August 5, 2014 - 11:19pm
Zojirushi PAC 20
Arrived yesterday. First loaf a disaster. Bad operator and bad yeast and old flour. So today I try again.
When exchanging part of the white flour with 1 cup of whole wheat flour do I use the basic white cycle or the whole wheat cycle? Pumpernickel bread..what cycle?
The recipes do not call for tepid water. Am I supposed to be using water out of the tap and the rest cycle will preheat everything?
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that runs for about 25 minutes before mixing starts. This warms up the ingredients. The whole wheat cycle is for 100% whole wheat. Part white and part wheat should run on the regular cycle.
If you haven't worked with dough in a bread machine before, watch the video of dough kneading in a bread machine at the link below. The kneading dough should look that in the video. The kneading dough should be a moist dough that holds its own shape, is not too sticky and also it should not be dry and crumbly.
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Here is a video of a bread machine (not a Zojirushi, but dough consistency should be the same) kneading dough that has proper hydration:
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqr_hq5ROuE
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To get the feel of a properly hydrated dough, buy a can of biscuit dough. The unbaked biscuit dough consistency is how the dough in the bread machine should look and feel while it is kneading. If your dough is not that consistency, adjust it by adding a tablespoon at a time, additional liquid or flour as required.
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Use the recipes in the Zo recipe book before trying other recipes. Start with their basic White Bread and use the ingredient amounts shown in the book. Once you get the feel of making a successful loaf of bread, then you can try recipes from other sources.
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Also, the Zo cookbook that comes with the bread machine, includes ingredient weights in grams. I've found weighing the ingredients (or at least weigh the flour) gets more uniform results than volume measurements. I have a Zo Virtuoso.
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You can't just dump the ingredients into a bread machine and walk away. You should monitor the first couple of minutes of kneading and adjust the dough consistency so that it is not too sticky, holds its own shape and also is not crumbly. You want the kneading dough to resemble unbaked biscuit or pizza dough. This will make a successful loaf.
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Whether you add the recipe ingredients by volume or by weight, you will always have to adjust the final consistency of the dough in a bread machine, just as you do when baking by hand or using a stand mixer.
Today made the basic white bread in the manual. It came out great. New flour and yeast. I used the weight measurements. Then I made the King Arthur flour pumpernickel-onion bread. Didn't use the weight measurements and had to add a lot more flour to get to a good consistency. I"ll stick to weights as you suggested from now on. Made a tiny batch of gooseberry jam and that turned out good. Tomorrow errands to run. Frida may try the sourdough starter. Thanks for your help.