bread machine woes

[chhotii]

In other news, my bread machine seems to have stopped working correctly.

This is most distressing. The bread machine is very, very useful. Sophia really loved the bread that I made with that machine, and a loaf of bread from the grocery store is outrageously expensive compared to the ingredients. (Good bread, that is. Not talking about that cheap squishy bread. Sophia and I both hate the cheap squishy commercial bread, which makes that kind of bread useless.)

It used to produce loaves that were really, really puffed up. Now it makes loaves that seem to have started to rise... but then collapsed, so they have a very concave top. Also the bread seems a bit overly moist and maybe a bit dough-y. I tried different flour, a fresh container of yeast, and it's always exactly the same problem. I suppose the machine would inevitably stop working, and it must be about 20 years old, but I'm surprised that its failure mode is something subtle. It produces something that is almost a load of bread, rather than having some big obvious failure like "won't heat" or "won't knead", which is why at first I thought I was doing something wrong. But, I've varied all kinds of parameters of what I do, and get the same results.

Irk, need a bread machine. Anyone have one they haven't gotten around to yard-saling?

Comments

[ceo]

It sounds to me like it's not heating up enough on the bake cycle, so it's not getting much of an "oven spring" (the extra bit of rising caused by the yeast getting really active in the heat before they die horribly) and is getting underbaked slightly.

I'd say, make it without the machine. But I know I wouldn't make bread nearly as often if I didn't have the stand mixer.

We have one

[drwex]

I keep thinking we're going to get rid of it - Pygment is mostly gluten-free and I don't eat a lot of bread. We use it once or twice a year, usually for parties.

I'd be happy to pass it on to you if you don't mind being asked to share it once or twice a year.

Re: We have one

[chhotii.livejournal.com]

Sure-- that would be great! I can swing by sometime this weekend to pick it up. Thank you!!!