 | oz |
| Butter | 1.5 | tbsp | 0.75 | oz |
| water | 1.25 | cups | 10.32 | oz |
| yeast | 1.25 | tsp |
I mix the bread in a Panasonic SD-YD250 in the "dough" mode for whole wheat bread (I use 50% whole wheat 50% white wheat). I measure ingredients by weight. After the dough is made I put it in a standard loaf pan, let it rise (takes 1 to 2 hours) and bake it 30 minutes at 350.
The bread is always very tasty, and I love it. I make it for pot lucks and it always disappears in a hurry and I get lots of compliments on it.
However, right after I take it out of the of the oven the top always caves in. I have tired using more or less yeast. I find the yeast amount affects the time it takes for the bread to to rise, but it still always falls after cooking. I have tried baking it a little longer (up to 45 minutes) That thickens the crust but doesn't affect the falling feature.
I have tried different brands of flour with no effect.
Another weird thing about my bread is that when I make toast, the top 1/3 of the piece of bread toasts much quicker than the bottom. The bread is definitely "lighter" (more porous) at the top of the loaf than bottom.
I can double or 1-1/2 times the recipe and it still comes out the same. Sometimes it falls more than others, but I don't know why.
Any ideas on what I am doing to cause this?
Use even less yeast than the minimum amount you have used in the past. Eventually you will find the sweet spot.
(I don't know the origin of the recipe - there's the possibility that the long ago original author was using a different style of yeast, which would cause the numbers to be "off".)
Try reducing the water to 1 cup. If it is a bit dry when you gather it into a ball, only add 1 Tablespoon of warm water at a time. Good luck
Thanks for the suggestions. I have been reducing both the yeast and the water, and it has helped. Each loaf I have made since the replies I have reduced them a little more, and the texture of the bread just keeps getting better. Right now I am just slightly above 1 tsp yeast and 1 cup water. I'll keep dropping them just to see what happens. I have always been afraid to mess with the recipe, but I am getting over that now:)
that things are working out better for you. It took me quite a bit of tweaking until I was happy with the bread I was making in a bread machine.