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publickman

Bread too soft

Lars
10 years ago

I'm still adjusting to the bread machine, and there are so many variables that I am unable to determine what function is doing what.

Last week I ran out of semolina flour, and then I made a 50% whole wheat loaf without any semolina, and it came out very soft. There are several possible causes for this:
1. No semolina flour (I normally use about 1/4 semolina)
2. I figured out that since I am baking small loaves that I am supposed to set the size to "M" instead of "XL", although I can't remember whether I changed this setting before or not.
3. I put the loaf in a plastic bag while it was still very warm - I allowed it to cool for about 15 minutes (I tend to think this is not the issue).
4. Maybe I added too much water, although I do not think so.

I used the normal white loaf recipe that came with the machine and substituted 1-1/2 cups of WW flour. I baked it on the "whole wheat" setting, which does not allow me to change the crust setting - normally I would use a dark crust setting.

The bread makes very good toast, but it is unusable as plain bread because the slices are too limp. Also, the loaf collapsed a bit under its own weight (I stored it on its side), and now it has a distorted shape, plus when I slice it, the bread tends to squish now. The would be worse if I were using a bread knife, but fortunately I can use my electric slicer, but the bread still distorts while being cut and will not hold its shape.

How much can I blame not using semolina? I am beginning to think that I should set the loaf size back to XL and continue to make "M" loaves. Since the small loaves pretty much fill the bread pan, I do not see how I could make any larger loaves in the machine anyway.

I want bread that is chewy and that holds its shape. Any suggestions??

Lars

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