bread making disasters with breadmaker

Posted by expat2006 (199 days ago)

Please help! I have bought a breadmaker and the only thing that eats my bread is the rubbish bin. All my recepies, even the readymade German ones that were donated generously by friends have turned out rock hard and poofed inwards. Has anyone of you made bread in a breadmaker? Mine is Kenwood. It is a white elephant in the house.

Claire can you bail me out please?

(I am based in Hong Kong)

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Posted by Peekenjoo (198 days ago)

Try using olive oil instead of butter or margarine. That works for us.

(I am based in Shanghai)

Posted by Ruth in Canada (198 days ago)

Add a spoonful of lemon juice to the batch.
Is your yeast fresh? Old yeast doesn't rise properly.
Look on the Kenwood website and see if they have a troubleshooting page.
Good luck!

(I am based in Unspecified)

Posted by lasez (197 days ago)

The Kenwood came with a small recipe booklet. I just followed the recipes in the booklet and they turned out fine (most of the time!)

(I am based in Hong Kong)

Posted by expat2006 (197 days ago)

Hi Guys, Thanks for your inputs. I will try the suggestions that you have offered.

Hi Lasez, I follow each of the recipes as they are stated. I think the breadmaker and I have personality problems. We will learn to get along, but for now, we might just have to put up with the tantrums.

Thanks once again. If any of you has a specific recommendations for the ingredients brands you swear by, I will appreciate that very much.

Thanks again...

(I am based in Hong Kong)

Posted by Saikunga (196 days ago)

Same thing with me - so my husband took over - I ensure he has fresh yeast and fresh flour and all seems to turn out OK now. The sachet yeast (mcDougalls) seems to work better than that in the little plastic container from Park n shop and wellcome.

(I am based in Hong Kong)

Posted by Ruth in Canada (195 days ago)

If you can get MeiShan yeast...it's made up the river between GZ and HK. It's the very freshest! The factory manager is Australian and a really good guy.

(I am based in Unspecified)

Posted by expat2006 (195 days ago)

BINGO!!! we got along today after four breads in the bin. I hope we stay on good terms.

Hey Saikunga,
Where did you get McDougalls yeast from? I get mine (the one that you have mentioned) from PNS.

Hi Ruth,
Will you let me know where I can get MeiShan yeast from? Fresh yeast sure sounds better.

Do you have any bread recipes that you can share? Oh! another thing - do you think that the bread machines are any better than baking them in the oven? In terms of taking the time it seems more - 3 hrs 45 mins and the electricity it must consume compared to an hour or 1 1/2 hrs of oven baking. How is bread machine any better? Any thoughts?

(I am based in Hong Kong)

Posted by Saikunga (195 days ago)

Bread machine is better in that you can set it at night and wake up to fresh bread in the morning - smell is all through the house - hopeless to sleep through though.

McDougalls yeast - wellcome usually has it, but haven't seen it for a few weeks.

Make sure the flour is fresh too - sometimes packet flour is not as fresh as it should be and if you have a bad batch - all the loaves will turn out bad.

(I am based in Hong Kong)

Posted by axptguy38 (192 days ago)

"Do you have any bread recipes that you can share?"

Here's one. BTW I miss the big kitchen appliance (not breadmaker) we had in the US. I could make 1½ batch in it and the motor would hardly notice. Our Kenwood thing here is lovely, but much too small to handle any meaningful sized batches.

· Approx 1½ kg flour
· 1 liter water
· 2 packages dry yeast
· 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
· 2 tablespoons salt
· Some butter for the breadpans.

Mix the flour, the yeast and the salt in a large container. It is hard to tell the exact amount of flour as this varies depending on quality and climate. The dough should be quite loose when poured into the breadpans. Some experimenting is probably needed until you get it exactly right for the flour in your area.

Heat the water until you just almost scald yourself when you put your finger in. Do NOT heat it further.

While mixing with a hand mixer or equivalent, slowly pour the water into the flour mix.

Add the oil and keep mixing with the hand mixer until you get an even dough.

Let rise under a towel for 45-60 minutes. The dough should not be in a cold place. A nice warm kitchen is perfect.

