My machine loaf is dense in the middle
I am using a Panasonic SD-B2510 - their entry level bread maker - and largely I am pleased with the results. However, I get a dense area in the centre of the loaf that no amount of experimentation seems to alleviate.
I use the same recipe that I originally got from Doves Flour - this is as follows:
1 teaspoon yeast
250g Wholemeal bread flour
250g White bread flour
360ml water @ 38º
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon oil
I sift the flour and place the ingredients in the order Panasonic say (as above). I use the "quick wholemeal" setting (suggested by Doves) and the appropriate size setting for the amount of flour in use.
The bread is heavier at the bottom and lighter at the top. I can live with that but there is also a dense area in the centre that I would love to avoid. Experimenting with the amount of water does not seem to solve the issue - indeed increasing or decreasing the water seems to unbalance the result.
If I knew why it did this it would be a start; Panasonic provide little in the way of interactive help so any thoughts very welcome.
Many thanks in advance and sorry if this is the wrong board.
2 ideas:
A.What is the shape of your pan? oblong or square? If square, then the total dough might be too deep. Try 87.5%-90% of your recipe and see if that helps.
B. Someone gave me specific machine mixing instructions and perhaps this will help you too.
Can you program your bread machine to perform separate functions?
1. Plan on a 30 min mix.
Mix your ingredients for 10 min but exclude salt, yeast and oil.
At start of 2nd 10 min, add salt and yeast. In the last 10 min when the dough is well-developed (smooth), add the oil and finish the mixing.
2. Let rise until about double. Use poke test.
3. Turn out dough onto a surface, shape into a loaf adding tension to it. Lay it in the pan. Let rise -use poke test. Then bake (light slashes will help prevent air at the top).
These things have helped me a lot.
'Suggested by Doves'.
Panasonic should have recipes and I'd suggest you stick to their suggestions. Not the advice on the packet of flour.
I am quite partial to Panasonic breadmakers and have several. They have all but abandoned the US market so you guys are fortunate to have them...
I looked at the SD-B2510 manual. I think Dove's recommendation for 'quick wholemeal' is generic and is not the best choice for your machine. For a 50/50 wholemeal/bread flour mix use the Basic (NOT Rapid) programme. The whole wheat programmes are for 100% whole wheat, as shown in the manual's example recipes. And 'Rapid' cuts the knead/rise times by almost 40%.
Generally, I'd avoid using 'Rapid' programs unless you are in a hurry and are using instant yeast. There's always a qualitative penalty for the speedy processing.
Thanks for the posts. I just logged in and found the replies, the "notify" is ticked but I didn't get an email.
Anyway ... the tin is oblong and the recipe is off the Doves website albeit they would anticipate that you will use their flour. Panasonic do not have a 50/50 recipe and I therefore searched around and found this one. The bread is great ... apart from the dense ball in the middle.
I must admit I do not fancy manual intervention as I am lazy.
I did try the full term (non-rapid) wholewheat recipe and that was not a success - I will try the basic and see what that results in!
Thanks again for the various ideas.
Basic White Bread: *Menu 1 (4 hours - 4.5 hours)
*Menu 1:
Whole wheat Bread: *Menu 5 (5 hours)
*Menu 5:
So first of all if doing a 50:50 mix when it comes to water i'd go for halfway between the two. That'll make it 345g/ml water. Otherwise, apart from the 50:50 flour mix and the slight change in water, all the other ingredients are the same.
Now we need to decide on the menu option. I don't think the rest, knead and bake times are to worry about. The one thing you want to watch out for is the rise time.
You don't wish to do dough only then a bake only option with watching the rise and no other menu option falls in-between these two. So I suggest the following...
RECIPE:
Then you try it once on the menu 1 option and the next time on the menu 5 option and see which one comes out the best.
Hope this helps.
Abe thank you - I appreciate you taking the time to compare these two recipes and offer your thoughts. I was going to do a loaf tomorrow so I will give this a go on menu 1 and the do a comparison (menu 5) later in the week.
Many thanks indeed.
Bread machine recipes are finely tuned. Just swapping them out for a recipe on a flour packet will more often than not, not work as well.
While we have had to tweak for a 50:50 bread and whole-wheat flour we haven't strayed too much from the given recipes that came with the machine and filled in the rest with some [hopefully] educated guesswork.
Let's see how they both go. Looking forward to the results.
So ... I have baked my standard recipe (well the Dove's recipe) unchanged from the OP but using Panasonic's menu 1 (Basic White Loaf) and menu 5 (Whole Wheat). I wanted to try these different "menus" without changing the ingredients to see what the results were like. Both turned out ok, the Whole Weat probably being the better of the two; however, the slightly dense (less cooked?) area in the middle is reduced but not entirely removed.
I am grateful to you kind people who suggested trying different menus.
Obviously by continuing with the ingredient amounts as in the OP I am using less sugar, less salt and slightly more water than Panasonic recommend. I am unwilling to increase the sugar and salt because the taste right now is what we enjoy.
I will now experiment adjusting the water to see if this alleviates the issue - as ever, thanks for any thoughts.