October 28, 2015 - 11:09am
First time bread maker!-what did I do wrong?? :(
It smelt so perfect and delicious, but the texture was just awful!
The outside was rock solid, the middle was slightly undercooked, and the texture itself was crumbly. This is what is did;
I added 1 1/2cups of water, 2tbsp oil and 1/4cup honey to my bread maker. I then mixed together 2cups whole weather flour and 1 cup bread flour with 1tsp salt and poured that onto the liquids. I then made a shallow "nest" and added 1 1/2 tsp yeast.
I then set my bread maker to whole wheat , med (colour) and regular bake cycle (as suggested by the recepie)
Any opinions as to why it turned out so bad??
I've never made bread before so I have no idea how to troubleshoot this by myself.
Thanks everyone :)
Share
Pictures would help us see the problem. Of course, who thinks of taking pictures while baking? My guess, from when I first started using a bread machine, I was packing the flour too tightly in the cup and my dough was too dry... especially with whole wheat which tends to absorb more water than all-purpose. How are you measuring your flour? Are you doing the "scoop and sweep" method or lightly spooning the flour into the cup and then leveling off? If you are doing the scoop and sweep, then I suggest you try the other method.
Actually, if you have a scale, I would strongly suggest that you start weighing your ingredients. It makes it easier to make adjustments as no two cups of flour ever seems to weigh the same.
Experiments have shown that there can be as much as a 20% difference between two peoples 'cupful' of flour. Weighing is the only way to go to achieve accuracy and consistency in baking.
Athough this is my first time baking bread, I've been making baked goods for almost 15 years now, and am very good at it. I wish I mentioned how I measured the flour initially :/
I'm not good with conversions, but I know how important it is to get the flour measured accurately. I've found this method to be perfect for any baked goods;
I use a dry measuring cup of course, and I pre sift the flour into it. ( it's a real pain in the youknowwhat, but it works.) I have a mini sifter and I hold it over the measuring cup as i spoon in the flour. I do this because I read the flour compresses as it sits and it's the most accurate way other than weighing.
I will probably try with the weighing instead just to test my theory; but does anyone see any ratio problems in the recepie itself? I don't know what proportion bread ratios are as I am such a novice.
Thank you for your feedback!
Also; can anyone help me with conversions so that I may try weighing in the future? ????
Generally, most here like to use grams. 12 ounces of water is 340 grams. Best way to figure out your flour is to measure a cup of flour and weigh it, but let's say your flour weighs 128 grams per cup. Then, by baker's math, your dough is at 88%, which is quite high. This means that your dough doesn't have a problem with being too dry. Maybe too wet? You could try increasing your yeast to 2 teaspoons and see if that helps.
If I were making bread by hand your formula would be perfectly fine. I could make bread with that.
But.
If you are making bread in a bread machine, as you say you are, it is important to use recipes that are designed for that particular brand of bread machine as they all have different timings on the various cycles. Most manufacturers provide recipes with the bread machine or on their websites. For a beginner, I would advise that you use those and not improvise until you have more bread knowledge. Whole wheat flours in bread machines are particularly problematic as most manufacturers recommend the use of vital wheat gluten to provide a good rise. They usually recommend specific types of flours and specific types of yeast. It is important that, as a beginner, you follow those recommendations. (I, personally, will not use vital wheat gluten in my bread machine bread, but I have some experience in creating bread formulas and have carefully created a few formulas for my personal use. I do not advise that a novice bread baker do this.)
And your problem is the lack of a good rise. This can come from lack of dough development (due to a short mix with insufficient gluten) or (as mentioned elsewhere) yeast that is not active enough.
What works in one brand of bread machine will not work in another. Your best bet is to start with a manufacturer's recipe and follow it exactly.
(Yes, "old time" TFLers, something woke proth5. Just a quick post and I'll be gone again...)
KTMay - if you want to ask me other questions please reply to this post, so that I will be notified.
Hope this helps.
Did you let the bread cool before cutting?
Traditionaloven.com is an excellent resource for all sorts of conversions related to baking.
What is the precision option on the conversion calculator? (Default is 2)
It's an awesome calculating tool, I just don't know what that numbers all about lol
Thank you! I wouldn't of even thought of the yeast, I'm going to try that!
And I didn't let it cool, only because I have memories of my grandma making fesh warm bread n we'd eat it almost as soon as it was done.. lol
I call what you described "dead bread". Typically it's caused by inadequate action od the yeast, perhaps due to stale yeast, overheating of the dough which can kill the yeast, rising time too short, or room temperature too cold during proofing.
Because you're proofing in your breadmaker, I assume the temperature is controled to something reasonable. If you added boiling water to your dough that would likely cause the problem. If you're using yeast that's been in your cupboard for many years that might cause the problem. If you used icewater that might cause the problem. I use water from my hot water tap - it's NOT hot enough to burn my hand. I mix the dry ingredients up before adding the water to avoid shocking the yeast.
I'd use exactly the same formula and just put the dough in a bowl at room temperature and see if it swells up. If it doesn't then the yeast ain't working, get better yeast. If it does swell up, re-read the instructions for your bread maker, and be sure it isn't either overheating or underheating the dough while it rises and is giving it adequate time to rise. Rising dough should feel warm to the touch, roughly body temperature, not icy and not uncomfortably hot.
I hope this helps.
What breadmaker is it and what yeast are you using?
At first glance, my initial reaction was the same as KathyF's and I thought to myself "Jeez, that's a lot of water." Using the whole wheat flour can sometimes take a little more liquid to get the consistency right, but 1 1/2 cups of water plus the oil and honey just seem like a lot of liquid for the 3 cups of flour your recipe calls for.