When the dough has almost finished rising, prepare the bread pans (the long and tall kind made for loaves) by slathering them with butter.

Use the mixer (or your hands) to mix the dough again. It will "sink" rather dramatically when you do this.

Pour into bread pans. If you have done it right, the dough should be quite loose.

Let rise in the bread pans under a towel for about forty-five minutes but not to overflowing. After about half and hour, turn the oven on to 175 degrees Centigrade.

Put the bread pans in the oven at the lowest position. They should bake for about 35-45 minutes at 175 degrees centigrade. They are ready when a testing stick comes back out of the center of a loaf with nothing sticking to it.

Immediately tip the loaves out of the pans (you can use a knife to separate them from the sides). Tastes great fresh! You can freeze the bread by letting it cool completely and cutting into toaster-sized slices, then packaging in plastic bags.

(I am based in Hong Kong)

Posted by disco babe (143 days ago)

I've just bought the Kenwood Bread Machine. The bread is quite small and can't handle any bigger amounts.
The biggest problem is the bread has to be demolished before you can get the kneader out of it, leaving a whole in the bread. Does anyone else have this problem? Am I doing something wrong?

(I am based in Hong Kong)

Posted by ldsllvn (143 days ago)

yep - we have had 2 (different brand breadmakers) and you always end up with a hole. ours does make big loaves tho - so not too bad...

(I am based in Hong Kong)

Posted by the goddess kali (128 days ago)

check out recipes and instructions for no knead bread (mark bittman) in the web. There's even a you tube video clip. You will put your breadmachine in the cupboard and forget it forever....
it's so easy and i've been making a loaf or two almost every week. no failures yet...
also another really easy 'cheat' recipe is beer bread.
yesterday i put

turned on the oven to 200deg celsius
greased a loaf tin

sifted together

300gms of plainflor
a tablespoon of sugar
a tsp of salt
3teaspoons of bakign powder
(sift a couple of times)

added
75grams of graham flour
75gms of oats (milled in the dry grinder)
handful of roasted sunflower & flax seeds.

poured in a 300ml can of guinness beer, mixed it quickly, transferred it to the baking loaf, covered it whith foil and baked covered for 45min and open for 10min.

then i removed it from the oven and cooled it ona rack. it's crumby in the beginiing but left overnight it became more moist and even better.

and the result was very good.. a really dark, tasty, dense bread, like those german rye breads (no idea what they are called).

(I am based in Unspecified)

Posted by disco babe (106 days ago)

What am I doing wrong..... my bread is caving in in the middle!
Also, it's very crumbly and breaks easily. I've got the Kenwood Bead maker.

(I am based in Hong Kong)

Posted by axptguy38 (106 days ago)

IIRC crumbly bread is a sign of too much yeast.

The warm climate makes rising rather easy, so perhaps it rises a bit too fast with the "usual" yeast dose.

(I am based in Hong Kong)

Posted by Ken A (104 days ago)

We have a bread maker and 99 percent its all good. The few times its gone wrong as as follows:

Yeast out of date - we use the little Mcdowell sachets.
Used normal flower as we didn't have bread flour - sometimes not an issue but it certainly helps
Put the ingredients in the wrong order or getting the wrong amounts. You want to get all the liquids in first followed by the flour, salt and last of all the yeast - you do not want to get your yeast wet.

You need to leave the bread in the machine for about 15 mins afterwards too and let it cool down a little before cutting it.

One last thing - take out the ingredients a while before you put them into the machine, so that they're at room temperature.

We also like to have ours set overnight in the living room - ours isn't noisy at all and easy enough to sleep through then at 8am when the bread is ready we get to wake up to the smell of fresh bread. That gives enough time for a shower and to get ready before cutting a nice slice of fresh bread

(I am based in Hong Kong)

Posted by demelza belle (86 days ago)

I've not had a problem with the Kenwood yet, touch wood. I've made about 3 different types of recipe and I use the plastic PNS yeast with no problem. The best results come with the chilli cheese bread I find. I've never had a hole in mine...weird, I guess some of the machines must be temperamental!

(I am based in Hong Kong)